<p>Maybe this is a silly question but when colleges look at rigor, does it matter if you take a study hall period during the day? If the student has the most rigorous courses, takes a full schedule (and will fulfill graduation requirements early), is taking junior and senior classes as a freshman and sophomore, will be taking university classes when they run out of courses, is it OK to have a study hall? This student may have to have a little extra time to travel to the university and back to class anyway, but is this something that admissions looks at?</p>
<p>No idea over all but S took study hall (he needed it!) and it didn’t seem to hurt with his admissions.</p>
<p>I don’t know the answer but I view it as a non-class - like doing nothing for an hour - not exactly rigorous.</p>
<p>While my hs sr S didn’t have the rigorous course load you describe, (I didn’t know you could take senior courses as a freshman?) and had fulfilled all the graduation requirements early & had also completed the required courses most universities ask for…He’s taking photography and loves it. He didn’t need a study hall period, and we weren’t inclined to have him not take full-load. </p>
<p>To answer last query, some schools look at rigor of schedule and big picture - others are more GPA/SAT/ACT focused. I think the answer depends upon where he is thinking he wants to go…</p>
<p>Oh please…having ONE study hall a day when the school schedule has 7 or 8 periods does not make you a slacker. My two “slacker” kids had their first study halls ever when they were seniors. They used the time to get homework done, and get extra help if needed. Both got accepted to the colleges of their choice.</p>
<p>Why the “Oh please…”? and who called anyone a “slacker”.</p>
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<p>Clarification…my response in post #5 was in response to the above. I do not think that having a study hall affects the rigor of your course load in any way shape or form…and believe it or not some kids actually do very productive things during that hour a day (which in most schools is about 40 minutes).</p>
<p>^^ I said what I did because if the study hall is in lieu of an academic course in that time slot then clearly it’s a less rigorous schedule. How can it not be? Example - study hall or Calculus BC, study hall or AP Chemistry, study hall or AP Spanish.</p>
<p>If the study hall is filling a spot that couldn’t be filled by an academic class due to scheduling or because of a lack of academic classes (i.e. ran out of decent academic classes offered by the HS) then I suppose it’d have no effect.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarification. I agree with thumper1 that a study hall period can be valuable time if the student’s schedule allows for it.</p>
<p>Gladgraddad…I guess we have to agree to disagree on this one. Our school day had seven class periods…I honestly don’t see a problem with SIX academic subjects and one study hall.</p>
<p>Would a college really know if you took a study hall? For my school, study hall doesn’t show up on your transcript at all since there’s no grade associated with it. So, unless a college counts the classes you take and compares them to other years, I can’t see them really noticing.</p>
<p>At DD’s prep school, everybody had free periods. My daughter took five AP classes her senior year at a school that required permission for more than three. A study hall is not a problem.</p>
<p>Keabie is right. The schedule shows free blocks, but a transcript only shows classes.</p>
<p>My D took study hall (well, we call it free period) and she got accepted everywhere she applied to, save Harvard. Of course, it’s not the free period that’s done her in at H, you know.</p>
<p>My sons had a study hall every school year in HS. They both played varsity sports so the study hall allowed them to get a head start on some homework. It didn’t hurt them in the least during the admissions process.</p>
<p>My youngest son had 2 study halls during his senior year. He spent one of them down at the gym crashing a gym class that had a bunch of his friends in it. Gym teacher didn’t mind and either did the study hall teacher. He was accepted to every college to which he applied with merit scholarships.</p>
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It seems to me that 6 academic courses per day is about normal. Why do they have the seventh at all? Is it just to ease the school’s scheduling of the classes? Do people normally take 7 academic classes in that HS or does almost everyone have the free period - probably to make the school’s scheduling easier? It seems that they’d be better off letting the students just do a shorter day but that probably wouldn’t help them with scheduling.</p>
<p>Depends on the schedule. The seven periods in OUR school enabled kids to take five academic classes, something like band, and then have one period that very often had a lab for whatever science class two/three days a week, and a study hall the other three/two.</p>
<p>Our HS has 7 periods and there’s no way any jr/sr kids could take more than ~5 academic classes–English, math, science, FL. Ok, maybe 4 if we aren’t counting social studies as rigorous. Noth a math kid and you’re finished with pre-calc? Too bad, it’s business math or nothing.</p>
<p>I have wondered the same question as the OP. When S1 and S2 attended, study halls weren’t allowed. D does take one. It is very useful to her. She is involved in athletics and also needs more time due to her dyslexia. I hope it doesn’t hurt admissions, but guess it’s the gamble we’ll take since it is so beneficial for her.</p>
<p>Our kids enjoyed their free period. At their school(s), if they had B or above GPA, they didn’t have to stay in the study hall. They used the time to meet with their teachers for extra help or for club meetings.</p>
<p>As far as I could tell, my kids’ school didn’t allow free periods or study halls. They had six periods per day, but one period was an extended time and the classes met every other day, so that meant they had seven classes. </p>
<p>Kids could use a free period to be an “office aide” but couldn’t have a free/study period.</p>
<p>Both my kids ended up with one free period senior year. In my younger son’s case he’d wanted to take AP Stats that period, but it didn’t meet then. He had an extra class zero period so he really was taking a full schedule (6 courses) anyway. My older son somehow also ended up with a slot and didn’t find anything he liked to put in it. They both got into very selective schools.</p>