<p>Emeraldkitty4,</p>
<p>Thank you for the explanation. I now understand your comments. </p>
<p>In my earlier post I tried to make two points. First, that ECs are not optional for high school students who desire to got into a highly competitive college. Second, that my daughter works harder than I do.</p>
<p>With respect to ECs, I do not believe they are optional for students who want to get into a highly competitive college. As I stated in my last post, my daughter only engages in ECs she enjoys, all related to orchestra. She does not, like so many others do, join clubs or donate her time simply to enhance her resume and chances for college admission. This may hurt her when she applies to college, only time will tell. I just object to teachers, high school counselors, college representatives, parents, and others telling high school students how important ECs are, but then telling them that they are optional and should not be considered when looking at how hard some students work during high school. Many young professionals, attorneys for example, work many hours more then they are legally required to work. But, they know that, at least at some firms, these extra hours are required if they are to have a successful career at one of those firms. Should we consider those extra hours voluntary? I dont think they are voluntary and I think the same is true for some high school students and ECs.</p>
<p>My daughter works harder than I do, this is simply a fact. But, after stating this fact I went on to complain about high school and this has been interpreted as my complaining about ECs. I am not complaining about ECs and they are, generally speaking, the highlight of my daughters high school experience. I am looking forward to the end of high school because there are a lot of other things my daughter has to do, since she wants to get into a highly competitive college, which I question the importance of. </p>
<p>For example, my daughter, who is currently a junior, does not care for math. So, she only wanted to take one additional high school math class, Honors Pre-Calculus, and she wanted to take it her senior year. On a tour of east coast colleges last summer we discussed this issue with an admissions representative for Barnard College, a small liberal arts college in New York City. For the last two years the high school class my daughter has most wanted to take has been AP European History, which is taught by her schools best teacher. But, because of basketball, orchestra classes and other required courses she has not yet been able to take it. So, she asked the Barnard representative whether it would hurt her chances of admission if she took AP European History instead of Honors Pre-Calculus as a junior. She was told that it would and that she should take the Honors Pre-Calculus. Since Barnard is one of her top schools, and actually one of the less competitive ones, she is taking Pre-Calculus this year. </p>
<p>In addition to the math class issue, I have been disappointed with my daughters AP classes and do not feel that they truly represent college level classes. They just, generally speaking, seem to be excuses for giving more, and often meaningless, homework. I guess I just resent it when my daughter gets home from orchestra rehearsal at 10:30pm on Wednesday night that she then has to spend the next couple of hours doing 50 math problems, which are mostly the same, or writing out a meaningless chapter summary for APUSH or AP Biology. I do not recall having to do either of these in any college course. So, I look forward to the day that my daughter is in college and will have more control over which classes she takes. Sure she will have to take some required classes that she might not want to take, but she will choose a college that will enable her to, generally speaking, take the classes she wants to take.</p>