BS Class of 2020 Thread

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
361

Thanks @itcannotbetrue @doschicos and @skieurope

There seems to be some room for interpretation on whether the schools require 3 vs. 4 years; here’s the wording from 7 of the kid’s moderate-stretch and big-stretch schools (ETA: at least that’s our best guess right now in the absence of standardized test scores; these may ALL be big-stretches):

–Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language.

–Foreign Language - at least 3 years, preferably 4 years of a single language.

–We recommend four years of English and at least three years of mathematics, natural sciences, foreign language, and social studies. We generally expect students to enroll in five academic courses per year, and if a student does not take four years in a particular subject area, it should be replaced with an academic course of equal rigor.

–Consistently take classes in the core academic disciplines (English, social studies, mathematics, science, and foreign language) throughout their four years of high school.

–Take the best program available to you in your core subjects. What do we mean by the core subjects? Those are English, math, foreign language, social studies, and science.

–Two to three years of a foreign language

–2 units of Foreign Language
 (3-4 units preferred)

Those last two were the requirements for kids applying specifically to the engineering college at the university. As for language requirements at the schools themselves, about half have a requirement, most of which could be satisfied with certain scores on the SAT Subject Test (those things again!), AP Exam and/or the school-administered exam.

If the kid DOES take an additional year of language is it absolutely unwise to skip a year and take it in 12th grade?? Seems to me it would be tough to get back up to speed after a year off, but maybe by then “the list” will have gotten more refined and the kid could talk to their AO’s about what to do?

Something else that was interesting as I searched for the above was that for many of the engineering admissions requirements they wanted to see lots of math plus chemistry and physics–but not biology. (I’m sort of surprised given how many programs there are in biomedical engineering). So next question: maybe the biology isn’t so important after all?? Could the kid get away with just the term-contained course in Cellular Biology? Or no Biology at all? @-)

(Thanks again to all for the help here–math and science are WAY out of my wheelhouse; I quit both as quickly as possible in HS and undergrad and loaded up on all the other subjects!)

362

I would strongly not do this.

Here’s the thing: The college’s suggestions are meant to apply to most, but not all, applicants. For most boarding schools, it’s physically impossible to take a year in each core subject plus do the HS’s requirements for PE/music/art/religion.

FWIW, I took 4 years of science, but no biology. No intro bio, no AP Bio, no bio taken in middle school. Nothing. While many colleges “request” it, if you have a compelling story, any “suggestion” can be overridden. Mu compelling story - I saw no reason to take bio. :slight_smile: And, while my advisor came around, he did not originally concur.

But really, I’d wait to see what the advisor says.

363

My kids’ high school required biology. Physics, Bio, Chem were all required courses.

I have always had the impression that colleges want 3-4 years of foreign language study regardless of the level of proficiency. It’s not like someone coming in being bilingual or even trilingual gets off the hook for taking language classes. Maybe I’m wrong…

364

DS2 had the same idea and questions as a sophomore last year.
The language teacher strongly advised against skipping a year as the third level is much harder and it is difficult to get back to it. He is taking the 3rd year language as a junior (reluctantly) and is not planning to take level 4.
At his school, Biology is required :)) so no way of opting it out.
He was not very much into it and considered taking Biology in senior year. Unfortunately he was not allowed into AP Physics C this year as he is taking Calculus this year. So he is taking Biology now and calc based Physics senior year.
He said, to my surprise, he may take AP Biology senior year as well.

His preferences are changing so maybe AppleKid will change too!

365

Mine did not. Obviously if the HS requires it, not taking is not an option.

It’s really level achieved. Foreign languages is the only area that makes this distinction. For all other subjects, years in HS means years in HS.

Unless AppleKid’s advisor disagrees, I don’t think that not taking another year is going to be a make or break for admissions. My concern for AK is that having done level 4 in HS will make it easier to place out of the FL requirement in college. So I would advocate at least on more year of FL study. But I’ll defer to the advisor. :slight_smile:

366

I highly recommend @skieurope to take biology while in college. - biophysics, molecular biology, computational biology or something :slight_smile:
I get by with high school biology. I never took biology in college.
So when I ended up working with biologists and molecular biologists for a project, I was constantly looking up the amino acids (or DNA or other acronyms) and their structures on my laptop/phone.
I went to a biophysics conference where the publishers had book titles,
“Differential equations for biologists,” “computer programming for biologists,” “NMR/spectroscopy for biology,” etc etc.
I knew all those except for biology. I needed “Biology for other kind of scientists.”

367

You definitely need to check the high school’s policy and ask more specifics regarding target colleges’ policies.

At SPS, all students starting as 9th graders are required to take 3 years of the same foreign language. No exceptions seem to be stated, regardless of how many languages are spoken.

I do think talking to both the advisor and college counseling would be wise. Perhaps the academic dean and/or department heads as well.

368

I agree that the advisor will have the best insight. But I will offer two thoughts…

Manage the load appropriately junior year. And by this, I don’t mean simply the school’s level of rigor, but how difficult it is for your kid given both natural talent and interest. If FL is going to consume a fair amount of energy, don’t pursue the highest level of rigor in other classes that aren’t in your kid’s wheelhouse. It sounds like math and physics excite him and will be fine, but be wary of anything else that is going to require above and beyond effort/time. The risk is that the student ends up doing ho hum in everything because of the investment in the class that is challenging. No time left and even what’s easy doesn’t get time. DS made that mistake.

If you skip any discipline completely in high school, you have probably effectively skipped it for life. Would you take bio in college with no high school bio at all? Perhaps, but not likely. That may be fine with you but I would consider that.

369

Not sure this is going to be much better:

English
USH
Math 5XX
Physics 5XX
Language 4XX

But I think I might be able to sell the idea that doing well (enough) in the language now might mean none in college, especially if that gets packaged together with the no bio plan.

@doschicos I’ve gone over the graduation requirements more often than I care to admit and as odd as they seem, the requirements do specify language up to 300-level and only 2 years of lab science. Also unique is that you can satisfy the language requirement with 2 different languages.

This helps @skieurope! Although I can’t reference your experience, it does give me confidence to support the kid in the no-bio concept. Thanks!

And I also like the idea of checking with college counseling @doschicos !

370

@gardenstategal I think you posted while I was composing my last post. Those are two good points too. I sure wish that there were a way to lessen the load for next year but I think the best I can do is possibly get some help for the FL over the summer. I also think that taking the Bio off the plate for 12th grade will help alleviate some pressure, and hopefully if Bio is needed in college there will be some good teachers/advisors that will give the kid the right encouragement–talk about passing the buck!

ETA:

No doubt! Before the kid applied to BS I had done course plans for the 2 local schools that the kid could have attended. The extra period each year makes a difference. But on the other hand, the kid wouldn’t have been able to have taken these more advanced courses.

371

I am a big supporter of taking one less course each year for a break/study hall period.

It’s good for both grade and soul.

372

As luck would have it, my college changed the gen ed requirements last year. Before I would have has to take a biological science plus a physical science gen ed course to graduate. Now I can take 2 physical science classes, which is not an issue. So no bio for me. :slight_smile:

However, if I ever encounter a schedule conflict, we do have a “Physics of Living Systems” class I might sub in.

373

Yeah, it’s not that much different. But back in the day, most of the advanced bio classes, but few of the foreign language classes had the dreaded “Warning: This class may require more than the standard number of hours of homework.” I’m just assuming the math and physics courses already have this disclaimer.

374

These conversations are so helpful. Thank you @AppleNotFar for raising the questions!
As far as CPkid goes with the timing of SAT2 tests…

As usual, @skieurope is spot on. It turns out that the math material is covered by spring break so the May date will work. The AP Bio professor specifically said not to take the May test or he will be studying breadth in preparation for the subject test when he should be studying the depth needed for the AP test. The class will review/introduce the wider subject matter needed for the subject test in the last few weeks of school. SO, since the June test doesn’t work for our schedule, he will have to do the August test. That will make two subject tests so hopefully that portion of testing will then be done!

375

@carpoolingma Glad to help.

While it sucks to have that Sword of Damocles hanging over his head over the summer, he should take small comfort in knowing back when I was a HS junior all those 4 years ago ( :slight_smile: ) there were no August tests. So if you did not take the June test, you had to wait until October. Best of luck to your son.

376

I agree August test is a blessing. (except for us, Hurricane Harvey messed with our plan.)
ACT has a new test date in July, in for the testing arms race.

377

I talked to DD over phone today. I think it was the first call this year that lasted longer than a couple of minutes. She is not calling us this year because she doesn’t have problems to discuss like she had last year.

AP Bio seems is the most challenging course at Grier, because it is the only double-periods class, and with heavy prereqs - A in both advance bio and chem. Bio was not her favorite subject but she is planning to take it next year anyway, because her friends highly recommend it as a very well taught course.

She is taking AP Physics 1 now, which I worried to be too easy because it is repeat of her previous community college course. Fortunately, most of her classmates have taken Calculus and the teacher covers a lot of Physics C materials too, since it just is easier to explain Physics 1 theorems using Calculus. So it’s still the most challenging and favored course this year.

Last year, she had very little free time and still was sleep-deprived because she had problem with procrastination, that she doesn’t have now. She got professional help in the Summer. So even though she is taking more challenging classes this year, including 3 APs, she can do all the academic works before 11 PM and still have weekends free, which she takes activities and reads many none-class books.

Even bigger difference of this year was starting day 1 with old friends, instead of struggling with her introvertness for nearly two months to make new friends as she did last year. She is also making new friends in her grade, so she won’t be alone after this year when majority of her old friends graduate.

In the Summer she was planning to apply for early college for next year. But now life is so good that the transfer is gone for good. She also talked about standardized tests and grades. She is rapidly growing ambitious about very competitive colleges, which I can’t mind even though I don’t want to push either. Maybe she will contribute on Grier’s matriculation list.

378

I’d love to learn more about the prof’l help she got this summer. I STILL struggle with procrastination, LOL!

379

Ditto. Look how often I’m here. :smiley:

380

We met a psychiatrist. I am seriously considering getting help for myself too.