<p>Hello! I wanted to ask if TA looks real bad on high school transcript?
My daughter, is going to be a Freshman (9th grade next school year) .
She was going to complete a summer school . She signed up for Health/Geography combo. She completed Health , but needed to drop out from Geo with approximately 1.5 credits and an "A" .She would have to be rescheduled for Geography during her school year , but her Counselor insists she'll have to be scheduled as a TA for the other semester, and "being a TA isn't favorable on a transcript".He does not seem to be very helpful. My daughter is a very capable student, what would be the best advice for her in this situation?</p>
<p>TA is teaching assistant? There are no one semester courses? Any way to do an independent study project? Can she just take the credit for health and forget the Geography component and take some other yearlong course? (Our school system has no geography requirement, but does require a semster of health which they usually offer every other day - and kids take it in tandem with AP science labs, or required phys ed.)</p>
<p>There is not reason being a teacher’s aide should appear on a transcript, unless she receives pass/fail credit for it. Colleges do like to see that you have a rigorous course-load, but if she is not receiving credit for it and already has a strong schedule, being an aide can demonstrate extra commitment to a certain field of study or community involvement. However, if there is a course she wants to take and is capable of taking it, be insistent. I hope there is just a misunderstanding, because no guidance counselor should be pushing a student along a path they know will hurt them. </p>
<p>Mathmom: Yes TA - teaching assistant. Both Health and Geo are one semester courses. My daughter was given the opportunity to take Health/W. Geography during the summer because she wanted the impacted schedule during the year. NOT completing summer school for both portions earning the full 5 credits for each course; she now runs the risk of having to drop one of her elective choices to make room for W. Geography, which means, there is a possibility that my daughter may not be able to have all the courses she had hoped to have in the coming school year. We asked for zero period, but it is unknown if her counselor is even going to let my daughter take zero period. He , as I said is not very helpful . He just stated that TA is not looking favorably on her high school transcript , but she would have to do TA as there is going to be a gap in her second semester, where Health was going to be.
I am a little lost with that, because I was not born in the US and did not go through the K-12 here. I am not sure what to ask for at this point… My daughter is an excellent student, she is hoping for Ivy League in the future. Any advice? </p>
<p>sw0206: Thank you so much for your reply! As I said above , very hard for me to understand what kind of possibilities are there, because I was not born in the US and did not go through the school system here. I need help in understanding this correctly . Here is a quote from the counselor email to me: “I strongly suggest that your daughter complete the course this summer. She planned, and was given the opportunity to take her foreign language
and forensics upon completing Health/W. Geography this summer, and will have to either drop one of her electives to include a semester of W. Geog, or complete the remaining 3.5 credits of world geography next summer. She won’t be scheduled for zero period PE to complete the course, and I don’t recommend taking it during the school year without the Health, because she’ll have to be scheduled as a TA for the other semester, and being a TA isn’t favorable on a transcript if she plans to apply and attend a four year college right out of high school. The other issue would be moving her classes around in an attempt to include the geography class, and there are no guarantees with class availability.” </p>
<p>The counselor sounds quite helpful to me. He is laying out all the options. These are the things I was going to suggest looking into - i.e. can she try to finish this summer or take it next summer? He didn’t say she couldn’t move her classes around, just that it would be difficult. </p>
<p>It is like a crazy Sudoku puzzle that schools have to go thru to get kids into all their high level classes - if they have limited number of sections for honors classes, it can be very difficult to accommodate kids’ electives. When I went through this a couple years ago, the guidance counselor took me into the vice principals office and we looked at the master schedule board (which classes would be offered which period) and they shared with me the stress of making sure that most kids get everything they are hoping for, and trying especially hard to accommodate the tippy top kids that are angling for that “most rigorous” schedule. I won half my battles - got another section of the honors engineering class offered for her, but didn’t get her in the AP Spanish that year. </p>
<p>Your counselor sounds like he’s doing his best - acknowledge his efforts and you will probably get farther in your quest to find a solution for your daughter.</p>
<p>It is probably more important for your daughter to have the course on her transcript than being a teaching assistant. Any chance she can be a TA sometime later in her HS career? She is only going to be a 9th grader…</p>
<p>VSGPeanut101 : oh, thank you ! Maybe I am just misunderstanding what he is saying… but why would he say she won’t be scheduled for zero period?This would solve most of the problems for her. </p>
<p>thumper1 : the counselor is putting her in TA to fill the gap in her other semester(because Health and Geo go together in one school year)</p>
<p>I just read your explanation from the counselor again. He is clearly saying…she needs the courses. TA is optional and not as important especially if she plans to attend a four year college. </p>
<p>Have her take the course. </p>
<p>What would a ninth grader be a TA for?</p>
<p>Can she take a study hall (something that would not appear on transcript)for that second semester? I agree looking into taking the course next summer and/or finding another semester course would be best. </p>
<p>Thumper1: she can’t take a course this summer any longer. She wants to take it during a year. We don’t want any TA, but counselor wants to put her in it </p>
<p>sw0206 I don’t know anything about study hall. Do you think asking for it is a good option?</p>
<p>It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask. If she has no other study halls and/or her classes are strong, I would even recommend it. </p>
<p>Our school doesn’t have TA. In fact, I had never heard of that before this site. What would she be doing, xeroxing and grading for teachers? Is that a good use of her time? I’ve had teachers make my kids grade papers for them and wasn’t too happy about that use of their time or pushing their job responsibilities off on a kid who really can’t say no. Wouldn’t it be better to take a study hall so she can have more time to pursue things she actually wants to do?</p>
<p>In my experience, some school staff aren’t really interested in finding the best option for a student schedule. It’s more time and trouble for them to do this. Obviously they can’t arrange the master schedule for her convenience, but I would press to make sure all options really have been explored and must be ruled out before leaving that gap in her schedule. </p>
<p>Can she take the TA period for community service hours instead of units? S17’s PE class moved from 1st to 7th period (after school) last year, but we didn’t know for about a month of spring whether he would make the team that practiced after school. He TAed for an Exploring Computer Science class (since he had already taken the AP Computer Science test though self-study). That gave him about 40 hours of community service and the chance to get to know the computer science teacher better. It helps with an EC generally around STEM mentoring and teaching. If he had taken it for a grade, it would be unweighted and would have lowered his GPA. (S’s school requires a minimum of 60 hours of community service to graduate and gives an award for 200+ hours.)</p>
<p>You’d better make sure that is possible and not assume. Our school doesn’t allow “community” service to be performed at the student’s school. It has to be not school-related, in the community.</p>
<p>Did your d think what would happen when she dropped out of summer school?
She created this mess by only taking the Health part of the combo class.
This is a life lesson for your d, her actions have consequences.
The consequence is having a semester of TA on her transcript and losing one of her electives for next year.
Most colleges do not look harshly at the freshman year transcript.</p>
<p>The gc wants to put her into TA/Geo so the computer will fill a period for both semesters of her freshman schedule.
As you stated your d can postpone taking Geo until next summer, which is reasonable.
However, this will mess up her summer between freshman and sophomore years to do research, ECs and such.</p>
<p>Beerme: I don’t think I said my daughter dropped out of summer school without consulting with anybody, nor did I give here a reason for her doing it.
You assumed she dropped out without a reason , however it was not the case. Both my daughter and I went to a summer school office prior to making this decision and were cunsulted by a counselor on duty, who suggested that the best way to address a personal situation like we had (which is totally irrelevant for this conversation), was to drop out of Geography and retake it during a school year. That counselor said nothing about TA, or difficulties of creating a future school schedule.
She seemed very helpful, advised to let our own counselor(who is on vacation) know about this decision. She said to send an email and let him know, so he can change my daughter’s schedule.
I don’t know why would you take upon yourself to call it “creating a mess” and point that my daughter “action has consequence”. You seem to be assuming a lot without any reason to do so… </p>
<p>mathyone: I agree with you, it seems to be the case with my daughter’s adviser. He projects this feeling , like you said:
" some school staff aren’t really interested in finding the best option for a student schedule." I know this because the counselor on duty who consulted us about dropping out of geography said nothing about TA and nothing about any difficulties to redo the schedule. I am sure if she was my daughter’s adviser there would be no problem like we are having right now. I am afraid to push our counselor and at the same time I am afraid to create a bad relationship with him… </p>