<p>I emailed D’s GC and she replied that even if the state 4th year requirement goes into effect next school year, our District will keep it. Of course they will keep it for next year…kids will have signed up for their classes already. Really, a 4th year would be easier to handle if they offered classes that weren’t on the State List as the Classes That Count. One semester courses would make sense…Nutrition and/or Food Science, Geology, shorter versions of Anatomy, Environmental, etc. Also, so many students love AP Psych - a course combining Psych with the scientific method would be interesting.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to everyone for their thoughts!</p>
<p>I agree that going with the best teacher, or at least avoiding the worst teacher, is good advice. There are Rate Teacher sites that might help you there, though you have to read between the lines for bias. Another approach is to find out which class is more math heavy (e.g. Astronomy) vrs. more written answers.</p>
<p>Just looking at the subjects on their own, and if her interest level is flat, I would push the Anatomy (memorization heavy?) or Forensics (more analytical, I would hope anyway) or Astronomy (endlessly huge subject).</p>
<p>We’re in Texas too, and DS '13 is the product of the “4x4” monster. In this, his senior year, he is taking AP Chem plus Forensic Science, so he’ll graduate with five sciences.</p>
<p>Ours is a huge, competitive HS in an affluent Dallas suburb, which has grown so rapidly that many gaps in the course offerings still remain unaddressed. For many of the “broadening” electives, a student would have to take a course at a campus across town, really not feasible with nine 45-minute classes a day.</p>
<p>In order to accomplish the 4x4 requirements, Texas kids start knocking out all the OTHER requirements dreamed up by the Texas legislature (hey, they’re part-timers who meet every two years!) while in middle school - mostly language, technology, algebra I. We discovered this year that while these middle school courses and grades appear on the HS transcript, colleges don’t count them when recalculating GPA.</p>
<p>Also just became aware that even a 4 or 5 in AP Chem is not considered a true equivalent for introductory chemistry courses for a science major within the department, even if the credit is granted by the college (thus avoiding the terrifyingly huge intro classes at the public schools!)</p>
<p>The good news, I guess, is that DS scored a 36 on the science portion of his ACT, so maybe all that science delivers at least one benefit.</p>
<p>Oh, and that Distinguished track stuff? Of the two benefits I can see, only one is for the student. </p>
<p>DS’ counselor did include the phrase “is on track to graduate on the Distinguished plan” etc etc in writing an explanation of some grade spottiness, and he said that it is helpful in making the case for rigor when needed.</p>
<p>Mostly, though, IMO that distinguished track is nothing more than a means of planning and budgeting for class size and teacher head count.</p>
<p>One last point: DS has really enjoyed the Forensic Science course, but for some odd reasons. Not enough textbooks according to the teacher, so she’s decided never any homework AT ALL, labs only. Except for burying the chicken (grocery store bird) and digging it up several times throughout the year, with photos, weights and other data.</p>
<p>And of course, knocking out the language requirement in 8th, 9th and 10th grades is ridiculous because when they take the college language placement test, they haven’t taken the language for two years, so they are back to 101 or maybe 102. (Yes, my kids did it, too…everyone does… but it’s still a bad idea.)</p>
<p>And for those out of Texas who think we may be shirking Science, the class that the “pre-AP” students take in 8th grade is actually a 10th grade science class for which they used to receive HS credit. They stopped giving the HS credit for it unless the student takes it in HS, but it’s still the same class. (So the students who graduated a few years ago got their 4 years in in 8th-11th grades.) The current group will actually have had 5 years.</p>
<p>I heard last night that Astronomy is crazy easy. I guess that’s what you have to do when the real science brains are taking one of the AP Physics classes.</p>
<p>onesonmom - in Texas, the Distinguished track or the Recommended track is a “tick in the box” for level of college readiness proven as far as course work taken.</p>
<p>So the university doesn’t have to dig as deep to answer the “rigor” question.</p>
<p>It’s just an accepted standard. Not having that tick can get you thrown from the “automatic admit” column to the “holistic review” column - which is sometimes a sad sad column to be in.</p>
<p>Missypie, foreign language?</p>
<p>What about foreign language? I hope you don’t expect me to answer in a foreign language because my retention level is close to 0. If I had to move to a country where I coudln’t get by in English I’d have to clean hotel rooms, if they’d have me.</p>
<p>So true! cromette, our experience has been mixed, to be honest. For many of DS’ admissions at OOS public schools, I was glad he’d had the 4X4 and the third year of a language. As it turns out, he may be able to test out the foreign language requirement at the LAC he’ll likely attend, since the requirement is at the third year HS level.</p>
<p>“And of course, knocking out the language requirement in 8th, 9th and 10th grades is ridiculous because when they take the college language placement test, they haven’t taken the language for two years, so they are back to 101 or maybe 102. (Yes, my kids did it, too…everyone does… but it’s still a bad idea.)”</p>
<p>LOL - onesonmom - when D2’s college looked at her transcript, they were really impressed with her foreign language because she had taken 2 semesters of sophomore Spanish already. She HAD to in order to meet the 4 X 4 requirements and stay in choir. Her schedule wouldn’t work any other way. She had to take her 3rd year of foreign language at the community college.</p>
<p>They said she was really close to having a Spanish minor. She just laughed and said, “That’s ridiculous! I won’t do that, I don’t speak Spanish!” LOL She really struggled for those 2 semesters and she didn’t figure it would be wise to advance from that starting point.</p>
<p>cromette, so funny! Similarly, DS said he struggled to keep a straight face when in an interview he was complimented on having taken American Sign Language I as a freshman, and then been “ambitious” enough to go on to French I, II and III. That ASL was his worst nightmare of a teacher, and he couldn’t get away from it fast enough. I was just proud that he didn’t do what one of his classmates did: cite an imaginary deaf friend for whom he’d taken the course, hah!</p>
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<p>Marian, CC is full of very smart people, many of whom have vastly different careers and life experiences than my own. I want to (attempt to) keep an open mind, giving the intelligent folks here an opportunity to persuade me that a 4th year of science is important. </p>
<p>I actually have come around a bit on Math. The Pie family is quite deficient in math genes, but D will take a math class her senior year, even though it’s not technically required (because 8th grade Algebra counts as one of the 4 years.)</p>
<p>missypie, from the hard-won perspective of post-ACT, post-applications, and (mostly) post-acceptances, I can offer you this: interest, plans and priorities change during the college search. I did not realize when we started (Hendrix vs University of Arkansas, University of Oregon and on and on) how useful that “college readiness” measure would be with so many colleges, and (as cromette mentioned) in just a few website visits especially to western state public flagships it was clear that the difference can be automatic versus ? admissions. For a kid like mine, I do think it helped balance the 3.25 UW GPA, especially when combined with how well he did on the ACT science portion.</p>