I would either email Mr. DeConinck (your academic dean) or Mr. McHamish the acting teacher for advice. Mr. McHamish is probably a better bet since he’ll know more about the nuance of the courses (and I imagine he is the one who would need to approve you) and Mr. D is more by the book.
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Agreed. For art I tried to skip levels and went to the art department first to get it approved, THEN went to the academic deans with dept. permission.
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@Knope21 is correct; you will need to reach out to the department teacher first. I’ve known people who would’ve been rejected in skipping classes but got to do so through departmental permission. If you go to your academic dean with departmental permission ready, they would not really be able to say no.
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Does anyone have any recommendations for what courses to take Freshman year. Would it be best to take both the history and science requirements and only have a half course elective Freshmen year, or stagger the history and science courses throughout the four years?
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Most freshmen take only requirements during freshman year, just for the sake of getting them checked off. I only know of one freshman this year who isn’t taking both history and science (she chose computer science over world history and now needs to take world history with the 9th graders next year). And they like you to get an art requirement fulfilled in 9th grade as well. It sounds less than exciting but it really opens up schedules for a lot of possibilities post freshman year.
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Unless you have credit coming in you’ll have to take the big 5 - world his. english I, math, science (bio or chemistry a), and language.
If you want you can have 1 or 2 arts courses but otherwise you can’t avoid the requirements.
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Hi, I am a freshman and I would appreciate if you could share some of your experience or insight on this.
For science, would you recommend to take Biology or Chemistry? it seems Chemistry allows you to take more advanced course in subsequent years? Seems that you will need to take both Algebra II A + Chem A , will this be very heavy for a freshman? What do freshman pick usually?
For Maths, do you know if freshman can also do Geometry and Algebra II? In my current school, I was actually recommended for geometry honors but it seems we have to do Algebra II in first year?
Do you know how many advanced course do people take in their freshman year? I am concern about the workload. I wonder if 2 advanced courses in first year is too much. Thank you!
If you like chemistry/stem and want to possibly do STEM in the future, then do Chem A freshman year, if you don’t, then take bio. I’m taking Chem right now as a sophomore and I don’t think it will be hard with A2A (alg II), but again depends on the person. Freshman varies because everyone here has a different path so there’s no really one set path.
try taking geometry over the summer! LC has a program that allows you to do so and you won’t have to take geometry class for a whole year. I did the program and it was fine and also got me a higher level in terms of math so it was good i got it out of the way earlier.
I think it’s fine, again it depends on the person. I know people who took all advanced and even 2 CL classes freshman year, and those who didn’t. It’s really up to you but I’d also discuss specifics with your advisor once you are assigned. There’s an add/drop/level change period at the start of the year and every term so if you want to move down there’s always an option
Thank you this is very helpful.
I am thinking of taking geometry but school said there is no grade but only pass or fail. Why would you do that if this does not count into your GPA?
I also wanted to do orchestra, chamber music and music theory , do you think this is too much.? How many credit do freshman normally take?
Are there any tips you can give regarding course selection as you go more senior.?
The point of summer geometry is to get the requirement out of the way. The school more or less assumes you will have a geometry credit coming in (though many don’t) and therefore the progression for motivated math students doesn’t include time for geometry. My daughter took Advanced Algebra 2 as a freshman and her teacher told her she would not be able to “achieve her full math potential at Loomis” if she didn’t take geometry over the summer. It’s pass/fail but there is an exam at the end and you need to get 85% to receive credit.
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Edited because I misread another post and now have answered my own question. 
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Some students self study the material instead of taking a class, but the point is the same: if you want to get to the more advanced course options, you want to “test out” of geometry to avoid taking it as a sophomore.
Pick 1 or two of these at max, I’d say do chamber music first, orch second, and music theory third.
Not even a lot of seniors take course loads this music filled, the only time you would really be able to is sophomore year, if you do not take a history class.
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Is there dorm merch/gear?
YES !!!
my first year I got a t shirt and a laser printed glass cup, and this year I’m getting a hoodie. This year some dorms also got to screen print their own merch, which was really fun and allowed people to customize what they wanted!
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Hi I am a LC mom and I actually have a question regarding advanced course in advance precalculus and advance biology.
I would really appreciate if you could help me to get a better understanding of these two courses.
Would you have any info on what topics will they cover in each of the semester pls ?
There are two different courses - Advanced precalcus and advanced precalculus/differential calculus. My daughter is in the latter and I would happy to ask her the details if that is the course you’re referring to.
Hi it’s advanced precalculus
Did your daughter take advanced biology ?
No, so sorry I can’t help! Hopefully someone else can chime in. The department heads are also helpful (especially the science dept head) and I’m sure they would get right back to you with answers.
Thank you !