<p>Our school has 9 periods including lunch (though some opt to not have a lunch) and gym/health, so most often in your freshman and sophomore years, you’ll take 5 academic classes (including a language), one elective (usually music), and have a study hall alternate with a science lab. There’s not really much flexibility there, as the only students who don’t have that study hall are the ones that choose to alternate their lab with one music class, and still be able to take the other (chorus and band/orchestra). </p>
<p>On a side note though, one study hall is really such a small thing that it’d be silly to worry about it too much. I have classmates taking a half schedule this year (with 5 free periods a day) who got into schools (with indistinguishable stats) that classmates taking double science and double math got rejected from. I know it’s a small sample to judge from, but the number of free periods a student has didn’t seem to matter much.</p>
<p>My D is interested in a couple of very good colleges, so I actually called admissions and asked about study hall. She has 5 APs and anatomy planned and it was either study hall or advanced PE or something similar. They said by all means give her a break and go with study hall. Happy D did exactly that!</p>
<p>When S and I were on a college tour, an admission officer indicated they were looking for kids to take five academic classes in their senior year. At my S’s school that would allow for a study hall.</p>
<p>My kids go to a private college prep school. The GC advise the kids to take an independent period if they have time consuming activities like varsity sports, theater, debate, band, etc…It allows the kids to have time during the school day to get their homework done, or to go to the library to work on research papers, and things like that. We have 7 academic periods and lunch. There are no HS classes during HS lunch so everyone has to take lunch. </p>
<p>I don’t see how a college would know whether you took an independent class at our school. They do not show up on your transcript.</p>
<p>Our school day has 8 periods (including lunch) and students have to have special administrative permission to take 7 classes; it is expected that one period will be a study hall. Band, chorus & jrotc kids usually get the override; D2 had an override for 1 semester sophomore year to get a required 1/2 year class out of the way. </p>
<p>Both my D’s have used the study hall period to student aide for a teacher during various semesters.</p>
<p>I’m not against a study hall, but how can you say it doesn’t affect the rigor of your course load if the option is free time vs. academic class? Surely free time is easier than academic class?</p>
<p>and to contribute my high school experience to the thread, none of the IB Diploma students had free periods. Our schedules went 1/3/5/7 and the 2/4/5/6 the next day, with 5th period being shorter and split with lunch. Some people did lunch, then 5th period, others did 5th period, then lunch. So, it was 4 classes per day. IB Diploma students involved in band/orchestra/chorus also took an additional IB class (TOK) after school, since they had no room in their normal schedule.</p>
<p>Our hs had 8 courses (4 blocks per day) each semester. DS was a musician and didn’t have study hall till senior year. It was a blessing…gave him time for work (homework, college apps, IB essay) AND time to visit the guidance office for college app stuff.</p>
<p>There are some (many?) high schools out there that require students to take a study hall because they cap the number of courses a student can take at 6.</p>
<p>Don’t sweat it and do what’s best for your child.</p>
<p>My s’s couldn’t work a study hall into their schedule, but really wanted one. They would have greatly preferred a period to have time to organize, study, plan activities and get work done. There is nothing wrong with this in a schedule. The schools look at the big picture, not one class period. A free period can offer some balance or breathing room for an otherwise overworked student. This is not a bad thing.</p>
<p>GladGradDad -
Basic schedule:
1 - English
2 - History
3 - Math
4 - Science
5 - 2nd language
6 - music
7 - district graduation requirements for PE, tech ed, health etc and TOK</p>
<p>my kid’s senior year schedule:
IB English HL
IB/AP History HL / Gov
AP Stats (did calc last year - considers this her slacker class)
IB Physics HL
AP Chem (dropped Spanish after completing 5th year AP SL Spanish)
band / IB music
TOK / wt. conditioning (final PE grad requirement)</p>
<p>Most kids don’t have enough class periods in the day - they would like to be able to take a “fun” elective or two, but language and music are your electives even though they don’t always feel like it. I’m all for study hall if you have the time, but my kids have never had the time with music etc. as electives. Maybe kids at private schools don’t have the state and district requirements to fulfill which frees up a slot.</p>
<p>Study hall doesn’t show up on a transcript. Our school “requires” kids in spring sports to take a 7th hour study hall. They can’t always work it into their schedule so sometimes they have to take a class but for the most part, they have kids taking that study hall so they don’t miss as much school for games, meets, etc. Hasn’t stopped any of the kids from getting accepted in to top notch schools. Also, in our school, most college bound kids end up with 15-20 credits more than they need to graduate because of how the schedules work out.</p>
<p>I tried to convince the kids to work their last trimester schedule next year so it was lighter academically knowing full well senior slide will be setting in. They just couldn’t get it to work out. From freshman year on I kept telling them to hold back some PE credits to take sr year, but nope, what did I know:D. Thankfully, after AP testing is done next year, the teachers pretty much back off on any academics for the seniors.</p>
<p>saintfan, our kids had schedules that looked much like what you posted in post 31 for 9th and 10th grade. Since they both took Honors Spanish Four in 10th grade (there is another thread somewhere that talks about this), neither took a FL in 11/12 grade, thus freeing up time for some elective type courses. </p>
<p>Also, at our school, PE was only taken 3/4 quarters of the year, and labs were either 2 or 3 days depending on the course. Thus our kids had a study hall during their senior year.</p>
<p>It wasn’t the end of the world.</p>
<p>To be honest, I was a bit more concerned about when they ate lunch…since that was squeezed into a class period every day…for all of 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Because a student can be taking a VERY rigorous courseload during the 6 periods of academic classes he has scheduled. The STUDY HALL has no affect on the rigor of the courses the student IS taking. </p>
<p>So what if a student takes ONE LESS COURSE…so what? Do people really honestly think that this is going to make a large difference in admissions IF the courses the student IS taking are high level, rigorous courses?</p>
<p>Neither one of my kids had study hall as an option. Our district barely had 5 classes for everyone past 10th grade. 20 credit minimum, for graduation) D2 who attended one of the top schools in the city, had only 4 classes spring semester of senior year after the district cut the global tech academy program (she had been taking one advanced class & working one period as a TA. Also had a PE waiver as she was on sports teams).
D1 attended private prep & had 7 classes,besides English/math/history/foreign language/& lab science, she had two arts courses. Usually took studio art & either vocal or drama. ( her school offered an “after school” class for PE credit,as she was only on sports team senior year & they didn’t require any voc classes for graduation)</p>
<p>I wish study hall had been an option for them. They both had after school community service work as well as sports practice/rehearsal, so by the time they were home to do homework it might have been 9pm.</p>
<p>Study hall doesn’t affect rigor of courses taken. Not sure when the public schools quit offering it, probably because they need most teachers to teach courses 5 periods a day & don’t want to pay them for study hall.</p>
<p>Our public schools operate on an 8-period block over two days. They don’t have enough classes to offer academic classes for 32 courses over the four years, so many of the top students end up taking really fluffy stuff like library helper. To me, the free period that doesn’t show up on the transcript would be more valuable than total fluff. It isn’t the kids’ fault.</p>
<p>1 Math
1 English
1 Lab Science
1 Social Studies
1 Foreign Language/Elective
1 Second Elective</p>
<p>That is 6 classes. A 7th is optional. Our school only requires 2 years of foreign language so the 3-5 years of foreign language are all considered academic electives. </p>
<p>A typical schedule for my son would have been:
Honors English
Honors/AP Math (depending on the year)
AP Social Studies
Honors Spanish
Honors/AP Science (depending on the year)
An additional academic elective (like Constitutional Law)</p>
<p>Most colleges consider a schedule like that to be pretty rigorous. Our school only requires 1/2 credit of fine arts and 1/2 credit of PE.</p>
<p>Our kids need 2 semesters of tech ed with one being a mandatory computer class, 4 semesters of PE (can sub varsity sport for 1 semester), 1 semester of health and 2 semesters of fine arts to graduate in addition to the regular academic classes.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t whether or not taking a study hall matters, depend on the school schedule (since there clearly are variations here) as well as what is customary for the top students? At our high school, the top students do NOT take study hall. They take band/chorus or a practical elective like business organization and management, and some take an extra AP. To a certain extent, a student may be compared to others at the same high school if they apply to the same college. I suppose it might also impact whether the student gets the “most rigorous” designation on his counselor form if the student took study hall all four years, both semesters, while other students took none at all.</p>
<p>Public schools in my area (central Iowa) offer an “early bird” Physical Education option so that the kids can fit another class into their day. Assuming core classes are English, a math, a science, and a social science, my kids typically added three more: another science, a music, and a foreign language, plus early PE.</p>