Selecting courses with college apps in mind

The general advice that I’ve heard is that kids should take as challenging a course schedule in BS as they can reasonably manage. For instance, if you are strong enough at math to take Calculus AB or BC, you should take that, not AP Statistics. This doesn’t mean they have to go nuts and take every AP or advanced course possible, but it does mean they should at least think about the strength of their courses. So here’s my question: with this in mind, how does anyone ever get to take any of the cool sounding electives that all these boarding schools offer?

I was going through the course catalog last night with my 10th grader, talking about what classes he’d take next year, and I just don’t see where any of the cool “extras” ever fit in. He feels like he should take an AP science class and AP US history, and he’ll enjoy the rigor of those classes. But with calculus, a language, and English, that’s a full class load. Same for senior year, though it’s possible he’ll skip a 4th year of math (having taken Calculus AB as an 11th grader). So SG would give him a little bit of room in his schedule to take an arts class or philosophy

Darn, hit post too soon. Anyway, I guess my real question is whether there are subjects that you can really only do 3 years of and still have it look ok in your college apps. Problem is, too, that Soxboy isn’t clearly a math/science kid or a humanities kids, he likes it all. Which is leading him to feel like he “should” take 4 years of math, science, history, language, and English (the last one is required anyway). Is there a place to reasonably cut back, freeing up some time for other options?

They don’t take many. Freshman year, CK’s dean ripped those stars right out of our eyes by explaining that the curriculum is very prescriptive and that unless a student is approved for a sixth class here and there, there won’t be much opportunity until the upper years (maybe senior year) to take one of those “cool” classes. This is why I have posted several times to be wary of salivating over the course catalogs in the BS candy store because there isn’t much room for treats. There IS room for choosing some of the “cooler” versions of classes within the core subjects, but not so much the more exotic stuff.

Choate does not allow students to skip a year of math (or any other core subject) no matter where they are on the continuum; the four-year math requirement is just that, a requirement. So, student schedules do not “free up” much for those electives even in the upper years.

Agree with @choatiemom. The one group that seems to be able to take advantage of those interesting electives a little more are the students who come in as repeats. Like ChoatieMom said, typically students will keep progressing with math, but if they came in already advanced in modern languages or having taken some of their Bio/Chem/Phsyics requirements already, they have a little more leeway during senior year to take something else.

Student perspective here. In almost all cases, you cannot free up space until your senior year, so don’t start salivating before that.

The reality is that most boarding schools limit you to 5 courses/term. Oh, and by the way, there are 5 core subjects (English, math, social studies, science, foreign language). That makes it a bit tricky to take the cool sounding electives.

Obviously, each kid will be different, and their preparation prior to entering the BS world will also be different, but this is what I did:

In consultation with my advisor (and your DS should review with his), this was the plan upon which we agreed **for me/b: 4 years of English and math and 3 years of science, social science, and foreign language was the minimum. So that left nine blocks to take the cool electives, some of which will add on to the 3 years above. One caveat; my third year of foreign language was AP-level, having had preparation before entering high school. Many top schools recommend 4 years of foreign language, which really means completion of level 4. Also note that many top colleges have a foreign language requirement to graduate, which can often be met by an acceptable AP/SAT subject test score, so I would suggest continuing foreign language until that box can be checked off.

So there is some flexibility to be had, and the electives can be a lot more interesting than many of the lower-level courses.

Senior year, we’re allowed to drop language, science, or math. History and English courses are electives. So we can take a load of fun courses senior year.

Allowed to, yes. But don’t most colleges expect that, no matter what your school’s requirements are, students will have taken 4 years of science and math?

Yes, @soxmom, that would be the general expectation.

But if you know for sure that you’re not going into a math-related field, our counselors told us that it may be more beneficial to do something we’re more interested in, like doubling up on English electives.

Several things to keep in mind:
• College recommendations are just that, recommendations. Unless it is the University of California, then they are pretty much set in stone
• The recommendations are meant to cover most, but not all cases. (e.g. damn few international students in a non-US HS will have 1 year of US History)
• The recommendations assume the HS is on a semester system; most BS are on trimesters and many of the term classes cover a semester’s equivalent
• BS have college counselors who work with the students to develop a game plan appropriate for that student. The vast majority of posters on this site do not have that luxury

@skieurope, can you elaborate on your post about trimesters? I don’t really get your point. I mean, if a college expects 4 years of a certain subject, what difference does semester vs trimester make? And how can a trimester class cover as much as a semester class does?

Because boarding school covers more information in a faster time period, we basically cover the amount a public school does in a semester in one of our trimesters. And a college recommendation encouraging you to take a course… Well, if you have a specific interest in a subject, better to pursue that interest than waste away at a subject you don’t do well in and hate.

@soxmom @mrnephew answered your question about trimesters for me. It does not apply for every course, IMO, but for many.

Also, in a trimester system, that extra term is the one that may allow a student to fit in an elective.

That depends on the student. If the student’s aiming to go to design school, such as RISD or Parsons, that student might not take science courses after meeting requirements for graduation, in order to fit in an extra art class. Other students, aiming at MIT, etc., might choose to double up on science & math courses, rather than languages.

I tried to encourage our children to meet their schools’ requirements first, so that they’d have time for their personal interests as seniors.

Don’t forget that many schools require students to take at least one course in the arts–performing or fine arts.

And, as someone who does alumni college admission interviewing for a HYPMS school, let me just say that, especially for kids clearly interested in one area, it’s ok not to have 4 years in each core field-- as long as you CLEARLY pursued challenging courses (so it’s ok if you’re an English type person who’s done challenging courses and lots of writing to have only taken 3 years of science-- or if you’ve pursued theater very seriously, etc.). They definitely seem to like to see 4years of math and English, no matter what.

Message crossed with Periiwinkle-- same point.

I’m sure there are exceptions, but I think pretty much every BS has this requirement (at least for 3- and 4- year students), along with the advice that the requirement be knocked out as quickly as possible.

I didn’t realize so many BS had a trimester system. Almost all the ones we looked at have a semester system, though St. George’s is switching to trimesters next year. Personally, I found a trimester system to be a turn off, as I worried that it’s not really enough time to delve into any real depth in a class, but the point about being able to squeeze in electives that way is a good one. Though even then, it doesn’t help with classes that pretty much have to be year long courses, like AP courses.

For AP Calc AB, we basically cover all of the material we have to through the first two terms of the year, finish it off in the first few weeks of the third term and spend the rest of the time reviewing.