We met with our rising 10th grader’s counselor to pick classes and the counselor mentioned that our school is “trialing” AICE classes this coming school year and offered for our child to take one of the classes in place of an elective. We didn’t know anything about the program so chose a normal elective instead. I have since done research on AICE and am curious about it. If our child learns more about it next year and the trial goes well for other students, would the diploma be reasonable/capable to earn in just 11th and 12th grade and would this be beneficial if so?
We live in FL and our school offers plenty of AP and Honors classes currently. Our student would like to go to college out of state. Appreciate any insight.
An advantage of AICE is that it’s recognized as equal to AP in Florida and offers some courses that aren’t available as an AP while being slightly easier than AP. It’s quite doable to earn the diploma hrough AICE courses in 11th and 12th grade only but taking General Paper/GeneralStudies as a sophomore elective on top of the rest of his/her 10th grade classes, as a “gateway” to AICE, could be worthwhile. AFAIK AICE also offers some advantage for Bright Futures qualifications. It’s roughly based on the British AS/A-Level system, the “General paper” added as a gateway and the A-Level classes generally not offered.
AP is more recognized for core subjects but AICE courses would be better than typical electives; a full AICE diploma would be valuable to students who can’t take the most competitive AP+honors/AICE classes curriculum since it would include standardized, internationally recognized, solidly rigorous courses in a variety of subjects.
Note that for very selective colleges outside of Florida, the expectations tend to be 4 years each of English, History/Social Science, and World Language, Bio/Chem/Physics+1 more science (one of those at AP level, another AP/AICE/Advanced/Honors science), and math through Precalculus Honors or Calculus.
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Where you go to HS and where you go to college aren’t related. You can go OOS regardless of curriculum.
What makes Florida hard to leave is they are paying the accomplished kids to stay.
If you can get past the money factor, your curriculum may impact the type of college you attend but not necessarily a location and certainly not whether you stay in or out. Just make sure you are meeting the academic preparation of any college you are interested in.
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AICE is relatively specific, in that few states use it, and abroad it’s known as the A-Level program. I can understand this parent worrying colleges might not know of it. For a Floridian applying to national private universities/LACs it shouldn’t be a problem and AICE offers subjects AP doesn’t so they complement one another well, as a result competitive FL applicans often have both on their transcript.
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I was just answering the question - the student wants to go OOS. And they’ll be able to.
If there’s any risk based on what you’re saying then why not stICK with AP which the OP says is plentiful.
But - I imagine colleges could quickly be informed of the new courses.
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I understand. I was reassuring the parent and explaining what AICE is.
AICE courses are not new - the Cambridge international A-Level program has been around for a while. And the AICE diploma carries benefits in FL, whereas OOS a mix of AP+AICE works (the AICE diploma is just a few courses, so adding APs is not onerous).
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