Maybe schools would be doing society a favor by not having too many AP classes and setting the bar to impossible. It’s no wonder kids are so stressed out and anxious these days. They are always having to fill their time with a school’s requirements to be perfect, that they don’t get to enjoy life.
My D is not actually having this pressure, because it doesn’t exist in her school system. She actually has very little time during school for anything besides homework and her chosen activities, and the days are very long, and she is also anxious for her grades, but I would hate to see what would happen to her if I told her she had to take 5 AP classes (basically going to college before you are in college? I am not familiar with them at all), or she won’t be rigorous enough with herself. The world has gone mad. Can’t we just offer kids challenging work without labeling it?
Where we are, what counts most are the teacher comments about your child as a student. This answers the question of are they good students: do they think critically, do they organize themselves well, are they bringing anything to the classroom?
I’m not sure what there is to disagree with my statement…I did tell the student to speak with their HS GC, and it is also true that some schools’ GCs have stopped checking the level of rigor box, including my kids’ highly ranked large public HS.
Part of the reason our HS stopped checking the box is that the AOs have the school profile, which gives them everything they need to analyze transcripts.
Other reasons include the fact that checking this box can ultimately hurt the students in admissions, as well as increase their stress levels/create an arms race environment——same reasons the HS stated when they stopped assigning class rank over a decade ago.
Of course YMMV, which is why I suggested OP talk with their GC.
My child went to one of the top NYC 6-12 schools, while they did not offer a lot of APs(maybe 7), they did offer AP Spanish Language and Culture and AP Spanish literature and culture. I understand the NYCDOE is a whole different animal when it comes to high school.
Every NYC DOE high school is partnered with CUNY so that students can take free college courses through the CUNY system. What she lacked in AP courses, she picked up in College Now and College Courses at NYU and Barnard (which her HS had a partnership with. Did not hurt her as she was accepted everywhere she applied. The sad thing is as someone else upthread mentioned is that some AP courses do not have the depth and breadth of a college course.
D did apply to some of the schools on OP’s list. IIRC, Tufts has a major FL requirement for graduation along with Barnard and Dartmouth (who prides themselves on languages). I agree with the recommendation of checking out the FL requirement at the colleges and have a conversation with the GC.
Mwfan1921, I really appreciated your advice to talk to my daughter’s GC. She confirmed that dropping her 4th year of French will not affect her rating of my daughter’s very rigorous selection of courses. My daughter and I are still talking about whether or not she signs up for French 4 at her community college this spring or whether we do one of the private language instruction programs that her high school accepts for credit. But–I’m extremely glad she doesn’t have a 7th class right now. The start of school has been pretty aggressive for her, with 5 AP classes (Chemistry, Econ, Calculus, Lit, Art History, along with her role as Editor on her school paper, which is her 6th class). We will decide before she submits her early applications in October. Anyway–thanks for that advice. It was reassuring to hear from D22’s GC that her course selection is highly rigorous based on the offerings at the school.
That is good news, and should take pressure off her first semester. Good luck thru the rest of the process.
My daughter took AP Art History and loved it. Her favorite AP course. She struggled through French and still struggles through, because some was online (transferred schools and new school didn’t offer it), different systems. She completed through Level 201 in college and didn’t enjoy it. She’s now in grad school and can either start a new language or finish french. I think she’s going to spend a summer session in France and then take the test. Her teachers tell her the test option is easier than taking Level 202 or higher.
My son was accepted to a top LAC without a 4th year of foreign language. At our high school the 4th year is usually taken by native speakers, which means for the non-native speakers it is incredibly difficult to get a good grade, so most of them don’t take it which to me is sad!
If the high school has that many native or heritage speakers of that language, why doesn’t it create a “[Language] for heritage speakers” course for them, while keeping “[Language] 4” for those who are not native or heritage speakers who completed level 3?
2 posts were split to a new thread: Self studying foreign language for admissions
Excellent suggestion but this is a public high school that always seems to have budget issues!