@CA1543, taking AP lit will not give more AP credit. I would let him take what he likes, same with robotics class instead of Chinese 5. His schedule looks plenty rigorous. Don’t worry about AP chem, it’s best to take intro chem in college with other demanding engineering classes he will take.
@CA1543 The answer to those questions really depend on where he plans on applying. I think elite schools might question the drop in Enlish level, but probably not the Chinese. Your high merit schools probably wouldn’t care about either. Schools like GA Tech, harder call about the English. I’m not sure. I do not thin any of them would question dropping Chinese for robotics.
@mommdc It depends on the school. A 4+ on both gives 9 credits vs 6 at Bama. http://courseleaf.ua.edu/introduction/academicpolicies/creditbyexamination/#advancedplacementaptext
I would love insight of other parents. We moved from MN to NC just before DD’s junior year (we are from this area, so a good move). Because of a vast management restructuring, hubby is getting transferred again, this time to GA, where I grew up.
DD will have completed 11 AP courses by the end of this year and actually has the credits to graduate now. I have spoken with several of the colleges she is looking at, and graduating a year early is not a good idea. That said, we don’t want her to have to transfer again and deal with different graduation requirements, trying to connect with new teachers, etc. I will be honest, she doesn’t really like her current school, but at least it’s “known”. We have decided that she will finish school in NC fall semester.
All of that to ask your thoughts about next year. She had been planning on maintaining a fairly rigorous schedule, though she is running out of classes to take. Unfortunately with us moving, she won’t be able to take any AP classes. They are on a block schedule, so she will take four one credit classes. We are worried that her lack of rigor during her last semester will reflect poorly, especially if she makes NMSF, but there really are no other options. There are a couple of Honors level classes that she is looking at, as well as Photography 2. Would love to hear others thoughts on this.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, I did not know that. I thought either AP lit or AP lang with 4 or 5 gave a maximum of 6 credits.
@disshar It might be out of your comfort zone, but if I were you, I would pull her out of school and homeschool her sr yr. she could then DE at local CCs or universities. I know homeschoolers who have DEed at GATech. Then she be a GA high school grad and instate there.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek she was actually homeschooled for 4 years when she was younger. Definitely not out of our comfort zone, but not an option. I have already talked to GA schools, etc and DE deadlines are well before we could get moved there. DD is a finalist for governors school, which plays into all of this. She also doesn’t care about any of the GA schools. Her dad went to Tech and she is not interested. She actually has DE as an option here, but the class options are basically everything she will have AP credit for or things she won’t need (i.e. Econ).
The great thing about graduating after fall is that she can shadow and volunteer in the spring (she will be pre-med) and rest her body (she has some medical issues) before heading to college.
Are you ok with no instate options bc it sound like that might be her reality. If you move after August, she could be OOS at all schools.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek absolutely! She wasn’t looking at any instate here either. She is wanting a very specific major and she feels like she should get a good amount of merit aid (which she already knows she is guaranteed at a few schools), so we are letting her run with that. She really is not a fan of any of the NC state schools and Tech is great, but she is not a city girl, so we have accepted what she wants.
@disshar Great! We move a lot and making sure we have an instate option has always been a concern for us. Glad she doesn’t have to worry about that.
@disshar in thinking about it some more, if she knows what schools she wants to apply to, I would have zero qualms about calling as a parent and talking to an admissions officer directly myself. It is a non-traditional,situation and you would be acting like a GC requesting info for a student. Definitely not out of bounds.
@CA1543 My son’s GC told them that colleges prefer to see “regular” English 12 over something like Debate or Creative Writing for Sr. Year English if they aren’t going to do AP Lit. S17 had very much the same debate, is in AP Lang now and was planning on not taking AP Lit. He really wanted to take the Creative Writing class and was steered away by his GC. Who does little to nothing as best I can tell and made a general class statement versus something specific for my child.
That said, on the last day when it was time to turn in the registration…he changed to AP Lit anyway. Which I suspect had little or nothing to do with the AP and potential credit aspect (for his schools many are credit for one or the other but a couple did offer credit for each @ 4+) but more to do with the teacher who offers it and the fact that really it is where all his friends with me and he would be bored out of his mind in the basic class.
@2muchquan that makes sense, I didn’t get the sense from your original post that she was restricting her search to just that single field. While the M-B can be interesting, if you look at the careers for all, you’ll find many of them showing up under every personality type. It can be interesting for brainstorming and generating conversation but I wouldn’t put all that much stock in it. Either way though, a broad base college with options and a strong STEM program would seem to be a good baseline for her. Our D15 was somewhat the same and had us quite concerned when she chose Cal Poly as that required her to declare at application. Luckily her major has given her the flexibility she needed to choose from a variety of paths…including going down the eventual medical research path which is where she seems to be leaning at the moment. She will declare her concentration over the summer and it will be interesting to see where she goes with it but it was a great fit for being focused enough (Biological Sciences) but broad enough at the start, to let her explore. A good thing too since she started out interested in Wildlife and Marine!
General question for all on the GC letter. In looking at my schools information provided to date they ask for 2 teacher letters but there is no mention of a GC one at all. I’d have to go back and look but don’t recall seeing that specifically asked for at any of the schools, it is more of a general LOR teacher or counselor requests, not a specific GC request. Am I missing something?
@eandesmom The GC is responsible for uploading their transcripts, the school profile, and providing an assessment of the students course load compared to the other students in the school. This is part of the common app. I think it is pretty standard.
Thanks to all who have responded to my questions about courses next yea (AP Lit vs. other English and Chinese 5 vs. Robotics – he’ll be happy to take Robotics over Chinese!). I am very grateful to you as it is very helpful as always to get your insights and help us think about this from a number of perspectives. For English we do not have a regular full year English lit or lit & writing - there are several semester long courses - College Writing, Creative writing and a variety of other classes – so I do worry he might be a bit bored & not do the level of reading he should in those classes. Decisions, decisions - but he can change classes in Sept/Oct. if he really wants to so that’s good in case he chooses AP Lit but doesn’t thrive in it. 
@CA1543 Ah, I see—big difference between 2 semester-long classes and AP Lit! My older dd was able to take a post-AP English class called Creative and Criticial Writing at her high school. She’s currently a junior English-French major.
@CA1543 FWIW, my DS opted out of AP Lit in his senior year. With college applications, scholarship applications , and all the other work involved with senior year, he just didn’t want to be burdened with a heavy reading workload. He satisfied his college’s composition classes with AP Lang and wouldn’t have gotten any “useful” credit out of AP Lit anyway. It was a good decision.
Thanks @Mom2aphysicsgeek only 2 of his schools are on the common app but I imagine the others have similar requirements that the GC uploads.
@CA1543 I don’t think it’s bad for kids with a heavy course load to have a few boring ones in there to balance it out, especially 2nd semester. We also have some semester long options but those were downplayed more than the 2 yearlong ones. I am surprised there isn’t one yearlong option for your son but it could make a more interesting set of options with 2 semester classes anyway. I had joked with my son that he’d end up changing to AP anyway, I just expected him to do it a little later than he did.
For those asking about counselor recs, at our school, which uses Naviance, the kids get 2 teacher LORs and the counselor and school director (not called principal) split the kids up based on who they know best to write the 3rd letter. That is the one where they talk about rigor of classes, etc. The school also uploads the school profile which has some of the same info the counselor/director talk about. They also talk about the specific kid in that letter, so it is part LOR and part school info.
Just returned from our meeting with D’s HS GC. She spent over an hour and fifteen minutes with us because luckily the kid after us did not show up. We talked through a BUNCH of stuff, some was not what I was expecting. Like how you would have to shave your legs more if you go to a Southern school. But, actually, it was a really good meeting, and I am positive D will get a glowing LOR…at least from her GC. Thanks to those who helped me come up with some questions.
She offered help my D practice interviewing, which would be nice just in case. She also will be happy to review essays. She said the new essay prompts for the CA usually come out around spring break. I didn’t think they came out until the CA opened up, so that’s interesting.
She obviously knows her way around Naviance, so that’s nice. She’s not a huge help in picking schools, but I think she knows we have that part of things covered? She did suggest a couple that we will look at.
I didn’t mention that I frequent CC I think I’ve heard that the admissions and counseling folks think we’re all crazy.
@CA1543 - we were at UVA Friday and someone asked that very same English question. The admissions dean said they take rigor into account very much and so do many selective universities and to take AP classes (in general) over dual enrollment etc. every time to demonstrate rigor (if you can be successful). I have also heard admissions deans say that they are looking for a great general education (i.e. core classes over specific classes) because once you get to university you can specialize so although I have no opinion on 4 vs. 5 years of a language - Chinese would be > rigor than robotics.
This is my .02 based on absolutely nothing but my s17’s school’s worldview but if your ds is looking to selective universities I would think ap lit and Chinese would be better than college comp and robotics. Robotics is purely an ec at my s17’s school though. I also get the painful part too - why take a class that is miserable especially in what is really a special (senior) year?! If you think your s17 won’t do well or try because its too painful, then I would definitely take that into consideration. Good luck as you figure all this out. I’m thankful my s17 has finalized his classes and that’s one more thing off the “to do” list.