<p>OMGoodness beadymom! I shouldn’t laugh!! My nephew goes to school there and they had a lousy football season so they need good recruits. Find mom!! :)</p>
<p>blueiguana … I’ve looked. And the only one that I’ve found (I’m sure there are others though!) that states “biology, chemistry & physics” is Harvard. And since she has no desire to go to Harvard, we might be good. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve mostly seen something similar to “3 years of science, w/ at least two being labratory”. (Unless the desired major is engineering - and then physics & chemistry would be the requirements.)</p>
<p>So … is she good on paper for the schools that she has in her sights? Probably. Could the lack of physics do her in? Possibly. </p>
<p>We’re making the rounds during spring break - and that would be a good in person, one on one question for an adcom. I think I’ll ask or it will drive me nuts.</p>
<p>I wish they didn’t sign up for classes so early. If they could sign up after a few more visits, they might make different choices. (Of course, since many, many kids change majors, in the end it may not matter one bit.) Physics in high school might make college physics easier, but who wants to endure a year of whining about the class? I’d say don’t sweat it. But since I can’t get my kid to consider any colleges right now, we have no worries about what her top picks want or don’t want. Maybe after this ACT score comes back she’ll light herself a fire.</p>
<p>New topic (for me anyway). Our school is moving to block scheduling, so d now has 8 periods to fill instead of 7, and she will fill all 8 in an effort to avoid PE. I hate the idea of block scheduling. We don’t make college kids sit through 90 minute periods for each class every day. Yeah, heck of good idea for the high school population. But I digress. Our school has very few weighted courses, so nobody can fill a schedule with them. Still, with 8 classes, d is giong to be dragging down her GPA compared with the kids who take just 6. Not worried about it from an admissions perspective, but there’s a very large, renewable local scholarship awarded to highest ranking schools going to in-state privates. Next year, the district has a new weighting system that gives a bump for full schedule to off-set the strategy of fewer classes but most of them weighted.</p>
<p>ordinarylives “I wish they didn’t sign up for classes so early. If they could sign up after a few more visits, they might make different choices”</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly agree!! </p>
<p>And honestly, her IB counselor had been pushing her to take his Physics class - which I suspect is a BIG part of the reason DD14 doesn’t want to take it. (She LOVES science … loves it.) We have had nothing but issues with him overall. </p>
<p>Very early in her high school career, she told him she wanted to go to an Ivy League school. He actually snickered and rolled his eyes. Earlier this year she told him she wanted to try and have room for this Psych class - the kids all lead each other around blindfolded all day as one of the assignments. It would’ve been the only high school class she took for pure enjoyment her entire high school career - he laughed and said the class was a waste of time. And yesterday he tried to talk her own of Music Theory because “it was out of her league”. Uh, the kid is a classically trained pianist and plays Chopin for fun … she’s been playing since she was 6. </p>
<p>God, I hate that guy.</p>
<p>Sorry … I should’ve warned everyone that I was venting again. :)</p>
<p>D’s gc is a whole 'nother kind of bad. D gets no guidance at all. She walks in with a list of classes and he says “OK” no matter what’s on it.</p>
<p>Popping in from the HS Classes of 2010 & 2013, to let y’all know that College Board has posted the state summaries from the October 2012 PSATs. If you’re thinking that your kiddo may be close or above the National Merit historical cutoff for your state, you can compare a few years of state summaries to see how the numbers look this year: [College-Bound</a> Juniors & Sophomores | Research and Development](<a href=“http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/psat/data/cb-jr]College-Bound”>SAT Suite of Assessments – Reports | College Board) </p>
<p>I posted some details of how us data dorks parsed the numbers last year, in the National Merit forum under Financial Aid & Scholarships.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Although our kids are asked to sign up for classes fairly early, schedules are not set in stone until school begins, so if your kids have a change of heart, find out if it’s possible to change their requested classes. I bet it is!</p>
<p>^ That’s VERY nice. Ours are set in late May. S3 asked for a change in early August and was told no dice. 
It’s making a mess of his schedule next year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, RobD!</p>
<p>The flip side, blue, is that a lot of combinations are just not possible. Only one section of most AP classes and if you’re off the “standard” sequence it becomes even messier. I am praying that the AP classes my kid “needs” for next year will not conflict with one another. They will let him take them online if necessary, but that’s not a great modality for my DS, and he wants AP Chem and AP Bio which aren’t well suited to taking online. I think he’s going to have to take Calc BC online anyhow (our school doesn’t normally offer it). If anyone knows of a GOOD online Calc BC program, let me know. He’s in AB now, so he really just needs the course to maybe review AB quickly and then teach the additional BC materials.</p>
<p>I absolutely get you MMVt. On his projected schedule we have the number of times the class is offered/day this year so we can get an idea of likelihood of a conflict (I even looked at the blocks as I know they often don’t change…I know, I have no life!). We were actually praying FOR a schedule conflict this year as the class he wanted to take was his alternate if there was a conflict.</p>
<p>MMVt - I’ve heard good things about Stanford’s online program. You can take just one class
<a href=“http://epgy.stanford.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://epgy.stanford.edu</a></p>
<p>good luck! When will he find out? I’m not sure when schedules will be set in our district. Last year it wasn’t until July.</p>
<p>Our kids schedules aren’t released until days before school starts in late August/early Sept. Nice, huh. It doesn’t give you any time to register them at the local cc if something doesn’t work out, make other plans, anything. Good luck to you as well! I hope you find an online program that works for you. We have Virtual Virginia offering APs but the online format as you said is not great for several subjects and it’s during the school year. S3 took Geometry that way second semester freshman year. He did get an A but it was not a format he enjoyed at all. He feeds of interaction with a teacher and classmates. If they offered Virtual Virginia in the summer I think students would take advantage of that to get courses but also be able to participate in things like band or chorus that require a class during the school year. It’s difficult because they have to choose.</p>
<p>blueiguana: Virtual Virginia offers classes every summer. It’s a matter of the schools deciding if they want to pay someone to run the program during the summer months. I worked with VVA as a school mentor for many years. It is a great program, and there was so interest in summer classes at my previous school, but the budget was not there to allow me to work during the break.</p>
<p>We have both problems. Most seniors take one math, calc, calc II, or AP stat. D wanted something lighter in her schedule so she’s taking 2, AP stat and calc II. This year, they’re offered in the same period. And, like blueiguana, we won’t know if there’s a conflict until August when school starts. She signs up for courses in January, but there’s no notification of any conflict until right before the year starts.</p>
<p>It happened freshman year. That’s how she wound up in culinary arts (had to fill the schedule to avoid PE, you know). Bad because she couldn’t get 4 years of the class she wanted, but dang, if that wasn’t the best class ever–super useful.</p>
<p>EPGY is an interesting idea because he could start it in August when he would otherwise be doing nothing useful… Although completing the course early in the year is kind of bad given that the AP exam is only in May, it would give him a grade in a class he’ll probably do well in, in time for his college apps…</p>
<p>DD submitted her schedule for next year today and then decided maybe she doesn’t want to take AP Calc. Problem being, as others have mentioned, the regular level Calc class is only available at the same time as AP Gov (also only given during one period a day). No now she may drop a math altogether and take something else, if they’ll let her. Is it a big deal to start college without Calculus? </p>
<p>Also, can anyone tell me about Towson University? If so, is it just me or are there really no merit scholarships? Seems like a plethora of small amounts and most of which are for Baltimore area students.</p>
<p>MomQs – unless she wants to study math or engineering, I don’t think not having calculus is a big deal, but not having 4 years of math may well be. Can she take AP Stats or another “elective” math course? (Even if she did want to study math or engineering, not having calculus wouldn’t be the end of the world, but not having 4 years of math would be a definite problem.)</p>
<p>MathMom, she will have 4 years of math: Hons. Algebra I, Hons. Algebra II and Geometry (dual class sophomore year), and Pre-Calc this year. She has heard really bad things about the Stats & Prob teacher and is trying to avoid that class. </p>
<p>She still hasn’t decided definitively what she’s going to do, but I just thought I’d reach out and ask. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t apply to/go to college, so I’m really running blind in this whole process. </p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for tolerating my many basic level questions.</p>
<p>If she has 4 years of math, she’s probably fine.</p>