Hello - first time posting in here. I have an S16 and D18.
@jjkmom My H and I are also both engineers (biomedical) and neither kid is interested. S16 is going to be a nursing major. D18 has no idea. Last year she thought she was interested in PT, but she has since changed her mind. She doesn’t do much research on her own. I usually email her articles or info on careers I think she might find interesting. I’m not sure if she reads them.
lol hey @RyanG1207 good to see you joined us here too!
Thank you all for responding to me and understand my frustration. My husband is like @RyanG1207, send my DD’18 & '20 articles that might interest them, but they said they don’t have time to read them. My DD’18 is like @EGHopeful DD who self taught Korean (love Korean drama and K-pop), photographs, video editing, etc, but she doesn’t want to major anything related to her hobby, she is worried that her hobbies will turn into the job and those career doesn’t make a lot. I told her it’s the experience and passion that can go a long way, and if you enjoy what you are doing then the job is not a job! You get paid to do what you love. However, she is not convinced that she likes design cause she worries that she might not be good enough.
Another quick question, college board website said PSAT10 is coming on Feb, but I thought we just took a PSAT/NMSQT test. Anyone is taking the PSAT10? Is “10” for 10th grader? Is this like AMC10? Our HS didn’t send us anything regarding this test, should I go ask?
Oops…double post
:-h @labegg
@jjkmom yes PSAT 10 is for 10th graders and is new this year . The College Board says it’s the same difficulty level as the PSAT/NMSQT but won’t count for National Merit. Our school is really pushing it (but of course not paying for it).
I haven’t heard a thing about PSAT10, so I’m guessing it is something that’s not happening at the local HS.
I feel the stress of some of you on this thread with kids who don’t have direction yet (either in a subject area or a type of college they are interested in, etc.). Truth is, they are 10th graders and likely to change their minds multiple times. Heck, they’ll probably change majors in college a couple of times. At this point, we are just encouraging S’18 to pay attention to his interest areas and to pursue those interests through action.
And @jjkmom. I am walking a very fine line between being interested and being too involved. That’s why I come out here to vent a little. Spares my family some (I hope).
@jjkmom @dadotwoboys Our school pays for us to take the PSAT. And I know a lot of people take it as there were memes about it by the time I got back from school, even though we’re not allowed to talk about the test.
@dadotwoboys I also have a brother like that. He wants to be a video game designer but doesn’t really know where to start.
Our school does the PSAT for all 10th and 11th graders, but I have not heard anything about the PSAT10. I’m assuming because all the 10th graders just took the PSAT and that would seem like overkill.
Finals week this week for first semester classes. Four down, two to go.
Interested in hearing how many classes other schools have. When I was growing up, we had seven periods in a day. The high school here only does six. So the kids have a math, science, language, English, social studies, and one elective. Our son is taking Physics as his elective this year as he wanted to take both Physics and Chemistry before deciding which IB class to take. Our school offers HL Physics and HL Chem, which are both two years. So before deciding which science course to be invested in for two years he wanted to try each one.
He’s thinking Chem, but we’ll see! Tough choices coming up in March for course selection for junior year!
We have a meeting with his guidance counselor at school and his outside college counselor to discuss his options. He’s our first to go to college so we want to make sure we don’t make a rookie mistake!
Our large suburban high school (pop 2500) has a 7 period class day. Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Language, Elective is the usual college prep course load. The school offers most of the AP Classes. D18 is hoping they are able to fill an AP Art History class next year, It is currently available but the numbers have been dwindling. D16 took AP Music theory but the class only had 13 students so I imagine it will drop off soon. There is also an Honor/Pre-AP track and a regular Ed class. My kids tell me the number of honors classes offered next year is going to drop dramatically, ie if there is an AP English Lit class there will be no Honors English Lit class offered. so it will be AP or Regular. Our language courses are rather limited, French, Spanish, Latin, American Sign Language. (They used to offer Mandarin, Russian and German but they are phasing those out). We have dual credit, vocational training and early college (EC: you graduate with your Associates when receive your HS diploma but that is really is only available to low income/first generation/underserved). NO IB curriculum within the school district, which is unfortunate, we are definitely in an area that could use IB. School District pays for 10th grade PSAT but not 11th grade PSAT. (Go figure?)
My D16’s very typical college track went (D18’s is identical so far except she does Cheer instead of band)
8th Grade (Middle School) Count as HS credit but not counted in HS GPA
Honor Algebra I
Computer Technology
(some kids take Biology or Spanish I, my kid took band)
9th Grade
Honors Geometry
Honors English I
Honors Biology
AP Human Geography
Latin I
Marching Band/Symphonic Band
Soccer (Must take 1 year of PE)
10th Grade
Honors Algebra II
Honor English II
Honors Chemistry
AP World History
Honor Latin II
Marching Band/Symphonic Band
Speech/Concert Band (was required for D16; is not Required for D18)
11th Grade
Honors Pre Calculus
Honors Latin III
AP English Comp
AP US History
AP Physics
AP Music Theory
Marching Band/Symphonic Band
12th Grade
AP English Literature
AP Calc AB
AP Micro Econ/AP US Government
AP European History
Food Science
Floral Design (Don’s ask…it was all she could get in her schedule that didn’t conflict with Band & APs)
Marching Band/Symphonic Band
The school district requires everyone to complete math through PreCalc before taking AP Calc AB and higher maths, Honestly nobody really does above AP Calc AB at our high school unless they are mathy kids I don’t think we even offer anything above that unless you do it as an independent study… Also must do Regular/Honor Biology & Chem before allowed to take AP versions. We were late to the district in the 8th grade so D16 was not able to take Biology as an 8th grader and that set her back a bit in the sciences. There are definitely ways to game the system to have a higher GPA and we definitely made some “rookie” mistakes like not taking Honors Latin I and perhaps not taking the biology in MS but we felt band or a fine arts course was important too. I wish that D16 had taken AP Biology or Chemistry (she will probably pay for that mistake next year in college) but she was also interested in Food Science as a college major/career so we thought it important that she investigate that before spending college $$$ on something she doesn’t like. D16’s course load is AP heavy in comparison to many of her classmates most kids take 2, maybe 3 AP’s per year. D16’s GPA has taken a hit because of the heavy AP load but I firmly believe that her willingness to take the challenging course load paid off in the college application acceptances that she received. She may be a “B” student but she was willing to challenge herself and was heavily involved in band and is a varsity LAX player since 9th grade, is a member of Latin Club and Business Professional of America, NHS so I think colleges see her as a good safe bet.
D18 is following a very similar path, hoping it works out as well for her as it has for her sister, D18 definitely needs to up her extra-curriculars IMO. (Sorry for the book).
Our district has two high schools that do AP and one that does IB. We just happen to be in the boundary of the IB school. If the kids do the full IB diploma, they waive the technical arts, fine arts, PE, and Health requirements as there isn’t enough time in the school day to do it all. Our son took a year of fine arts as he wants to apply to college and a lot require a full credit in fine arts.
Our district allows pushing ahead in math and science starting in 6th grade, so by the time 8th rolls around, it is usually about 50-60% in Algebra (that is the basic track here), 30-40% in Geometry, and 10% in Algebra 2 or higher. In order to take Bio as an 8th grader, you have to be in Geometry or higher as well so that when you get to high school, you can take Chem or Physics concurrently with at least Algebra 2.
We arrived to the district too late to accelerate so our son is in the regular math track taking Algebra 2 this year. Our high school also doesn’t do honors except for LA/SS. So if you are in Algebra 2, you could be in with freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors!
Also, foreign languages aren’t required until you get to high school. They are offered as an elective in 8th grade.
Our son’s schedule looked like this in 8th:
Orchestra
Spanish 1
Honors LA
Honors SS
Algebra
8th grade Science (intro Physical Science)
Because he did both orchestra and Spanish, which are both full year electives, he had to do PE and Health on his own as s home study. PE was fine - he just recorded hours of athletics. Health was a bear, though, finishing all the readings and questions from the textbook.
In 9th he took:
Honors LA
honors SS
Orchestra
Geometry
Biology
Spanish 2
This year it is:
Honors LA
Honors SS
Spanish 3
Chemistry
Physics
Algebra 2
He is still trying to figure out his courses for next year, but because he wants to get the full IB diploma, they will be all IB courses. LOTS of work!
Interesting topic! My D has 8 classes on a 4x4 block schedule, so she has 4 classes each day which alternate on an every other day pattern. She loves it because she never has homework from a class she had that day due “the next day” and she’s only ever worrying about her classes in groups, her A day group and her B day group. It also frees more time for electives.
Her school is also an IB school and their science HL is Biology, which she plans to take. Interestingly, she was required to take both bio and chem prior to starting that course next year, so it surprised me to see that your son’s school didn’t have a similar requirement @RoonilWazlib99 …
They do course selections sometime next month, she’s planning to do the full IB diploma but we aren’t 100% sure which courses she’ll do for her HLs and SLs, the IB coordinator at her school is going to be giving presentations to all the 10th grade English classes to give them information in then next week or so. I’m waiting to see what my D has to say after that.
We also have 2 years of required PE, and in 9th grade, if you take the athletic period PE, that doesn’t count for your PE class, so last year she had 2 PEs (both on the same day). 10th graders are allowed to use athletics period for PE credit however, so she had a period freed up which she used to double up on science (bio and chem, she took physics 9th grade). Otherwise, she’s got math, english, spanish, history, and art. Same as last year(with topical variations of course 
).
@1822mom - I’m surprised they only have one HL science available for the whole IB program. Our school has
Biology HL
Physics HL
Chemistry SL
Chemistry HL
Environmental Systems SL
Exercise Science SL
Computer Science SL
Computer Science HL
That’s four HL programs. What if you have a child who isn’t interested in Biology? That seems really rough to have them required to take two years of a science they aren’t interested in just to do the IB diploma. 
The only requirements for taking IB classes are for math - you need to have the prerequisites for whichever math program you choose. Our school offers Math HL, Math SL, and Math Studies, so there really is something for everyone. The have “suggested” course prep for the other classes, it’s just not required. For example, they strongly encourage you to take Honors LA/SS for freshman and sophomore year to be ready for the writing and analysis required in IB courses. They also highly encourage that you have taken at least one lab science before an IB lab science, but they aren’t picky about which one.
They really encourage everyone in the school to at least choose one IB class to take to just get the certificate for the course, but only about 40% of the kids are enrolled in at least one class. Usually about 10% of each class graduates with the full diploma, so about 60 kids.
All the IB courses offered at our school are:
World Languages
Spanish SL
Spanish HL
French SL
French HL
Japanese SL
Mandarin Chinese ab initio SL
Mandarin Chinese SL
Mandarin Chinese HL
Humanities
English HL
History of the Americas HL
Mathematics
Mathematics HL
Mathematics SL
Math Studies SL
Sciences
Biology HL
Physics HL
Chemistry SL
Chemistry HL
Environmental Systems SL
Exercise Science SL
Computer Science SL
Computer Science HL
NOTE: IB Chemistry and IB Physics are extremely challenging and fast-paced algebra-based classes.
Electives
Psychology SL
Psychology HL
Business & Management SL
Business & Management HL
World Religions SL
Visual Arts SL
Music SL
Music HL
Theater SL
Theater HL
Film SL
Theory of Knowledge
For those not familiar with IB, HL is High Level and SL is Standard Level. HL courses are two years in length and SL are one year. Except for Math - Math HL is three years, Math SL is two years, and Math Studies SL is one year. To earn an IB diploma, students need either 3 HL and 3 SL courses, OR 4 HL and 2 SL courses. The courses need to be in the six different groups (Experimental Sciences, Native Language, Acquired Language, Individuals and Societies, Mathematics, and The Arts). In addition, they need to complete 150 CAS hours (Creativity, Action, and Service) starting Junior Fall through March of Senior year. Fifty hours in each area.
This is interesting! At D18’s school, students can either be on a full block or a modified block schedule. Either way, it’s 8 classes per school year. A full block is (4) 1 1/2 hour classes per semester each semester, for 8 full credits. Most classes except APs and some honors are taught as block classes. A modified block schedule is 2 full year courses and 6 blocks, or 4 full year courses and 4 blocks. The full year courses are called “singletons” and are always in pairs - either 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. To make it even more confusing, each student’s school start and end time varies according to whether they have morning or afternoon block or singleton classes. Her schedule thus far (and projected) is:
9th
Honors English 9
Honors Bio 1
Honors Alg 2
Honors Chem 1
French 1
French 2
Wellness
Drawing
10th
Honors English 10
Honors precal and trig
Honors Chem 2
AP Chem
Honors French 3
Honors French 4
Honors Am Gov’t
Wellness 2
11th
AP Physics 1
AP Analytical Geometry & Calc (can take Calc ab test after this class but most wait until after 12th and just take the bc test)
AP statistics
AP French 5
AP Eng Language
AP Euro
Advanced Drawing
Anatomy & physiology
12th
AP Calc BC
AP English lit
Either AP physics c or
Honors Bio 2 + AP Bio
AP US History
Honors Philosophy
Honors Econ & personal finance
Elective tbd
Elective tbd
That sounds so confusing, @jcc! Is the block schedule what allows them to finish an entire year of foreign language study in one semester? You certainly have room for a lot of classes! It is so interesting that school districts operate so differently, to the point that your daughter will have taken 32 discrete courses during her four years, whereas my son will have taken 20 due to having only six periods and that some of his courses will be two years in length!
@RoonilWazlib99 our school is smaller than yours by about half or more, and the IB program is less than 10 years old. They also encourage all students to try at least one IB course. I think they get typically a pretty good number of juniors signing on, but I cannot say what % actually make it through, 10% seem reasonable, so for us that would be 25-30 kids.
For science, I meant Bio is our only HL. We have Bio for HL and Environmental Systems SL, and I heard a rumor they may be adding physics next year, not sure what level though. My D hated physics so it’s irrelevant for us. They also have a Design Tech SL class, not sure what category it falls into though.
We also have English HL and History of the Americas HL. Psych HL & SL, Business is an SL I think. For Math we just have SLs, both Math and Math Studies. Languages are French SL, Spanish SL & HL and I think they will be adding Mandarin next year or the year after. For Arts we have Visual Arts SL & HL and Film HL.
So we don’t have a huge array to choose from but it is enough to build a path. For my D, the biggest question mark is will she choose the HL History course. It’s reputed to be very challenging. I think she could handle it, but history this year has been the class that has caused the most meltdowns and tears (all unwarranted). I know she is going to want me to tell her what to do, but I am going to give her the reigns a little more on this one. There are no bad choices, she needs to decide what will work for her. It’s such a small thing, like 2 classes I think, but I have a feeling it’s going to feel enormous to her.
That’s a tough one! Our school requires all diploma candidates to take IB American Studies as juniors and then they have the option of continuing on with the second year of HL or doing a different SL humanities course.
I also forgot that our school started the IB Career program of study this year as well. It’s not something our oldest will do, but we might look into it for our other guy.
We will go to the IB info night (again) in a couple weeks. They have a good overview of the program and do a panel discussion with current IB students. We have gone for the past two years, but our son wants to go again as he now has a few questions for the students!
Anyone having their 10th grader bombarded by colleges? My son didn’t do that great on the PSAT, and he even just got a Brown Pre-college Summer Program email. He is in only one honors class, so I don’t know why they targeted him.
His HS has 8 periods per day, but since band, choir, or orchestra is a period and gym is mandatory during the day, he really doesn’t have too many spots left for electives. They also screw special needs kids out of a period for “study skills” though most don’t need it, and it is no grade.
I don’t know off-hand of any IB schools in New Jersey. AP seems very common.
And based on post #773, I don’t know why any high-ranked college would give my son the time of day.
@rhandco - yep. We didn’t hear until AFTER the PSAT the advice to register with a separate college email. So he is trying to wade through all the solicitations to find his regular emails.
The regular mail has been a bit slower, but he still gets several mailers each week from different schools ranging from University of Oregon to Johns Hopkins. He dismisses most of them, but does like to see which ones specifically mention his PSAT score as the reason they are sending something.
Only the ones from Johns Hopkins have changed his mind. He didn’t have them on his list of colleges until the third mailer, which profiled their Baja Team and then he did more research and added them to his college tour list in April.
yes! In the last two day ds has gotten snail mail from SMU, Wake Forest, Fordham, Washington and Lee, Reed and RIT. It seems just as the college mail for dd16 is slowing the mail for ds18 is picking up! He says he gets a bunch of emails too. He used a tagged email address for the college board so I’m going to show him how to set a filter so it won’t go into his personal email.