Signed up S20 for physics SAT subject test in May.
@VickiSoCal Same here S17 is the more adventurous eater.
well, signed up my s20 to take ACT test in june. weâd like to get a âbaselineâ -
hereâs our thoughts: Our HS has a huge push for DE; If our kid has a high enough ACT and GPA, he can get a tuition scholarship to our state flagship. We know this because our 2 older kids were both offered one. (we are midwest; in a flyover state, not too exciting but affordable). DE credits count against the free credits. AP credits dont. SO . . . . We will gauge what we think his progress will be and chose between AP and DE based on this. (and compare to the other 2 ahead of him). Feeling pretty good that we know this system now; itâll probably change in the next 3 years! (and he does not have to go there ).
Have 2 kids at home now. Itâs actually great and easier! everyone will be home this summer though; theyâll eat me through the roof.
I donât know anyone at our high school who did any DE. The kids walk over to the local state uni all the time to study and use the library, but noone takes classes.
We have oldestâs schedule finalized for this summer and next year. Winter was kind of a hot mess around these parts, oldest fell apart in Honors Biology (yes, you really do have to stay on top of the reading, why are 15 year olds so very 15??? ) and will be lucky to put this class to bed in May. Just a really bad combination of poor student choices together with the teacher mismatch from you know what. We spent a lot of time just making sure oldest realized that there is a lot to learn in mistakes, even when the mistakes are large. Difficult but valuable.
Registered for 1st session of summer school to begin taking care of courses required for gradation that donât fit into the regular school schedule. 3 weeks of HomeEc (sorry, Consumer Education) to be completed this summer, 3 weeks of Health class in summer between sophomore and junior year. We took care of driverâs ed outside the school this past winter.
Sophomore yearâs schedule:
Honors English 2
AP US History
Advanced Alegrbra 2
Chemistry (taking a year off the honors track for science, weâll see how that goes)
French 4
Band 4
*lunch
*PE
Tentative Junior Year schedule:
AP Language/Composition
AP Govât/AP Econ
Advanced Trig/Pre-Calc
Physics (again, this is very tentative in terms of level)
AP French
Band 4
*lunch
*PE
Tentative Senior Year schedule:
AP Literature/Composition
AP Calc AB or AP Stats
Some upper science class - maybe AP Environmental?
AP European History or AP Music Theory
Band 4
*lunch
*PE
I was surprised the guidance counselor went through oldestâs probable 4 year plan at our schedule-planning meeting this winter. At the same time, I was very grateful and it gave us a chance to figure out where there may be breathing room and where possible opportunities for greater exploration of a subject may be available. Very happy with our guidance counselor, which was a relief as our school randomly assigns new families to guidance counselors, but then the family sticks with the same counselor for every child thereafter. We got lucky, and he has been incredibly helpful in navigating the school system for a newbie like myself.
@LKNomad, thanks for the heads up, I too saw the note about college classes taken for HS credit. Not worried about that - DD will be taking all school-required courses at school. I understand that if DD wonât get into USC (or, to be precise, wonât get accepted on a scholarship), those extra city college credits may not be accepted or used towards GE reqs at another uni, but I figure these cc classes wonât hurt and would at least give her a taste of what college-level courses might be like.
@beebee3, although the college counselor hasnât gone over the junior/senior year plan, here is what DD is planning for right now:
Summer before sophomore year:
Astronomy+Lab and Art History at city college
Sophomore:
Advanced English 2
AP Euro
Spanish 3 Honors
Pre-Calculus Honors
Chemistry
PE
Intro to Sociology (online fall at city college)
Painting 1 (spring at city college)
Junior:
Advanced English 3
AP US History
AP Spanish
AP Calculus BC
AP Bio
AP Art (if sheâs ready) or AP Psychology
Sociology (next course in series, online in the fall at city college)
Senior:
AP Language/Composition
AP Gov/International Relations
AP Statistics
AP Art or AP Psychology, depending on whatâs left
Philosophy (online at city college)
Physics - she doesnât want to, but I insist
Iâm a bit worried about her Junior year courseload, does anyone else think thatâs too much? I understand AP Psychology is a relatively easy class/test and DD loves history, but still, worried a bit 
We wonât know Dâs final schedule until the week before school starts - and seniors have first choice, and so on down the line. They have a block schedule with four classes per day. Iâm guessing sheâll definitely get her choice of core classes:
PAP English 2
PAP Pre-Cal (what a mouthful)
PAP Biology
AP World History
At least one foreign language (she signed up for two; four years of a single language are required and the other is an elective because she likes languages)
She also requested freshman art and drama I (either will satisfy a required art elective that she didnât get as an actual freshman) and several âtrueâ electives.
With eight class periods each year, I donât see the need for summer study unless sheâs begging for it, and sheâs not. Sheâll spend this summer dancing, possibly working at some part-time job, and maybe glancing through her PSAT book.
Our state counts AP and dual credits at state universities. If you take too many, you can enter as a sophomore, but you wonât be eligible for any aid or scholarships for freshmen which may make college even more costly.
D will have
AP Calculus AB
Chem honors
AP Euro
Language Arts 2 Honors
AP Comp Sci A
Japanese 3
Cross Country Fall/Swim or Track Spring, TBD on that, this year she did XC/Swim but wants to try track
I so wish our school did APSUH before APEuro. I think it is easier and more familiar ot the kids, but they do not.
@tutumom2001 - is that 8 class periods not including lunch or PE? Because our school technically has 8 periods, but students have to take PE all 4 years (no exceptions) and students can only âopt outâ of lunch junior and senior year, and that is only if they will not be able to graduate with all requirements in time without skipping lunch. Working within the constraints of only 6 class periods truly available per day greatly reduces the ability to not take summer school if you are going to have a fairly rigorous class schedule (Drivers Ed, Home Economics and Health are all requirements for graduation).
The âelectivesâ selected by my child are Foreign Language, Social Studies (yes, both considered electives in our district) and Band (oldest is a musician and outside music commitments require participation in high school music programs if available, so while it is a school elective, my childâs youth orchestras consider it a requirement).
At the risk of dating myself terribly, social studies and foreign language were both core requirements when I was in high school (along with Math, English Comp/Lit, and Science). It was shocking to me to discover that in our district, the only core classes are Math, English and Science. It continues to be mind-boggling to me.
We only have 6 periods. Lunch is separate. PE is one of those 6. That leaves only 5 academic classes.
Next year she wants to take 6, so one will be zero period (6:50 am) which I hate.
This summer she will take US Government.
I like to post in different high school threads to offer a couple of pieces of advice. If a child is struggling AT ALL, please let him or her see a counselor. Remember, life is not a race. The childâs mental health is much more important than attending an Ivy League school, or any college at all, for that matter.
Also, if you have one child diagnosed with any kind of mental illness, send the sibling(s) to a counselor for evaluation, even if you think, âLittle Sally is just fine! I canât handle another ill kid!â Well, I can tell you that my âLittle Sallyâ presented as a perfectly healthy, happy teenager, but she was in crisis. She wanted to be the ânormalâ kid because she knew we were having such a hard time with her ill brothers (yes, plural). Since she was diagnosed with severe anxiety, I have talked to other siblings of ill people, and they have ALL told me they attended counseling or wish that their parents had sent them to a therapist.
OK, thatâs my sermon for today! I just wish someone had told me these things about 8 years ago - it would have saved a lot of heartache.
@beebee3 They have 8 classes total (30 credits to graduate). Lunch is separate unto itself. Only one year of health/PE is required, but they are required to have four years of English, math, science, social studies and a language. Also, one year of art and one year of communications.
While not required, the counselors encourage kids to add at least one technology/computer class. DD ended up in this instead of the art class she wanted. 
If youâre a really ambitious kid, you can add a âZero Hourâ class, but very,very few classes are offered then and they are fairly specialized (such as the tech class that is responsible for updating and maintaining the school website).
Basically, the teachers recommend what core classes to place the kids in (level, AP, etc.) and then the kids request a list of electives.
I probably should note that there are about 3,000 students. Getting into classes such as English is no big deal as there will be seven or eight PAP classes offered. Getting into Chinese 3, Calculus BC, and Astronomy might be more difficult in the same year as they will only be offered once.
We also have almost 3000 students so usually plenty of choices and they always offer a few classes zero period.
Ds20 has 8 classes next year too; block scheduling =4/day. it works out well.
something of interest we learned last year (public non-competitive HS of 2,000): DD16 did take zero hour last year; hard year with 9 classes. We were so surprised she got all of her specialized classes that she requested. We were told half way through the school year that admin makes the entire schedule around the top 15 seniors so those kids get every class they want. We appreciated that! one reason to keep up that GPA
My kid is not going to be in the top 15 and that would really make me angry.
Her sister was around #60 and always got what she needed, even with the varsity sport always being 6th period challenge.
@tutumom2001 thanks for explaining how your school works. It sounds exactly like the school system I grew up with which makes so much more sense to me than the one at my childâs school. My childâs school requires 18 credits to graduate (22 credits if you include PE)âŠand the curriculum guide is an infuriating document that basically states over and over again - âthe school is set up to get people to graduate with the minimum state requirements in 4 yearsâŠbut if your child wants to go to a 4 year college - you have to figure out this much more difficult (scheduling wise) set of requirements on your own, and if your child wants to go to a competitive 4 year college, then here is another larger set of requirements you would need that is literally impossible to schedule at our school without using summer school at least 1 summer.â
Base requirements:
4 credits English
3 credit Math
3 credits Science
2 credits Social studies (requires US History & Govât/Econ). Unless you are in the AP track, you are only allowed to take the social studies requirements in the Junior year (US) and Senior year (Econ/Gov). If you are on AP track, you can take them starting sophomore year by recommendation only.
1 credit that can be fulfilled by either 1 year of art OR music OR foreign language
1/2 credit health
1/2 credit home ec
1/2 credit drivers ed
3 1/2 additional credits that can be any of the electives offered, or can be completed doing more Math and Science than the base level of 3 years.
@VickiSoCal we donât have zero hour classes offered at all in our district, but other school district around here have them. My friends with children in heavy hour extra-curriculars swear by the zero hour class period as most of them use it to get the PE requirement out of the âregularâ school hours.
At our school, the norm is 6 classes - 4 core (English, math, science and social science), 1 PE (required) freshman and sophomore, and 1 elective (which includes foreign language). 7th class can only be zero period performing arts - band, dance or drama. DD chose drama this year precisely because she wanted to take an earlier bus to arrive for zero period. Frankly, I am happy next year sheâs planning only 6 in-school classes.
Hey I am a student, schedule below
Honors Precalculus
AP Chemistry
Band
Spanish 2 Honors
Experimental Science Honors
English 2 Honors
@MaineLonghorn - thanks for the advice. DD has anxiety issues but so far has been able to handle it, but I can see it getting worse. I mentioned seeing a counselor and she about threw a fit. When should parents make the counseling decision?
@tutumom2001 we struggled with the âwhen to get helpâ question for most of the late fall/winter. It took stepping back from trying to âfixâ the symptoms to trying to figure out the root cause. Still working out the kinks, but I would now say I wish we had just found a counselor at the beginning before our situation blew up (and our âblow upâ was mild compared to many others).
I wish I would have done something in late fall as opposed to the âletâs wait it out and see if there is any improvementâ choice we made. If I had thought my child might have potentially broken a bone, we wouldnât have waited it out. I just wish I could have been that clear sighted in the moment with the issues oldest was having (anxiety and depression here). Forgiving myself for not always making the absolute best decision is something I am also working on.
Wishing you well, @MaineLonghorn you give lots of very wise advice.