Wow. Seven classes for all four years. That is a lot and might be pretty cool to have so many to choose from. My girls’ school is a charter and i would say in between a regular high school and home schooling. I think it will make them a little less competitive in the application process, but I wouldn’t trade their experience.
This is the first year DS19 has not had 7 classes. Finding available electives was difficult and he has exceeded all of the required classes. It was not easy to schedule his senior year .
My kid has had to take 8 classes for four years. No study halls allowed. They make the students select 8 options for electives each year (usually 2 or 3 electives/year) and my kid rarely gets any of her top choices, so her electives make her look kind of flaky.
8 classes? Yikes! I thought 7 for 4 years with a few random electives was bad enough. How long is your school day?
@LeastComplicated Are you on a block schedule ?
Yep, block schedule, four classes on alternating days. Not quite 7 hours.
Mine have 8 classes per year as well, block schedule but by semester. So four classes in the fall, and four new classes in the spring, similar to college. No study hall.
No block schedule at our HS. 7 classes a day all year.
It’s been very interesting reading about all the different school schedules/ requirements out there. No wonder admissions is such a fuzzy concept.
And my D19 technically has three study halls this semester—but that’s because she has a weird schedule with DE classes and variable times she’s actually at the high school, and so they need “classes” for her to be in when she’s there, per district rules.
At this point on day one my son has 12, read that 12 studies! His schedule is a hot mess with no solution in sight. I’m not exactly sure if we can develop a good solution as our schedule in our town seems broken.
Hmmm. I think we aren’t all talking about this the same way. When I say my son has a study this semester, I mean he has study every day. Next term he will have two studies per day. Our high school has 7 class periods per day and they have the same schedule every day.
@me29034 DS19 also has one study period everyday with. 7 class periods daily. He has the same schedule all year. DS16 had block schedule for his freshman year and we hated it.
DD has two off periods this year. She’s well over the criteria for Distinguished Graduate. I hope that’s the same as “most rigorous”
No study hall here. If you aren’t in an academic class it’s simply a free period.
6 periods is a normal schedule, 7 if you take zero period, with is limited to music and PE. My kids will have had 7 for all 4 years, with the exception of second semester senior year for S17. He dropped a class, gained a free period and kept his sanity. He needed that free period.
Technically S19 could graduate and only take 3 periods/classes. Rigor has nothing to do with the number of classes, it is the level/difficulty of classes. He will get “most”, his brother likely got “very” and did just fine.
This is why it’s so important to have a good relationship with your guidance counselor. They can make it seem like study hall is a usual thing and the kid is only taking it because no AP courses fit in that time slot, or the kid is taking it because they’re a slacker.
@eandesmom can you explain what a free period is? At our school, a student has to be in a classroom , come in late or leave early.What does a student do during a free period ?
D19 is supposed to be taking 7 classes but her schedule was messed up one day 1 (Tuesday) and she is still trying to fix. Right now they have put her in a Student Assistant class. I had no idea this was even a thing. She tried to get it fixed yesterday and the guidance counselor kicked her and said she was only dealing with kids who had an open period with no class assigned. Ugh. She just wanted to see what options she had for her current open period.
She did rearrange a few things so that she now has lunch period 6 followed by her internship periods 7 and 8. So she will be able to leave school after period 5 (noon) and go home for lunch and then onto the internship.
Finished up the College of Charleston application and submitted yesterday. Hoping to finish Pitt this week but need to have class schedule finalized.
Of course, our school does not start accepting requests for transcripts to be sent until the week on 9/17.
Our HS is also having a parents and seniors night next week to walk through the college application process (Common App, Transcripts, LOR’s, etc). Not sure we will learn much from the session.
We are trying to push D19 to complete all applications by the early action deadlines, mostly 11/1 for her current list. That would only leave Delaware to complete over the holidays.
We have 7 classes a day with no block schedule. There is a zero period as well but my D loves to sleep so that was never going to happen! This year D decided to take a free period which they call “senior privilege” - it ls last period so they get to go home early. I’m not sure what requirements you need to get this privilege. I thought she should not take it because it would look bad, but then she convinced me since she has all advanced 4 APs, 1 AICE and 1 DE class this year - with that class load as well as volunteering and college apps (and hopefully working 1-2 days a week) I figured she would be stressed enough.
@momtogkc That sounds like plenty!
What does anyone’s transcript say about the free period? I can’t imagine it harming in any way.