Hi, this is my first post. My freshman is doing just okay in a difficult magnet Cambridge program (kind of similar to IB). She will probably end the year with 4 As and 2 Bs 1st semester and 4 Bs and 2 As second semester. (Might be 3 As if she rallies. All Bs are strong Bs.)Her hardest classes are algebra 2, Spanish 2 and AP world history. Her guidance counselor says she is in the bottom 20% for grades in the program and says she looks like a kid who may end up dropping out of it due to a downward grade trend (a quarter of kids who start this program drop out), since this is by far the easiest year. For various reasons, her only reasonable option besides this one is sticking it out for 10th and transferring to dual degree at a local community college for 11th and 12th. I suspect that if she stays in this program, she will end up in low/middle B GPA range unweighted…probably a few Cs in there, but I would be surprised to see her getting a LOT of Cs. Dual degree might well be a better fit, and word around town is it’s much easier, but she absolutely does not want to do it because she likes the social aspect of high school.
I know it’s early, but counselor seemed to think the die was already cast and it was time to start making big decisions. Any thoughts? Should we try to keep her in this hard program, where she likely will have a lower GPA ,or try to get her on board for dual degree? Not sure what to think about college at this point as it’s so early, but we are told our flagship state u is already out of reach. To her advantage, she is very good at standardized tests. (Scored in the 99th% on the PSAT this year)
I might not have been clear–they call it dual degree, but I think most kids do not get an AA. Basically it’s just sort of moving to CC for the last 2 years of HS. I’m not sure why it’s so popular here except that our local CC pushes it and it’s free to families. We live in the same city as the flagship and were told that due to this and her not-amazing grades this year, it is already a no-go.
I don’t see why the choice is between total CC or total high school. Is the magnet program all or nothing (It sounds that way.) What else can she take at the local high school?
Social and emotional life are important. But stress is terrible during high school. Are all her friends in the magnet program?
Can she take a few of the classes in the magnet program and then take classes in other programs at the high school, or at CC, or online? If it is Massachusetts, there is also Harvard Extension.
We used this for online courses https://vhslearning.org/ and even did fundraising so our school could join (then 2 students could take a class each semester).
I would focus on making high school work, and college will fall into place later.
ps there is no flagship in Cambridge so wondering if the Cambridge magnet program is a label and not a location-???
Why on earth is this counselor in such a swivet over a few B grades? Your kid doesn’t need to be making an escape plan just yet. Encourage her to develop the self-advocacy skills needed to seek out help from her teachers so that she can finish the program she likes with the friends she has.
@happymomof1 The GC states kid is in the bottom 20%. I think an escape plan is a reasonable for a freshman in a magnet program that seems to be struggling.
Not everyone in the bottom 20% is struggling. Some of them are happy campers who like being challenged, enjoy being with their academic “peers”, like to work hard but don’t go to bed at 3 am every night due to homework.
If the D is struggling- then yes, evaluating some other options might be on the table. But if the D is engaged, learning, overall happy with her work/life balance, and not obsessing about her grades- then a few B’s is going to alter her course???
Purple Titan, I wasn’t too clear: I wrote
“ps there is no flagship in Cambridge so wondering if the Cambridge magnet program is a label and not a location-???”
So it is a type of program which is what I suspected but wanted to ask. There is an assumption that we all know what a “magnet Cambridge program” is but after all these years on CC I have never heard of it.
I think the answer really depends on what the kid wants to do. As person who had way too much work in high school, I avoided that for my kids and the ways in which they used the resulting free time got them into better schools than all that homework would have done.
Yes, sorry to not be more clear. Cambridge is a type of high school program–like PurpleTitans said, A-levels for Americans. It’s sort of similar to the International Baccalaureate program.This is a magnet public that DD applied to, and it is kind of for go-getters, which is why some Bs puts her in the bottom 20%, though I was shocked to hear it, tbh. Unfortunately her zoned public school is nothing that anyone would recommend to her–as in, a lot of kids will be struggling to pass Algebra 1 by graduation. If we lived in another part of town she’d have access to a more “typical” high school with AP classes etc but…we don’t.
I would say my DD is not especially thrilled about her grades, but not especially unhappy with them. I think she is hanging out with the less uptight crowd, such as they are. She is not a pleaser, nor a worker for the sake of work. She is socially happy in this program and has NO interested in leaving it, but counselor advised that he thinks she will be looking at Cs or worse if she stays, and dual enrollment will be easier and she will do better.
Why not try it another year and see if she actually gets C’s?
Dual-enrollment would still be an option after next year.
Though dual-enrollment is the big time, IMO. Those would be college grades, which is good news in that if she does well, she should be able to transfer in to many of the publics in her state (and possibly elsewhere). But could be bad if she gets bad grades as grad schools would want all her college transcripts.
It certainly sounds like she is capable of doing the work and understanding the material. Is the issue that she doesn’t know how to study for the harder material? Is she not turning in work? I would let her know what the GC said, but emphasize that her fate is in her own hands - she can turn it around and get As and Bs. Even if that puts her in the lower half of the class, she should still be competitive for colleges.
If the state flagship is that competitive, it may not be for her. Typically, there are other state Us that may be a good fit.
I guess I would figure out why her grades are low, it could be for so many reasons! An undiagnosed learning disability, not caring/working hard, finding the classes too difficult, whatever.
Not really sure what the issue is, to be honest. It seems to be sort of a combination of things. The family has been a little preoccupied by some issues with a live-in grandparent.
If she scores that high on the PSAT, I agree with cinnamon1212 that it would be worthwhile to address possible reasons why she is not doing as well as hoped in the magnet program.