Selecting courses with college apps in mind

Soxmom-- I don’t think anything is that rushed-- my impression is that really the trimester system was set up in order to make vacations make more sense. Many classes are a year long-- so, for, say, sophomore English, or US History, they’re each a year, but finals or big tests or projects are due just before Thanksgiving and just before Spring Break. The classes are still a year long, but there’s no, or at least very little, homework over break. There’s not much homework over Winter Break either, but finals for second trimester (right before Sprong Break) will include work done between Thansgiving and Winter Breaks. A few classes DO get shortened. For example, regular pre-calc is a year long, and then AP Calc AB is taken the next year; but Honors Pre-calc is only 2 trimesters (fall and winter), and then AP Calc BC is 4 trimesters long, starting in the Spring and ending at the end of the following Spring. Several Senior courses, especially in English, Hostory, and some science courses (but not the major ones) are also only 2 trimesters long, in order to free up more elective time-- but I don’t think they’re shoving more material into those 2 trimesters-- they’re just making them 2trimesters worth of material. At least that’s how the trimester system seems to work at Deerfield. Except for some electives in the Arts and maybe in Ethics, their aren’t many one-trimester classes.

Again, depends on the school and the course. One of our offerings is a 2-term of AP Physics C (mechanics in Fall, E&M in winter). We used to also offer a 2-term sequence for AP Chem, but that’s since been eliminated and only the 3-term option is offered.

Interesting. It doesn’t seem like the semester vs trimester is a very big difference then. Soxboy is on a semester system, but still has no homework over Thanksgiving or March break anyway. And if most major classes re a three term sequence, then it doesn’t really matter whether your have trimesters or semesters, it’s still a whole year course.

One won’t select courses with college apps in mind. You select courses based on your interests and passions. Once you excel at your passions, the college admissions will take care of themselves. I wonder why so many parents are so involved in helping game the admissions process causing so much stress to the students in the process?

Soxmom-- yup, exactly. It allows for a few extra electives (mostly senior year) and makes vacations work, but it’s not too big a deal.

My son is a sophomore and we have just fully realized that he will take very few interesting sounding electives, and still won’t be until Senior year. It’s a huge disappointment.

On the positive side of things, attending a good prep school will prepare students to do well in college. Many colleges use placement tests to determine course placement. A well-prepared student may be able to place into higher level courses, which will mean earlier access to upper level seminars, etc.

Some kids squeeze in extra courses by petitioning their deans for permission. Be aware that permission is not always granted, depending on the kids’ academic records. There may also be a price to pay for it–would you be happy if an otherwise straight A- kid had some Bs, but was able to fit in a course on philosophy or music theory, for example?

One of my kids took an overload every semester to fit in arts related classes. One advisor suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to cut back on the extra courses to improve academic performance. The reality is this kid wasn’t going to be in the top 25% at boarding school although the student had been in the top 5-10% in public school. Taking the extra classes was the right decision to make in this case as arts was the area where this child stood out. It provided a confidence boost and personal pleasure while at school and I’m sure it helped as a differentiating factor come college application time. The point is that it can really depend on the individual student, and fortunately the boarding schools are usually flexible when it comes to course selection and planning.