<p>so up until Christmas break I was planning on going to unifieds. this was totally smashed with the fact that my school only allows 2 (YES 2) days a YEAR for college visits and what not. If i were to miss more than that.. it would result in saturday detentions and having to take finals. (my school lets seniors be exempt if they have and A average in the class and 4 days or less absences!). I was really let down but since my school is wacky, I had to miss them. Fortunately, I fell in love with Muhlenberg so hopefully that works out.. otherwise... I'll be a little mad. Is there any other school that is this psycho on letting kids out for school visits?</p>
<p>Well if it makes you feel better, my school doesn't set any days aside for college visits and there are no one gets exemptions for finals. The few of us that do have theater auditions are just taking the days off, getting marked absent, and hoping it won't affect our grades too much. =/</p>
<p>My daughter's H.S. also had a ridiculously low limit on excused days of absence for seniors to visit colleges (I think it was also 2 but it was a year ago and the memory fades :) ); so we called her out sick when necessary. It was disturbing that we had to play a "game" but the school's inflexibility and unrealistic approach to the needs of the college search process and the requirements of auditioning in particular left us no choice. And this is from a school that loves to tout that more than 90% of its seniors go on to college and to publicize and take credit for the scholarships its seniors obtain from the colleges they attend.</p>
<p>My D's school has the same 2 day policy- 2 days junior year and 2 days senior year, but of course you can't audition junior year. Like MichaelNKat, we do the call in sick, even though MOST of the teachers know kids are out auditioning - D is at a performing arts school so about 50% if not more of the kids have to audition for college. The problem is that it is a district policy that the school loosely enforces. Yes, it is a game but if schools were really concerned with teaching students about honesty they would be more flexible in the rules.</p>
<p>It's a killer trying to schedule all your auditions for weekends. So I just have to dissappear from school and hope it doesn't hurt me too much.</p>
<p>My son's high school allows 2 days to visit for seniors only. As far as exempting out of finals, if you're a Gold Renaissance card holder, you can opt out of 2 finals, only if you have straight A's all year long. To get such a card, you need the following:</p>
<p>93 or above GPA (no 92.5)(weighted)
No subject failures
Participation in at least one extracurricular activity in school or the community, or other responsibilities worthy of recognition.
No more than 2 absences per marking period without a doctor's note.
No discipline referrals which result in Administrative Detention, Sat. School or Suspension
No more than 2 units of unexcused lateness per marking period</p>
<p>You are not alone as you can tell from everyone's response. </p>
<p>D's high school has the same guidelines, only 2 days off for "college visits". We "chose" to tell the truth, explaining that her absences were not simple visits, but audition interviews that were part of the application process. Even though the administrators seemed to be ok with this verbally, we still wound up with a rather threatening (form) letter that, since D had "unexcused absences", she was on the verge of not being able to graduate and yada yada yada. </p>
<p>Needless to say, we lied from then on that she was "sick". Apparently being out sick does not cause as much of a stirr (nobody asked for a Dr. note either).</p>
<p>I guess this a one of those scenarios where you just 'do what you have to do' :)!</p>
<p>yikes, those rules are crazy! At my school, juniors get 2 days for college visits and seniors get 4- and even though technically you need a note from the college saying you were visiting, usually you can get away without it. So often seniors will skip school and say they were visiting colleges!</p>
<p>As for being exempt from exams, if you're a senior with an A, you can get out of the exam. It's at the teacher's discretion, but except for AP classes, I don't know of any teacher who doesn't let seniors skip the exam. (AP classes are full-year classes instead of semester-long, so they have to take the mid-year final, but if you take the AP test, you don't have to take a final no matter your grade.)</p>
<p>wow I didn't even get days off my junior year! We tried the whole sick thing, but it still counts as unexcused! as well as funerals... they are unexcused absence. I do go to a catholic college prep, so I'm thinking that might have some factor in it. I went to the admin to ask them if my auds could be excused and they said no as I'll only be going to one school and auditioning for more than one school is absurd. So it turned out that way. Oh my school does the Renaissance thing too!! except to be a gold member at my school you have to have at least a 96. And platinum.. hah a 98 average.</p>
<p>I have never heard of being able to skip finals, that is awsome. All of my classes have finals and everyone has to take them, no matter what, and we don't have any days to vist colleges. Because of problems with ditching my school also has a policy that sick days must have a doctors note and if not cleared within 5 days are marked as a truancy, then your citizenship grade goes down and the teacher is not required to let you make up any of the homework or tests. It really sucks for my auditions since I live in California and most of the schools I am auditioning for are on the other side of the country, so I have to travel to a bunch.</p>
<p>My D attends a catholic college prep as well; most of the "rules" are dictated by the archdiocese, although the individual schools can chose to be lenient or not (hers choses not to be). </p>
<p>Everla, in my D's case, she only gets to "skip" finals for those classes that she maintains an A average in or passes the AP exam for.</p>
<p>yay for non lenient catholic college preps. i understand they want students to excell... but sometimes it's a little overboard.</p>
<p>Our school only allows 2 school visits, too, and I've gotten a letter from the vice-principal explaining that my child has missed too much, and I could go to jail if it keeps up! And they wonder why I'm not volunteering the rest of the year!</p>
<p>I am amazed reading these comments - and very grateful for my D's understanding school. It is a performing arts school so I guess that's predictable. Are these schools that strict about the athletic teams? I think auditioning is comparable to missing school for an athletic event. Parents reading this should go to their schools now in preparation for next year and make that point.</p>
<p>Wow! My kid is apparently very, very fortunate in that her arts high school gets that students who plan to attend performance-related college programs have to actually go out to audition for those programs and thus miss class time. Parents need only write a note stating that their children are missing school because of auditions and the absences are considered legitimate and excused. I am shocked that other schools, especially arts schools, are not more understanding about this fact of life in senior year and don't build in time off.
Oh, yes, those students with an A average are also permitted to forgo final exams at her school, too.</p>
<p>cartera45 - you have just touched on a somewhat "sore subject" ;) as D's school indeed seems to be much more lenient when it comes to athletic recruiting, especially when Ivy League schools are involved...</p>
<p>Unfortunately at our non performing arts oriented HS with a drama director, who is about as clueless as they come, D has been climbing uphill with her passion for musical theatre. On the other hand, my husband and I feel that all this ultimately has had some possitive impact as well, as it seems to have made her stronger, more articulate about her intentions, and her passion has only grown as she has had to continually defend this "weird hobby" of hers :D. Even the rare few (her school is large) that are involved with drama outside of school have this stance that "pursuing straight acting is more respected" (now this could lead to that other discussion, which is why we will just bury it in between some lines here :)).</p>
<p>But forcing the kids to lie about absences is not a good thing for anyone and the schools aren't giving them a choice. Maybe the schools need to understand that kids getting into these competitive MT programs is more impressive than getting into Yale. That is the stat that should be listed at the top of the brag sheet for the school!</p>
<p>Amen, cartera. I find that most "civilians" (aka parents of kids who are not deeply involved in performing arts) are shocked and their jaws drop open when one tells them how absolutely competitive MT/drama school admissions can be. One physician I know said "Omigosh, that's tougher than getting into a good med school!" Yup.</p>
<p>"D has been climbing uphill with her passion for musical theatre. On the other hand, my husband and I feel that all this ultimately has had some possitive impact as well, as it seems to have made her stronger, more articulate about her intentions"</p>
<p>I agree that our kids are forced to become better advocates for themselves and to clarify their choices with administrators, teachers and peers. They become musical theater activists of sorts, developing healthy ways of expressing their differences to others. </p>
<p>My d entered a large regional high school her freshman year, attended by students from 3 different towns. She entered knowing kids mostly from our small community. It seems that it was tradition to give freshman nicknames. (In this situation it was a social benefit to be given a nickname as we all know that it could go the other way.)
Within a week, in her new school, she was being hailed as "Broadway" when she walked down the halls. She loved this and wore the label with pride.
Again, We parents and our enthusiastic children continue to educate others to the positivity and creativity of this field. It takes time, but 1 kid at a time, high schools will learn so they can better support their theater students.</p>
<p>I think most schools would never question missing for a sports event or a choir performance because those activities are school-based & involve groups of kids. It's very different for individual auditions. I don't agree with the stringent limitations, but I can see how the school does have an argument. They may view it as opening a crack that will be exploited, with kids & families getting very creative about what should constitute an excused absence. Unfortunately, these attendance officers are often the most stubborn personalities on the planet. I think it's a job requirement.</p>
<p>Are any of you having so many absences that it might threaten graduation requirements? Gosh, I hope it doesn't come to that!</p>