This is all so interesting to see. My dd’s schedule is not set but looking like
Geometry
Lang art ( preAP)
French 2
AP psych
Culinary arts
Theater
I am not sure she will take science as she has a science from 8th grade but we will see .
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Our school finishes the first week of June. I think scheduling happens in February. Students get their schedules for next years the day before school starts. Actually this year they got their schedules the morning of!
Technically you are only allowed to change things if you made a sport team or got assigned the wrong class. There is a few weeks window where you can level down but no one is allowed to level up. We never had to make changes for my D21 so I hope things go smoothly with S25.
I wasn’t involved with my daughter’s scheduling at all. She was very on top of things and also had strong feelings about how she wanted it be so I just let her have ownership of it.
I did learn a lot about different scheduling pathways based on regrets my daughter had and also getting to know one of the counselors there. It will definitely help my son when mapping out his next few years. I appreciate the knowledge for sure. I’m glad it was my daughter who was the guinea pig.
Also very grateful I found CC. Just wish I had found it before my daughter’s acceptances were rolling in 
.
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Ours all have to have class requests in by February. No switching allowed here either.
My D25 has changed her mind on sophomore classes for about the 3rd time this week. I think the latest version sounds the best and is what I suggested in the first place. But of course she had to come to that conclusion herself. As mom I of course have zero clue what Im talking about (she’s kid #3). 
The school year ends late May, the kids just turned in their course requests last week. They had study hall with their counselor, who was very patient when explaining to students they had to have alternates that didn’t duplicate their first choices.
I’m a tad worried about next year’s academic-heavy load. Kiddo is excited for languages, but that’s going to be a lot of homework. She has 2 classes this year with no homework (PE and art), next year it will only be 1.
She also forgot she had a history test yesterday and ran around school trying to find some documents to review. On one hand, I was annoyed that she forgot about a test, on the other hand, I was really happy to hear that she went to track down the teacher (who she couldn’t find) and ended up getting the docs from another student. (My kid is very shy and hates talking to people she doesn’t know well, or teachers, she thinks they are all “scary.” ) Happy to see her advocating for herself when needed!
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Hi all, finally joining this group as a dad to a D25. I’ve been pretty busy with S22 and the related parent thread. After four years there, lots of college stuff these days. Realized I need to get moving with D25 too! Look forward to engaging here.
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Hi! I have a 9th grade daughter who will be studying some form of art in college. She is also an academic kid and has her eyes on NYU, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon. Look forward in getting to ‘know’ some of you and cheer on your kids as they progress through high school and onto college!
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So the second term finally ended and grades are updated. D struggled with balancing all the fun activities hs offers and the less fun school work. Her school is on a block schedule and most classes are half a year with the 2 quarters averaged together for a final grade. Here’s how it went:
German 1: B 86.35%
Adv LA: B 88.05%
Adv World Hist: B- 83.7%
Band: A 99% (year long)
Health/PE: B 92% (year long) alternates every other day with band
Next term starts Thursday and the new schedule is:
Adv Geometry
Adv Biology
Intro Drawing
Band
Health/PE
Our grading scale is strange to me. A “B” is 83-92% and for a while she was hovering 82.7% in history with a “C”. Does anyone know if colleges will consider the more difficult grading scale? An “A” is 92-100. They do differentiate by adding - and + but it shows the percentage on her report card. D is only irritated about the 99% in band 
Anyway, I’m so glad this first semester is done and she can start fresh with a new least favorite class like geometry lol.
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I don’t know the answer to your question, but that sucks that a 90% is not an A! That is so harsh!!
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Congrats on first term being over!
I think I read on here recently that colleges definitely have their own way of reconfiguration of grades because all of the high schools have different cut offs. Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in, but I’ve definitely read about this and basically you do not need to worry.
We are on a block schedule too but our classes are year long. I know my son would love to have fresh classes for second semester.
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High schools send along profiles that outline academic policies and class availability. I think colleges would see the scale and understand. Also, freshman year is the least consequential for grades. Plenty of opportunity to establish that upward trend over the next couple years.
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Thanks for the kind words. In some ways I’m glad we are addressing the executive functioning issues early on and have learned what activities really matter and how to say no to time consuming but not beloved ones.
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Colleges generally look at grades in the context of the school. The school profiles should provide enough information so the College can assess relative performance even if there are no ranks (top 5%, 10%, etc). I recommend taking a look at your school’s most recent profile just so you can get an idea of how grading distribution ends up shaking out for the class after a few years. (If you can’t find it on your school’s website you can have your kid ask their counselor for a link to it.)
ETA: Great work on finding and supporting the EF situation. Really can help to find strategies earlier in high school.
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My school was:
A: 93-100
B: 85-92
C:75-84
D:70-74
I’m glad my kids high school is straight 10 points each.
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Our HS is:
97.5-100 A+ 4.0
90-97.5 A 4.0
87.5-90 B+ 3.2
80-87.5 B 3.0
77.5-80 C+ 2.2, etc.
Plus one point for AP, 1/2 points for Honors. Many classes don’t have either option.
They took out minus grades 7-8 years ago, but kept the plus grades, with the tiny band and the big drop in GPA points.
Competitive schools usually recalculate GPA and try to put it in context of your school.
Less competitive ones tend to just copy over the school reported gpa for automatic scholarship purposes at least. Some will use weighted, some won’t. My son was told by one school they would not use weighted, but when he got his scholarship offer they did use the weighted GPA.
We do exact rank, except the top 2% all get #1 rank. So in my daughters class there were 7 kids with #1, then the #8 kid was reported as #8. Theoretically no one knows who is exactly where. She always seemed to find out though.
That’s more info than needed for the initial question, but I think it’s interesting how different schools handle this so I thought I would throw ours out there.
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Thanks for all your info, it’s never too early for research! My D isn’t looking into competitive schools thank goodness. Her school adds a half point for advanced and one point for honors/AP/DE classes.
We’ve done both. So far 3 kids on 3 very different paths, and #4 (my final and the 2025) appears to not want exactly what her siblings did either. I am accidentally becoming an expert on several different routes. Extremely selective, non-selective, and athletic recruit. All 3 very different processes. And the athlete wasn’t sure if he wanted regular D1 athletics or high academic (ultimately he went Ivy). So I even had to learn about both of those very different paths.
I am going to have SO MUCH free time in 3 years when presumably the 2025 will be done with apps and just waiting for results!
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So glad to have your knowledge here. I only have one through the process and it was ‘21 which just felt like a $”@/ show. While I learned a fair amount, my S25 is nothing like his sister so I’ll be happy to have your insight here!
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I think '21 was a $"@/show for everyone!
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I too have a case of D25 being quite different from her S22 brother. I marvel that the kids start with the same genetic inputs, but end up so different. I call it Genetic Yahtzee.
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I swear there are times I start twitching if I think about those days too much 
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