“I meant to have my daughter take Honor Chemistry”. The way you express this certainly gives the impression that you are making these decisions for your daughter. What does your daughter want to do? Why does she need to qualify for these olympiads earlier than the other kid?
She should not skip social studies (that is allowed? It’s required for graduation at our school). And I don’t think it’s healthy to try to cram a year of PE into the summer unless she is doing athletics outside of school. As her parent, you are responsible for her health and happiness, not for pressuring her into becoming what you think the most competitive applicant for the most prestigious college will be.
Band can provide a great peer group and a break from intense academics. My daughter wouldn’t have traded her high school band experience for anything, and despite being a science geek I’m sure she will remember it much more fondly years later than her chem class.
“As a parent, I only care if missing one year of band has any negative impact on her college application.” As a parent, you don’t care if she has to give up something she loves? Wow. Poor kid.
band is good. let her enjoy.
the drum major from my daughter’s band last year won some (music) decathalon awards. she’s going to stanford to study engineering. she was smart, enjoyed band, and is going to a good school. it didnt hurt her at all.
I would also agree with posts #10 and #15. I believe both options #1 and #2 are compromises, and that the counselor’s hands are tied by needing to recommend solutions within the sphere of “no cost” and what the school can do within its resources. You would benefit from looking beyond the high school and beyond online courses to evening courses at community college, summer classes at community college or university, CTY, etc. Our school did give credit and a grade on the transcript for CTY courses (syllabus submitted and approved in advance; CTY gives a grade).
College admissions look at personality and motivation, not strictly at achievements and personal drive strictly for personal gain. Many top-scoring applicants with excellent stats wonder why they did not get in, when they have not shown friendships, the ability to influence peers, and the ability to leverage what is around them to make a real and lasting difference within their communities. By being in a solid community, like a competition band that travels internationally, your daughter can make those connections and build the relationships to truly thrive in her community of peers. You really probably want her to be a vital part of community fabric, not a parlor-trick performer with a wall full of individual self-centered awards. That seems to be what the elite universities are looking for, anyway.
As a chemistry teacher, I would strongly suggest that you just let her take chemistry in 10th grade with everyone else. You’re making a complicated situation where there is no need, and will likely make your daughter feel quite resentful especially if you make her drop band. Consider also her maturity in relation to who she would be in class with. In my high school, chemistry students were 10th and 11th graders, and being the only 9th grader in a class like that would probably feel very isolating. Further, she will likely still have to take 4 years of social studies, which means that skipping one now will force her to double up on social studies later.
I’m going to go ahead an agree with everyone else. Your daughter needs to decide.
I got into good universities and I didn’t take chemistry at all, I opted for physics. I’m going to be brutally honest here. Someone will always be better than your kid. Let your kid be good at what she’s good at and let her excel there. To be honest a college will value that you child went on an international trip to pursue her interest than whether or not she was taking AP Chem in the tenth grade. Pushing her this much will quickly lead to burnout.
I also do not recommend skipping History. I’m not sure how that’s allowed but I would not recommend it. Nor do I recommend multiple sciences in a year.
It sounds to me like you are micromanaging your child’s entire educational career, she needs to learn to advocate for herself, this is sure fire way to have her be resentful or have her need you so much that she has a hard time scheduling academics when she does it on her own.
Your daughter is a human being, not a potential college admission. Let her be a human and do something enjoyable. There is NO reason for her to accelerate in Chem at the expense of band or anything else. She’ll be fine. This will NOT affect her college application one way or the other.
I am always surprised at how folks emphatically advise parents what is best for their child. I would think the OP knows the child best and what may or may not work. Also, who is to say the parent is simply going to force the child to do as she recommends. Perhaps she just wants to do some of the research and tell the daughter why she thinks option A is better than option B and let the daughter decide.
Even if the parent is forcing the child to do option A that is their decision and she will have to deal with the results. Every kid is different and no one method always works with each kid.
It really isn’t healthy for you, or your daughter, to live for admissions. She should enjoy her high school years while folllowing her natural interests. Often school band is not demanding for talented students, but there are social benefits and if she is a good musician, she is contributing to the whole, which is valuable.
You need to give her some time to sort out where her interests lie for the future. She is young. She may want to do more science, or she may even want to major in music. Let her grow and develop.
She does not need honors chemistry right now. I would just leave her schedule alone unless your daughter herself wants to change things. If she does, she can work it out with the school without your input.
If your daughter wants to do an online course, Virtual High School would be a good choice. Just google it. Community colleges and other schools also have online courses these days. My kids went to a small school and there were often scheduling issues. One of my kids wanted to stay in music classes so she took a science online. But it came from her not me.
Go for band. Having a strong passion for music by playing multiple instruments, traveling internationally, playing in county orchestra will mean more for her application than 1 more AP science course. And it sounds like it will make your daughter happy.
It’s not a bad idea to map out hs courses so you can see what will be available and making sure that you have the right pre-req’s in place. Lots of our students take gym credit outside of school to allow time for science labs. But I would not give up the Band Elective.
Your daughter will already be taking the"Most Challenging Schedule". This will be one little box that the guidance counselor will tick off on the application. One more ap course will not matter here.
We also found that when our kids weren’t taking science courses in the same sequence as the other kids in their grade they ended up with more scheduling problems. They schedule APUSH to go with the science AP most kids are taking. I get that it’s nice for kids to be able to take the three big science APs if you have a science oriented kid, but you don’t want to do it at the expense of history or band IMO.
Just figured out, even without extra science, the band elective will have schedule conflict with her varsity swim team practice and meet. The team practice is twice a day (mornings and after school). She has been so devoting to this sports since 7 yr old, and she is not willing to give up. She may have to choose a lower level band to avoid conflict, hence, no international travel anyways.
If your daughter deeply regrets having to give up band, she might want to inquire about the possibility of auditioning for the band at a nearby community college. Some welcome high school students (and adults in the community) who can play at the necessary level.
Of course, the community college band’s rehearsals might also conflict with her other activities.
I would talk with the school to see if this forced schedule change (out of band) might mean they will be flexible about the trip abroad. In our school, some students forced out of the main band class due to schedule problems were still allowed to play in concerts.
Is she serious about music or is it a fun stress-reliever? If she is serious, you might want to head over to the music forum. is she taking piano lessons? I am assuming she plays a band iinstrument: would she be able to participate in a youth orchestra rather than band outside of school?
Your daughter, at least from what you have posted, has a few major activities. Music and swimming are both intense and I wonder which one she likes the best. It is healthy to do both right now but toward the end of high school she may want to gravitate toward one or the other as a primary focus. Try to let her make these decisions based on what she wants not what colleges want.
Good idea. Some community youth orchestras require students to be in a school musical ensemble, but if she can prove she has a conflict, they might waive the requirement. Others do not have a requirement of this type; they welcome all who can play well enough to join.
She is playing in a county youth band, and she will be moved up to the advanced level in 9th grade, which means even though she does not play in school band, she still has music program outside school, plus she plays piano competitively. She will be allowed to go back to school band in 10th. Option 1 only prevents her from one year of school band, but I am not sure how one year absence will affect her. I hope band outside school helps her catch up the gap.
In my experience (parent of two kids who played instruments), it’s not likely to have much effect. Kids drop in and out of bands and orchestras in high school depending on their other commitments, and it seems to work out OK.
If she’s in marching band I would have no problem with her missing PE. Most marching bands practice on the field more than do the athletic teams, and she’d have plenty of exercise options.
I have a kid who also has loaded his schedule with AP classes to chase that “top of the class” ranking. He chose to remain in band because honestly, it’s a good extracurricular activity as well as its other merits (and please do not discount the advantage of having a ready-made peer group upon entry into a new school-- even Tiger Cubs can make stupid choices if they’re with the wrong kids). And a kid who has passed a dozen APs AND played bass trombone in Utrecht or Stockholm is more interesting, in the long run, than one with 13 APs.
Also bear in mind-- one bad test in AP Euro or Chem can sink that vision of academic perfection. It can’t take away Utrecht.
“I am not sure how one year absence will affect her.” If she is playing in another band and if she is practicing her instrument I doubt it would make a big difference to her musical performance. But I think the question you should be asking is how it will affect her socially. In our school at any rate, band is an important social group and is invaluable in providing freshmen with a group of peers and sense of belonging. She will miss out on that and I don’t think she can “make up” the lost comraderie. No community band can substitute for this and you may find her enthusiasm for this chemistry class very dampened when she knows her band buddies are all having fun without her.
If she is swimming year round at a varsity level then I would go ahead and try to skip the PE somehow. Sounds like she is getting plenty of exercise.
But the swim team, which, as I understand it, conflicts with band, may provide a social group too. That choice would be something the daughter could make.