Curriculum choices for high school freshman

Parents Forum
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<p>Cangel, Sounds like your son will have a nice transcript for the type of schools you are listing if things work out the way you're thinking. I do agree with Ohio_Mom: the honors level and advanced classes tend to attract the stronger teachers and be more focused during class. My daughter learned this this year when she dropped down into "regular track" math --- when I went to parent-teacher conferences, the first thing her math teacher said to me was "She's much more mature than the other kids in the class. I can tell she's frustrated with the antics of the other kids."</p>

<p>The way it looks now, my daughter will have 4 years of English (including an honors level class this year and AP English class next year), 4 years of math (through trig/pre-calc.), 4 years of French (through AP), 4 years of history (including AP Euro, AP Government, and Honors US), 3 years of art (a rarity in her high school where most people only take one), 4 years of religion (no escaping this one!), and only 2.5 years of science(bio, chem and a semester of general lab science.) The science is going to be the weak link in her transcript and she understands this may limit her college options. </p>

<p>I've just decided that I can't drive myself (and her) crazy over micro-managing her transcript. She's made some choices that probably will limit her college opportunities (i.e., taking art instead of physics, taking Honors US History instead of APUSH) but those choices are ones that have worked out for her in many ways (she is very talented in art, she is finding the Honors US track gives the class more time to do interesting and in-depth research projects and have in-class discussions rather than focusing on the "test"). Luckily, she is not interested in any extremely selective colleges and the colleges she is most interested in seem to look closely at the "whole student" in admissions (on her list: Earlham, Beloit, Goucher) so I think this quirkiness in her transcript may work out OK for her.</p>

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<p>Better a good portfolio than a so-so grade in physics (ugh) that pulls everything down with it.</p>

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<p>That is quite encouraging Carolyn, if he blossoms, he may have as many APs as your daughter, and at worst, half the number. I keep harping on APs because his school only has regular college prep and "AP", except in math, and he won't qualify for the accelerated math track (he has an 80 average in algebra and needs an 85 to get geometry). The other only other honors class is English 11 Honors, they take the AP Language/Comp exam. In the end, we may be limited by scheduling, they tend to set the schedule around the core AP group, because they are the ones who need all the Honors/AP classes, which are only 1 or 2 sections.</p>

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<p>Better a good portfolio than a so-so grade in physics (ugh) that pulls everything down with it.></p>

<p>Yes, I agree Ohio-Mom. Cangel, this is an important thing to keep in mind: there are over 3,000 colleges in the U.S. Your son will have lots of choices no matter how many AP classes he takes or if he doesn't make it to calculus. It wasn't until I realized this myself that I started relaxing (a bit) about my daughter's curriculum choices. She will end up somewhere just fine, and so will your son. One other thought: I read an interview with the director of Admissions at STANFORD who noted that the AVERAGE number of AP classes taken by Stanford admits last year was just 5. That means even Stanford will take kids who have "only" 2-3 AP's.</p>

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<p>I agree with Ohio_Mom and Carolyn. Our HS's "urban myth" (but true) that the GCs love to cite each year is the student who took standard math all four years and was accepted to Harvard. Granted, she was a legacy whose sister also was a student there, but she had solid grades in all of her subjects, most of which were honors level. She knew her limits in math and made the most of her strengths.</p>