<p>She did not. She only ever took orchestra. However, she self studied the AP music exam and took it. But the only actual music classes she has taken is orchestra in 10th and 11th grades. She was at a charter school for 9th.</p>
<p>She did double up the science the freshman year so she took the bio and chem then. She had preAP physics the 10th grade year.</p>
<p>My DD managed to get accepted to college without AP math of any kind, without AP science of any kind, and without high school calculus. She graduated college with degrees in engineering and biology from a very decent school.</p>
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<p>SAT subject tests cover regular high school level material, not AP level material. So if he had even just regular high school chemistry or physics completed by end of junior year, he should be able to take the matching subject test.</p>
<p>In case you are in LISD, my sister said kids take Bio, Chem and Physics before they can take an AP science. For almost all the kids that ends up being senior year. The AP sciences are full year courses - one block each semester. It can be hard to double up the first three years because of scheduling and the needs of other students. The don’t let a freshman take chem is there are sophomores who haven’t taken it yet and need a spot.</p>
<p>For math, most take AP Calc as seniors - AB in the fall and BC in the spring. They are not required to take BC just because they take AP. She didn’t know of anyone taking Calc as a junior, but said she is sure there are some, but not the majority for sure.</p>
<p>Taking the AP exam is also optional for that district. </p>
<p>Her DD knows several kids going to Rice from her high school and they are now taking Calc and AP science as seniors. I seriously doubt taking those as a senior is going to be a factor in admissions, as long as she is taking them at the time of applications.</p>
<p>So, again, let’s see if I get this straight. At your school district, if a student wants to take 4 AP classes (we’ll say the 4 core- English, SS, Sci, and math), that’s ALL she gets to take? </p>
<p>What an absolutely screwy system.</p>
<p>If this student were taking English, science, math, history…there would NOT be a problem. Apparently this student is not taking a math this year OR a science.</p>
<p>It does not sound like this student is taking MORE courses with this type of block schedule. It sounds like she is taking less.</p>
<p>Still…I don’t see the problem as long as courses are all taken by the completion of the senior year.</p>
<p>OP- I realize now from where you sit that Rice is the one, the only, the true love… but I can assure you that there are dozens of colleges where a math and music loving (and lots of other loving) kids can thrive.</p>
<p>I suspect you and the Adcom you spoke with had a misunderstanding- and I suggest that you tactfully ask your D’s guidance counselor to call your regional rep and get clarity on what your D needs to take and by when.</p>
<p>And then you and D get to explore the dozens of fine colleges which are “Rice-like” in their appeal.</p>
<p>Even if your D was the number one ranked kid in her HS (and maybe she is) and even if she was the top in everything… I would never suggest having her pin all her hopes and aspirations on any single college. Too many funky things happen in admissions; too many sad stories (many of them on this board) for any kid to be sure that they’ve found the one and only.</p>
<p>Your D could thrive in lots of different places. I know kids from around here (the Northeast) who love Rice also tend to love Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Washington University (the one in St Louis), Vanderbilt, Emory, CMU. Rochester has already been mentioned. The ones who love an urban environment love U Chicago; the ones who prefer a more suburban vibe often love Bryn Mawr or Wellesley. If your D is not aspiring to a conservatory type music training, that opens up lots of options (for both academic study of music and performance opportunities- either ensemble or solo, but not conservatory level training.)</p>
<p>Calm down. Your D will be fine; this sounds like a misunderstanding. And even so- it will be nice to explore other colleges with your D.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a college caring when a particular class was taken, as long as all the pre-requisites (or “suggested classes”) were indeed on the kids transcripts by the time of the application. My own kids HS did not allow any AP’s before senior year… so by the time they applied in November, they only had a few months of these courses under their belts. (The AP’s weren’t required of course… but without the senior year courses, their schedules wouldn’t have had the suggested number of years of each subject.)</p>
<p>So relax.</p>
<p>roman…yes…that is how it is. I do not like it at all. Several parents complain, school board never listens.</p>
<p>So, again, let’s see if I get this straight. At your school district, if a student wants to take 4 AP classes (we’ll say the 4 core- English, SS, Sci, and math), that’s ALL she gets to take? >></p>
<p>No, only the AP science courses are full year. So if you take an AP science, you still take 6 other classes. Most kids don’t even take an AP science until senior year because they have to have the other three first. So they have already taken 24 courses before senior year, then another 7-8 as seniors.</p>
<p>It’s like college classes in that you take 4 classes in the fall and four different ones in the spring - 8 for the year.</p>
<p>^ The OP contradicts you both in 48 and in the OP
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<p>My daughter has 25 credits now, at the end of the first semester of junior year. So yeah, she has doubled up. She had algebra 1 and geometry prior to high school. She was at a charter school the first year of high school. This is only our second year of high school.</p>
<p>BUT…fortunately…someone on this board actually has a family member who went to my dd’s high school and still got in to Rice. So that has been very helpful!!! I think I am going to try to get some clarification on this.</p>
<p>Sounds strange to me. Maybe rice wants STEM majors to have 4 years of math and 4 years of science? If that’s the case, find out how difficult it is for rice students to transfer from a humanities major to a stem major. If that is possible, then apply as a French major.</p>
<p>If your daughter will graduate under the Recommended High School Program then your school district IS offering the proper classes to qualify for admission to Rice and any other elite college you care to name. Many of the most prestigious private schools in the Dallas area (which sounds like your area from the other school districts you’ve named) don’t offer math classes beyond Calc BC and they routinely place graduates at Rice – and Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. It sounds like the Ad Com you talked to at Rice didn’t understand the nature of the block schedule in your district and didn’t understand that your daughter would be completing four years of academic “solids.” Rest assured that if your daughter has completed the RHSP diploma, then she has completed all the course work that most Texas high school graduates present on their transcripts. (If she hasn’t completed the RHSP then you do have cause to worry – because not only would that impact eligibility for Rice, but it would also make her ineligible for auto admission at UT and TAMU.)</p>
<p>I suspect I know which district your D is in. I used to work there. And please rest assured than many, many kids from your district have been accepted to Rice - many never took Calculus or AP Calc. I suspect this is just a miscommunication between you and the ad rep. If your D takes calc during her senior year, she will be fine.</p>
<p>“Even if your D was the number one ranked kid in her HS (and maybe she is) and even if she was the top in everything… I would never suggest having her pin all her hopes and aspirations on any single college.” - Wise words. </p>
<p>OP - I share your concerns about block systems. (Our IB hs has a block system I like better. 8 blocks - 8 subjects, 4 long classes on alternate days. Our home hs used to have a block system more like yours, and that is one of the reasons I steered DD away). But it is what it is. Continue doing your good research and helping as best you can. Try not to dwell on the things that can’t be changed at this point. PS - Your posts on this do a good service educating sophomore families planning for next year.</p>
<p>We are in Texas and our school district uses the block schedule. Our students go to top schools including MIT, Columbia, Harvard, & Rice. I see where the 2 semesters of Orchestra & 2 semesters of French made it difficult to fit in a math class and science class this year. If your daughter takes AP math and AP science next year, Rice should be able to see how she is doing at that point and know based on her performance in other classes that she will be successful. I feel like the counselor was misinformed or did not understand your daughter’s situation well. There are good things and bad things about the block schedule, but overall I like only having to study for 4 subjects at a time and the longer class periods (similar to a college class). It can be challenging, though, for students in sports/band/orchestra to be involved for 4 years and fit extra electives in.</p>
<p>I don’t know what precisely you said to the adrep, but based on what you’ve said here, it seems that the issue isn’t whether or not your D has met the requirements for Rice - clearly, she has - but whether or not she has enough of a math background to be a credible STEM applicant. I suspect that’s the spirit in which the adrep answered you.</p>
<p>There are two kinds of primarily academic admits to top schools: specialists - in other words, kids with a defined aptitude and passion for a particular subject - and what I’ve seen people here refer to as the BWRK, the Bright, Well-Rounded Kid. Colleges rely on BWRKs to raise their academic profile, so they’re going to have to have scores and grades at the high end of the school’s range - probably above the 75th percentile. The specialist can have somewhat lower (although still excellent) test scores and class rank. The catch is, in order to be credible as a specialist, he’s going to have to be really, really good - the kind of kid about whom teachers will say “among the best of my career.” And certainly, he should have taken advantage of whatever opportunities in that subject were available to him.</p>
<p>If your daughter wants to frame an application around an intended math/science major and has only very recently decided she wants to do math, no matter how good she is (unless she’s got some competitions or other evidence to back up her seriousness), she’s not going to be able to compete with people who have been doing four years of math olympiads and taking the hardest courses available (of course, if these opportunities haven’t been available at all, that’s another story). </p>
<p>Now, she can still apply to Rice as a BWRK with a possible interest in math among other things, and if she’s got scores within their range, she should, but just playing the odds, it becomes less likely than someone whose got a real hook, academic or otherwise. Getting into a top school as a BWRK is hard: there are a lot of them and, because they don’t fill any particular niche, they’re all competing against each other for the same spots. </p>
<p>None of this is intended to discourage you, but to emphasize the importance of applying widely - and to explain why your daughter’s record, while not a problem in itself, might be problematic if you’re applying as a certain type of student. Fortunately, you still have plenty of time to consider how best to package the application. Good luck!</p>
<p>If you’re basing it off of the “requirements” colleges list on their admissions pages, don’t worry. In most cases those are more like recommendations than actual requirements. There may be some schools out there that are really strict about it, but not many.</p>
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<p>It can be challenging for students on non-block schedule, too, to fit everything in!</p>
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<p>And you’d be quite right. This merely joins the BS about GC being told about the chances of candidates at their school, the BS that interviewers play a substantial role in the final decisions, and other fisherman tales. </p>
<p>Well, the only way this is not pure BS or a total misunderstanding is that the OP talked to one of those utterly inexperienced Junior adcoms or an intern. </p>
<p>It makes no sense.</p>