<p>Full disclosure: I majored in history, so maybe I have a history bias. OTOH, I work in IT now so I am not anti-STEM.</p>
<p>I, too, find the idea of an honors diploma being “no big deal” kind of at odds with common sense. Not that I think everyone has to have an honors diploma to do well in life, but for this type of discussion, where we are talking about highly selective colleges and highly competitive students.</p>
<p>FWIW, my kids’ high school (a magnet school) requires four years of all the core subjects (math, science, SS, and English). In fact, they require that you take a course in each of those every year, so even if you enter with high school credits or take summer classes, you will end up with more than four.</p>
<p>I personally would much prefer my kids have 4 years of all the core subjects than any one particular class. High school is not the time to specialize. A complete education has to include some basis in history, language, arts, and literature.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input on the Honors diploma. It’s awarded after the college process is settled - no one has one by the time they are applying to colleges in fall, but I’ll ask around about it. </p>
<p>Our GC is very helpful with getting LORs and transcripts out and such, and is very accessible via email, but not much help with college selection. I helped S through mostly with the help of CC, and some adcom contacts. We do have Naviance and I used it extensively with S.</p>
<p>sybbie our HS doesn’t weight GPA nor does it rank or name val/sal (we do have a decile rank senior year). Taking harder courses, if she doesn’t get A’s actually works against her in terms of her GPA, but colleges can see what kids take and they get it. An adcom friend says his LAC does their own weighting and doesn’t look at the HS weight at all. I suspect that’s not unusual.</p>
<p>I take the point about specializing too early. S is now a music major at a conservatory with in a U, and he opted not to take science senior year, opting for more music and fine arts. That worked well for him. D prefers science but maybe that’s best left to summers or an extra period if she ever has one.</p>
<p>My D1 (the math kid) took only two years of history (world and US) in HS and both BC Calc and AP Stats senior year. D2 (the history kid) took four years of history, and just AB Calc. They both did fine with selective college admissions. I think most schools expect kids to challenge themselves, but not that they necessarily take the highest level of every single subject. </p>
<p>I don’t think a summer math class to take BC instead of AB is necessary or important. What is really important for math science kids is that they get a solid start in calculus, whether they take it in HS or college. Many choose to repeat a level in college to be sure they are solid - even in engineering programs. I would also warn that much of calculus can feel more like geometry than algebra in terms of thought process and problem solving approach, so your DD may find it difficult.</p>
<p>I agree with the principal that the Honors diploma is “no big deal”. My older D decided not to earn the honors diploma after she realized that the only class she lacked was health! So, rather than sit through a mind-numbingly boring class - she took AP Euro and ended up with a standard diploma instead (honors only required 3 social studies). None of her colleges cared. All they cared about was which classes she took, not the label on the diploma.</p>