Soph daughter is setting up schedule for next year. She is 1/400ish in her class, and I’m guessing will have corresponding test scores. She is shooting for elite colleges, at least at this point. Which is why I care how this looks. Probably premed, probably not bio major if she can make that work. Not really sure what major will be, quite possibly math/statistics or something that direction.
School is block schedule. 5 full term classes in the fall, 5 in the spring. No, that’s not a typo. A full schedule would be equivalent to 10 regular HS classes. It used to be 4x4 but changed last year to 5x5 and appears to be set that way going forward. Students are limited to max 2 AP classes per semester, so 4 total. I don’t get to pick what is which semester for most classes, but generally they do a good job of balancing out the harder/easier classes. And the studyhall and lifting classes are done by quarter, she will hopefully be able to have studyhall the 2 quarters she is busiest with sport EC’s. Reasonably sure she can get “most rigorous” designation with anything we are doing, so that shouldn’t be a factor.
Proposed Schedule
Junior
- AP English Lit
- AP US History
- AP Calc (AB, only calc offered)
- AP Stats
- Chemistry
- Spanish 4
- Health Sciences (basically a pre-health career class)
8a. One quarter Ag Class Elective (required to participate in one of her EC's)
8b. Maybe Ceramics, maybe studyhall
- Strength training
- Study hall
Senior
- AP English Comp
- AP Chem
- AP Bio (these are offered different semesters, so will have Chem in the fall and Bio in spring)
- AP Spanish
- Physics
6a. Ag Class elective (again, required)
6b. Government (one quarter class)
Plus some mix of studyhall, academic electives (Women’s Studies, Anatomy, etc) and fun electives (ceramics, etc.)
Possibly 1-2 college classes at the directional State U in our town. Those classes do NOT show up on her HS trascript and do NOT count for high school credit. Would like to do Calc 2 and 3, but the scheduling for those classes at the college doesn’t fit great with her HS schedule, so it may not work. May do psychology or somthing that hits a premed requirement.
I don’t like how there isn’t math her senior year, but she will have exhausted everthing the HS has to offer. Thoughts?
Nor should you; you are not the one taking the classes.
I’d move AP Stats to Senior year to have a math class. I’d choose one of AP Bio or AP Chem. I’d forgo the directional state U classes. You also need to be aware that college classes count for the med school application GPA, regardless of the credit policies of the college she will ultimately attend
Since she is not the one writing this, it seems that you are underestimating the amount of work that is involved in a 5X5 schedule, and you are also forgetting the hidden class - College Applications and Essays, which is the time equivalent of another class.
I agree, move Stats to Senior year to have a math class.
i also agree to only have one lab science class at a time, esp since it is condensed. Pick AP Bio or AP chem…who ever has the better teacher.
I also agree that I would think hard about DE math classes as @skieurope says if pre-med is in the future.
However, if she is trying to go to a top school for a math major, she may compete against students who have taken more math.
Thanks for the replies, I appreciate them.
@skieurope what I meant was that the school assigns which classes are fall and which are spring.
Although I think your point is that I am not the one who actually has to do the work, she is. I 100% agree. She uses me to do some of the research (like this) but ultimately she is in control, not me. And I remind her of that regularly. She isn’t one I push, it is much more common that the conversation is me bringing up the points that you made. And reminding her that 3 hours of sleep during the week isn’t really a sustainable schedule.
I was aware of the college classes counting for med school apps, although I appreciate you mentioning it because it is very important. Based on her older brother’s experience I am guessing that the directional U college classes are quite a bit easier than her AP classes at the HS. When he did this he was surprised at how easy it was. So part of the thinking was to try to get a couple A’s to get a head start on that med school app. It also means that she would have 2 blocks free on her HS schedule, which would lighten the load on that end. But neither of us are necessarily 100% sure it is a good idea to go down that road anyway.
I think she has some friends that were signing up for AP Stats, which is why she wanted to take it as a junior. But I agree that it would be better to swap it with AP Bio. I guess I’m wondering if it matters that much or if I am just being paranoid to ask her to move it. Another issue is that AP Calc is only in the spring. So she will have APUSH and AP Lit at the same time. She is a Stem kid, not a writer. so that fall will not be fun.
AP Chem is always fall, Bio is always spring, so no overlap there. Our thinking on taking both of them was not to get AP credit, since that can cause problems for premed. The thought was that it would make that intro Bio and Chem classes a bit easier in college.
@bopper you hit my concern about the math. She thinks it would be an interesting route to go, but I am guessing that most math majors will be a couple years ahead of her when they show up as freshmen. I didn’t know if it would look good to colleges to see that she was really trying to pursue that avenue, or conversely look bad that she is so far behind that she really isn’t cut out to be a math major at our school.
Yes
Understood, but each is a boatload of work. In addition to the time devoted by virtue of being APs, there is extra time needed for labs and lab reports.
This really depends. Part of it also depends upon the college she ends up attending. At mine, while many will come in with higher math, almost all math majors start with multivariable, at the highest, even if they had MVC in HS. In our case, they have honors versions that cover proofs and also delve into topics beyond MVC, so there is little room for boredom. Some math majors do start with calc 2.
Ideally, she might want to have calc 2, but from an admissions perspective, no college will ding her because the HS does not offer it. If she can take it at the local directional, and take 4 classes + a study hall at the HS, that would be an option. But your original post said the logistics would be a challenge.
@skieurope thanks for replying. I think it is good to get opinions from everyone, but I especially appreciate yours because you have a different viewpoint that the rest of us neurotic parents on here!
The big logistical problem with Calc 2 and 3 at the college is that for the last 2 years they have only offered them during the middle of the day. And they only offer 1 section. So she couldn’t do late start or early release from the HS, she would have to leave during the middle of the day and come back. Which isn’t a deal breaker, but makes the logistics harder. Plus if one of the HS classes she wants is only offered during 3rd or 4th block, then she would have to pick either that class or Calc. So even if she decides she wants to do this, we won’t really know for sure it is a realistic option until her senior year HS schedule is set and the college schedule is set.
My advice is that the HS offerings, assuming there are enough of sufficient rigor to build a balanced schedule, take priority. If DE works out, fine. If it doesn’t, also fine. Again, no AO will have the expectation that an applicant jump through logistical hoops to build a schedule outside the HS offerings. Although, I will throw out there that, since the credit does not matter for HS purposes, there are online options for calc 2 and beyond.
I totally agree with skieurope both with moving one of the math classes to senior year and about DE.
My D’s HS only offered up to Calc AB as well, with no BC option, either at school or through DE. Didn’t seem to ding any of the STEM kids from her HS. Now that she’s in college, some of her peers from rural HSs didn’t have any calc available. They are starting with Calc I but the university obviously didn’t hold it against them for admission.
@dadof4kids my daughter faced the exact issue last fall with taking MV at the local university. I would look very carefully at the actual logistics of doing that within the actual time frame of the high school schedule. My daughter just couldn’t make it work - and it was a difficult few weeks trying to force it.
Two thoughts: 1) When she is creating her schedule, remind her that the AP exams are offered only in the spring, so she will have to do significant review of the first semester classes on top of her second semester coursework before the exams. That would not be fun. 2) If she does decide to go the DE route senior year but the scheduling doesn’t work out, she could always see if that college (or another one) offers for-credit online coursework in the subjects she’s interested in. It wouldn’t be exactly the same experience as the in-person class, but it is worth investigating.
I talked to her tonight, and she was pretty receptive to moving AP Bio to junior year and AP Stats to senior year. This is the first semester she hasn’t had any math, and she said she hates it. She doesn’t want to go a whole year with no math.
My original post is the schedule request she turned in maybe 6 weeks ago, but they get their proposed schedule soon and any changes she wants will need to be dealt with in the next few weeks I think. At least that’s what they did last year.
@mathhappy you are correct about the fall AP classes. Block scheduling is not conducive to high AP scores. In fact very few students in her HS even bother taking the tests for their fall classes (although a surprisingly small number of students take the tests for their spring class either).
I may have her look into the other online Calc options. That isn’t really a decision we have to make right now. I’ll probably be back next year asking about senior year. But for now I think she had a workable junior schedule once we switch Bio and Stats.
I can recommend AOPS’ Calc BC online class. i think it’s West Coast based, so the evening times could be a problem depending on where you are at.
Don’t take AP Bio, AP chem, and physics all the same year. Switching bio to junior year sounds like a good idea.
She can remove AP lit if it won’t block taking AP Comp and her school offers honors English. If she’s a stem kid who doesn’t like reading/writing it’ll be a very hard class especially combined with a push which has a tremendous amount of reading/writing. She’d need another AP class though to replace AP lit.
Online calc BC or calc 2 would be very important for a math major, first because not having calc for a year would mean she’d be rusty and if a true math major she’d likely “miss” it.
She actually like reading, but struggles a bit with the writing. Most she takes too much time doing it. In a stem class, there is a right answer. There isn’t necessarily a “correct” sentence to write. That bugs her and sometimes slows her down.
If there was an honors English she would probably do that. But there isn’t, it’s AP or regular, and the regular is a very easy class. So she won’t learn anything. And she definitely needs to improve her writing.
I hadn’t thought about the “missing” a math class until last night. Something to consider next year.
Also: It is okay to be a high schooler in high school. Colleges don’t expect you to take classes not offered at your high school.
For students who are going on to grad school or med school, think long and hard about taking college classes in HS…cuz then when you start college, you have to start with a much higher level in some cases.
Also there are 2500+ colleges in the US…there is one for her.
@bopper I agree on the med school thing. It adds some complication and extra things to consider. If she did math it would be with the plan that she would be getting to the higher classes anyway. I certainly wouldn’t do it with any science classes. And if she changed her mind about the math major she probably wouldn’t need any more as an undergrad if she was already through the calc sequence. Calc 1 is all med schools are looking for, and our in State option is ok with stats instead of any calc.
I agree on the lots of colleges comment. Her brother is headed to an Ivy in the fall, and they are so competitive (friendly not negative) with each other that she feels like that school is her floor. I talk to her quite a bit about other options. Personally I would like to see her at a LAC. She also is open to visiting an all women’s college or an honors college at a big State school to see if that might be a good route. Mostly I want to keep her options open.