Teacher's Aide bad for college apps?

      Just the 6 period thing is amazing to me, my kids would just weep tears of joy at 6 classes. The teachers would skip around with flowers in their teeth. Heck, does a teacher even need a TA with a 6 period schedule LOL?

@sybylla Interesting, as I can’t name a single school district anywhere near me that requires their students to take 7 periods. 6 class schedules aren’t as abnormal as you seem to believe…

^ teachers don’t. Students do.
Those periods tend to be designed for nice kids who can’t handle a full academic schedule and aren’t applying to competitive colleges anyway. It’s better than a free period, it shows the selected kids are hard workers, nice, helpful… but since it has no homework it doesn’t burden/stress them out. As long as you do what you’re told, are helpful… You’re good. There’s another version in some schools where students help in the office or the cafeteria or janitors - for nice kids who can’t even handle being an aide to a teacher (task-wise) or need to be paid (yes some of these hours can be paid in some schools, especially the cafeteria cleaning work.)

6-periods are fairly normal in California. We have 0-6 periods, and if you take a 0 period, you almost always have to take a study hall or TA so that you only have 6 classes.

@socalkid1 You’ve taken a full year of an art/drama/music class, right?

@Ynotgo yes, I took a drama course my freshman year to fulfill the visual/performing art a-g requirement as well as my school’s fine art graduation requirement

This student has been virtually assailed as operating under the delusion that AP courses - not just the ones the student wishes to enroll in, but HS AP courses across the board - will be preparation enough to solidly act as introduction to college-level work. This student is not alone in that understanding, as most of the young people in our high schools are told exactly that, and believe exactly that.

Many have constructively and stridently urged the student to reconsider the type of schedule which seems optimal to the student, meeting the student’s needs for time in the classroom, outside work, and school day electives which best serve the student’s needs as said student has expressed them. That is what the OP came here for, and the OP has continued to engage and ask questions, and assert what he/she knows is true for the level of coursework, options and scheduling of courses at the school attended.

Yet there is a current in this thread which seems only to want to smack the back of this OP’s hand, or deride or mock not only the OP’s choices and continued inquiry (even where OP considers making changes to strengthen his/her competitiveness for entry into the UCs), but to smear the institutional framework in which this child is being educated. Was that a jab at the competency of OP’s teacher(s)?

I do think that the OP will be in a good place at the completion of the HS years, and will find success and a great reception during the college admissions process, if all things continue to go well and the OP stays the course. I absolutely think the OP is listening to all those who have constructively sought to redirect and to express concern that the OP’s preparedness for competitive review among his/her peers may be jeopardized if tougher, or more, or the right combination of courses for such review in the UC system must be shored up.

The OP, and perhaps only the OP, is listening.

The student has expressed the opportunity and availability to do more than just get copies and run to the principal’s office with notes, if the student chooses to maximize that opportunity.

I know this can look different in different places, dependent on who is advising a student or how a program is administered, but I have seen the TA offering culminate in what is a multi-semester internship level credit/marking on a student’s record. I have seen students implement instruction and curriculum, under the teacher’s guidance and with the teacher’s approval. I have seen those students vie for, be offered and accept, offers of admission at top universities.

I have also seen six-period class schedules and one-semester, intensive HS AP courses.

The world is wide.

I hope you’re right that (s)he is listening, but I see an unwillingness to consider the possibility that their HS and its approach to AP’s isn’t somehow different and better than all others, or that taking 4 or 5 classes per year (including semester courses taught as yearlong classes) might be viewed less favorably, or provide a weaker foundation than that of other applicants.

The OP is clearly a thoughtful, intelligent individual and I wish them the best.

Sheesh. UCLA, She’s trying to forward plan for a college with 102,000 apps. Yearbook and TA in the course schedule. Trying to protect gpa. Rigor would be good. Anyone on CC a while knows the sorts of profiles of kids applying to UCLA.

The job doesn’t exist yet. If OP had said, I just want UCLA as a mega reach, that’s one thing. Instead, all talk about upping the competitiveness meets a dead end as we argue about how APES is perceived. What’s changed since the first post?

OP needs to get a better read on what UCLA expects- not just the a-g.

@lookingforward – UCLA is my target goal as in that’s the college I’d most like to attend. The reality is, the only thing that makes it more important than other colleges (in my mind) is its prestige. There’s no other reason I prefer it over other schools. I know that UCLA is a stretch with my academic schedule, but I think that rarely is anybody ever a shoe-in for that school. When I discuss on this thread the idea of me attending UCLA, it’s because that’s the best school out of all I plan on applying to, so that makes it my highest goal. I’m not creating my entire high school course schedule for the sake of one university, because quite frankly, I think that’s asanine. I only bring up UCLA on this thread because I’d like to see how my odds are for the most competitive school on my list, not because it’s the one school I’m determined to go to. And you can respectfully disagree with me if you wish, but I don’t think any high schooler should take classes that don’t interest them/don’t benefit their possible majors JUST to please one or two schools. As for taking yearbook and TA to protect my GPA, that couldn’t be further from the truth. My school requires a career prep elective to graduate, and none of the classes categorized as “career prep” are a-g courses. Considering I need a high school diploma to go to ANY school, I can’t opt out of taking yearbook and end up not graduating high school…
I want to TA because it matches my interests: alternatives besides just a free period would be APHUG, AP Physics, Honors Physio, or another non-approved a-g course on the same level as TA – none of which interest me. I can’t sacrifice my interests and peace of mind for the pure reason of pleasing just a few universities.

Nobody can tell you that you absolutely can’t get into UCLA with what you are proposing, or that adding a ton of APs will guarantee that you will be accepted there. All people can do it tell you that you need to be a competitive applicant when compared to the pool that each college is selecting from. If you are aiming at “lower” UCs I think that you will have no problem. If you really want something like UCLA or UCB, I don’t think that your current plan will look rigorous when compared to the applicants they tend to accept. I don’t think this is what you want to hear, but I think it’s just the way things are.

In CA at a top ranked, very competitive high school. We have 0-6 with most 6 period classes being sports. Rarely do kids take 7 academic classes. “7th period classes” (meaning offered after school) include electives like Speech& Debate, MUN, Academic Decathalon, etc. The only AP classes we have that are semester are Gov and Econ.

@MamaBear16 Obviously UCLA and UCB are the most competitive/prestigious UCs (by far, in my opinion) – would you say UCSD and UCD are also very competitive, enough so for this, in your opinion (I’m aware nobody can give me definite answers or anything) to not be a rigorous enough plan?

@lkg4answers – my school is the same way. Most students have periods 1-6, but the majority of people only have 5 classes, a sport taking place of sixth period. The only people in a 0 period are those in concert band or certain other musical classes. We have no academic classes offered 0 period. The only 1 semester academic courses are- •psychology paired with sociology, alternative option to AP Psych, •trig paired with stats, alternative option to taking Alg 2 Honors with Trig included in the course, •government paired with economics, alternative to either AP gov or AP econ. We don’t even have any 1 semester non-academics that I’m aware of.

Honestly, if UCSD and UCD are the goals and you were my kid, I would still recommend a somewhat more competitive schedule. The trouble is that nobody knows for sure, and 2 years from now you can’t go back in time and change things if it doesn’t work out for you. UCD seems to be getting much harder to get into lately. I guess my point is that you don’t want the adcoms to look at your transcript and think there isn’t enough rigor there (and I’m not one who would advocate 15 APs either).

I have to agree with @MamaBear16 . Your course work is not competitive for UCD/UCSD (and definitely not for top-tiered UCs).
I can’t understand why you would not accept the simple fact that the rigior of your coursework is a good indicative of your competitiveness in the eyes of the adcoms when you indirectly (as well as directly) hint that you have been protecting your GPA, in your arguments, as well?
You can argue forever that you are only taking those easier classes and TA …, because they “match my interests”. But in one way they would match every student’s “interests” if they did not have to compete! Who does not like to have an easy life in school if could get away with it (to a competitive collage)?
Do you think my daughter who took 14 tough APs
(i.e, Skipped AP calculus AB and jumped into BC in junior year) did that because it was her interest? She knew well that in order to ensure a spot for herself in UCLA, she had to go to the extreme.
I understand that your target is not necessarily UCLA, but with your attitude, you may not make it to the mid-tiered UCs either!

Here’s what I suggest, that would still match your interests and still make you competitive for UCSB /UCD:
Junior year, take your currently scheduled classes with Spanish5-6, Yearbook, APES. DO NOT take ‘ta’.
Senior Year : take regular physics, TA, AP math, AP English, AP Social Science, AP psychology.
That’s a rigorous schedule that matches what UC’s want, doesn’t make UCLA impossible (while still a reschedule but you clearly understand that), prepares out well for your major, and, most importantly, makes you competitive for your target UC 's.

For those who are debating how different AP courses look to UC admissions, how do you feel about UC approved honors classes?

In general, more rigor > less rigor, and

Hardcore AP’s > “lite” AP’s > Honors > regular

I’m not saying that maximizing rigor is the best thing for any particular student, just trying to explain how competitive colleges will view a transcript.

One of my kids was a TA for an AP english class for senior year. Great experience. She learned a lot from working with that teacher in that capacity. Also nothing more “academic” would have fit in her schedule at all.
She also took:
4 yrs english, including AP lit and AP lang
4 yrs math, incl. CalcBC, and Calc3 and diff eq, dual enrollment
4 yrs social studies, incl APWorld, APHuman Geo, APUSH, APGov, and AP econ.
4 yrs science, incl APCHem and AP Bio
2 yrs foreign language
2 yrs orchestra (1st chair, top orchestra)
4 yrs theatre including acting in the school musical as a junior while taking 5 AP’s
1 yr PE
(some of the above was A hour (0 hour) and PE was summer school to fit it all in)
had a job senior year
other good ECs, graduated in top 5%, high test scores.

She had no trouble with college admissions but some (many) kids, particularly those applying to top colleges, have done more than this.

TA isn’t a bad thing and won’t get you disqualified from top colleges. It’s one tiny piece of the picture of you, and you will likely be admitted or not based on what else you have done.

As a parent, I probably would not have let my kid TA for two years–there’s other things to learn. I would let them take fewer AP classes if I felt that was the best for that kid. I did let this kid quit the foreign language after two years even though I thought three would have been better–she hated it and hadn’t had great teachers. She had to start from the beginning again in college but it didn’t stop her from getting in. You don’t have to do everything. You do need to show you are a well-prepared applicant for the schools you want to attend.