<p>It can be impossible for some students to take all of the courses they want to because, as mentioned before, scheduling is a real puzzle. It becomes even harder when a smart student wants all of the limited availability classes because there isn’t enough demand to have more than one time. Never heard of the “TA” option for HS but do not worry that it will hurt her when it comes time for college applications. Work with the guidance counselor to create the best possible schedule for your D. Do not worry about being “the squeaky wheel” that gets the grease. Do not worry about a bad relationship with the GC. S/he will more likely be pleased that a student and parent care enough to try to optimize the schooling. It is their job to deal with the unusual. </p>
<p>I remember eons ago having an unusual schedule (as, coincidentally did my next door neighbor as we both found ourselves in too many classes only offered at one time period)- did mandatory junior year gym class with seniors. Senior year I was unable to take the high level gov’t class and had to be with the regular one (no APs in my day) that semester. Fast forward and son had to choose between 4th year French plus Honors English or an AP English course. He also ended up with his only study hall his final semester since he ran out of classes he wanted to take that would fit his schedule. btw- he fit in other AP classes earlier on instead of his first choices because of his schedule. </p>
<p>As your D navigates her HS she should be taking on more responsibility for choosing her classes and discussing how to make them fit herself. It will come to the point where you merely sign off on her proposed schedule. She should find time during the coming school year to sit down (alone, no parent needed) to plan the rest of her entire HS classes. It may be that she should take some one year instead of another in order to get as many as possible on her wish list. Finding out that Class A usually only meets when Class B does, or Class C will cause conflicts ahead of time can prevent future avoidable problems. But- as son and I experienced in tow different districts decades apart, expect schedules to be a compromise. That will also occur in college as well.</p>
<p>Short answer to your post. No- don’t worry about a transcript looking bad because of this one class.</p>
<p>Beerme…she is in high school. Not college. Kids withdraw from classes for any number of reasons and especially in the summer when school is not mandatory.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about messing up next summer…or worrying about having that summer time open so she could do research between 9th and 10th grade in high school. Like I said…she is in high school, not college.</p>
<p>Just make sure that she has all of the courses required for graduation. It sounds to me like her GC is trying to be certain this will be the case.</p>
<p>So let me see if I understand: Is Health/World Geography a class that pretty much every freshman at your daughter’s school will take? (I’m assuming this because it sounds a lot like the situation at my kids’ school, except they call it “Life Skills” and “World Studies.”) And your daughter wanted to take it over the summer so that she could take both a foreign language and “forensics” (is that the debate team?) instead? So basically, she wanted an option that most freshmen do not have, and since she was unable to complete the summer class and she still has to take the second semester (the World Geography part), she’s basically right back where she started except that she has an empty period during her fall semester since she already has the credit for the Health portion. Do I have that right?</p>
<p>In that case, first off, I wouldn’t worry about the TA class not “looking good.” She has a simple explanation for why it’s there – she tried to complete this requirement over the summer before high school but was unable to complete it (not so unusual when you’re trying to cram a whole year into one summer, and she’s not even in high school yet!), so she had to finish that class along with the rest of the freshmen.</p>
<p>That said, if she really wants to take forensics as a freshman (would she be the only freshman in the class?), I’d think about the other option the counselor mentioned, that she could finish the World Geography class over next summer. BUT – make ABSOLUTELY SURE she can do that. Would she have to take the whole Health/WG thing over again, or would they let her take just the semester of WG? Will she run into problems trying to register for her sophomore year classes this spring if she doesn’t have the credits for WG on this year’s transcript? (WG may be a prerequisite for US History or whatever social sciences class she takes as a sophomore.)</p>
<p>Do not assume she will be able to solve all her problems by taking this class over next summer unless you are sure it’s okay. Get it in writing if possible, from the counselor at the least and maybe from someone higher up (principal, someone at the district). I have heard too many stories of people who took a counselor’s casual assurances of “oh, he’ll be able to do XYZ, no problem” and then when it came down to it that option just wasn’t available for whatever reason. </p>
<p>Dastypig, yes, thank you! You understood it correctly,except I really do not think it is a great option to take this course over the summer at all, regardless if it is this summer or the next one, even though that next summer she would only need to take 3.5 remaining credits…</p>
<p>In our school this Health/Geo summer course is an independent study course. </p>
<p>It means that kids must learn a semester worth of material within 3 weeks. It means that, some of the material given on the tests is not in their packets and not in the textbook, not to mention that the textbook is not a “Geography, but World History for some reason(the first week material covered the time from Ancient Greece and Rome to Peter the Great, plus all the maps - I am not kidding). It also means that all the study related instructions, as well as all the grading is done by a school football coach. Finally, it means that this is one of the easiest courses during a school year, but during a summer time 99% of “A” students receive a “B” for this course and 99% of “B” students receive a 'C”.</p>
<p>My daughter left this course with 1.5 credits and an “A” , but a possibility of getting a “B” at the end was very strong. I really do not want her to go through this again…</p>
<p>So, do I understand you correctly that if they decide to give her TA to cover that gap where Health was supposed to be - it is NOT going to look bad on her final transcript? Why would her counselor say it would look bad?</p>
<p>Wiz75, yes it is my big concern that I am being “the squeaky wheel” that gets the grease. I also worry about a bad relationship with the GC very much. I am afraid that at the end the counselor may feel pushed and unhappy and will get my daughter less help and also will limit her possibilities out of resentment, as well as he might write not a great recommendation letter for her at the end. I am very nervous about this situation. The counselor on duty who spoke to us initially was very helpful, I felt good about this decision.Our own counselor makes me nervous, uneasy…I do not know if we are allowed to ask for a different one and also once I open my mouth to ask for something like that - the info would be known to him immediately.</p>
<p>You’d better ask the counselor why he said it would look bad. Maybe at this school that’s what kids do if they’re failing a class – they hurriedly switch it to a TA credit? Maybe at this school, being a TA isn’t actually helping the teacher at all, but is code for “sitting around doing nothing”? My only point was that if a college someday asks your daughter why she was a TA for one semester her freshman year, she can say “it was because I took that semester over the previous summer and already had the credits for that class, but I needed to take the spring semester of the class, so my school scheduled a TA period for me in the fall.” It may be unusual, but I wouldn’t say it would look bad.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, being a TA was considered something worth doing, if you could spare the credit hours. A teacher would not choose you as a TA unless you had already taken that class and you knew the material, because you would be expected to help grade tests and quizzes. It also showed that the teacher considered you responsible and trustworthy. So it was kind of like a part-time job. Same in law school – the TAs led the discussion sections, and you could only be a TA if you had received an A in the class previously. It was an academic achievement.</p>
<p>Dustypig, yes, I understand, thank you! I already sent an email asking these questions - so far no answer. I appreciate all the help! Sometimes I am not sure if I am supposed to know this info or not - I graduated from my K-12 school in Saint Petersburg,Russia. In my time everyone did the same exact curriculum. My older daughter graduated from her medical school in Russia, so this is my first experience going through the US K-12 school with my younger kids …</p>
<p>The email you quoted from the counselor sounds like it was written before your daughter had definitely dropped the summer class (or at least, the counselor thought she hadn’t made the final decision yet). So the counselor was trying to dissuade your daughter from dropping the class. Now that she definitely can’t finish it, I wonder what the counselor’s advice would be as to the best course for her to pursue? </p>
<p>I don’t see why you can’t contact the other counselor, the one you feel was more helpful. You don’t have to go so far as to ask to switch counselors, but you can ask that other counselor for advice about this situation – I can’t imagine that would make your own counselor get offended (though I suppose some people can get offended at anything).</p>
<p>The counselor replied here is a small part of it : “the reasons that your daughter would have TA included in her schedule is because all of the other courses scheduled for our freshmen are yearlong courses. Health/World Geography are the only semester courses available, and should be completed together. The TA appears on the transcript because the student earns the same credits as they do with all other classes, and 4 year colleges want to see students taking courses, and not assisting teachers in a classroom. I’m not saying that a semester of being a TA her freshman year is going to affect her chances of being accepted to a 4 year school, but we don’t encourage it if they have plans to apply, and that’s was why I explained this last week in an effort to change her mind about dropping the course. If she has to be scheduled as a TA, it’s probably much less an issue if she does it during her freshman year.”</p>
<p>Well, that doesn’t have any advice about what to actually do now that she <em>has</em> dropped the course. If the counselor advises your daughter to take the TA period rather than trying to take the summer class again next summer, then that’s what she should do. She doesn’t have the option to complete the summer course, or to go back and not have taken it in the first place.</p>
<p>I just don’t see the counselor’s problem here, but it occurs to me that maybe your daughter is at one of those super competitive high schools I read about where every kid is trying to get into an Ivy. I certainly can’t advise you as to whether this situation is enough to keep her out of an Ivy.</p>
<p>Dustypig: no , my daughter is in one of the regular public schools. We have a lot of Indians and Asians who are usually very good students, but by no means this school is more special than any other large public school…</p>
<p>I don’t really think it will be a problem. If there are no one semester classes for her to take, and there are good reasons not to take the second half of the course next summer (which there are), she really has no choice. My older son ended up in regular physics because of scheduling issues - they would have been happy to put him in honors or AP Physics B, but neither fit into his schedule. It turned out fine and in fact that teacher ended up being a bit of a mentor recommending him for all sorts of special academic programs.</p>
<p>I don’t see that this is going to send up reg flags and if there are still worries come senior year, all the GC has to do is explain why she was a TA in her recommendation letter.</p>
<p>And getting a B at the end was an issue? Why?</p>
<p>For future reference…the vast majority of summer courses have the course material condensed into a VERY short time period. You knew the time frame of the summer course and knew it would not be the same length as a full semester. Of course the info was condensed in the way you describe. </p>
<p>I do think completing this course is what your CG is trying to guarantee…and this is important. If having one semester of TA helps do this…fine. </p>
<p>But really…what would a 9 the grader be doing as a TA?</p>
<p>A TA is, I assume a teacher’s assistant. In my high school, when I was a TA, I just used it as a study hall. Every once in a while I would grade true/false or multiple choice questions on quizzes. If the concept of a TA is confusing, maybe just assume the title is “Does study hall look really bad on high school transcript.”</p>
<p>There doesn’t seem like there’s much you can do in this situation, but whether or not it could hurt would depend on how many periods a day your daughter’s high school has. If her high school only has 6 periods then your daughter could only take 5.5 classes, which isn’t that much. On the other hand, if her high school has 9 periods a day, then there’s nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>FWIW, I was a TA for two semesters in high school, and got into multiple top-25 colleges. But I was also taking a full load with 7 classes on top of that.</p>