<p>Kafka (or anyone else),</p>
<p>What is your opinion on Humanities vs individual course selection? Is there a big difference in homework load? Teachers? Does everybody who takes Humanitites love it? When you add Science, Math and a Language to Humanities aren’t you kind of overloaded? </p>
<p>What if you’re from a school that has seriously stressed Science and you just spent a year in physics? What then? </p>
<p>We should have decided this all much sooner but so much is going on at school right now it’s been hard to find time…now we’ve hit the deadline…yikes!</p>
<p>As for “vids”, Hotchkiss has a fine promo that it runs on its website (and which H sends to prospective students in DVD form). Still, it falls a bit short of the DA video entitled “10 Things I Love About Deerfield” or something along those lines. (Check out that clip on the DA website.) Hotchkiss might want to play off DA’s ball here, for whatever that is worth. Still, I thought that the Hotchkiss promo was better than all of the other clips and DVD’s from the other top schools that I saw, except for, of course, DA’s…for what it is worth.</p>
<p>All I know is my friend has choosen the humanities with music. He said it was new last year and you could only choose art or theater or something but this year you can choose 5. He thinks it’s the best track and encouraged (maybe) but if we can get an opinion on that then I’ll pass it on but I think he mailing it tomorrow, from the states.</p>
<p>I really like the vid on the website, it’s very well done, definitely.</p>
<p>We were a little skeptical about the humanities program until revisit day. The faculty presentations were very good, but it was my conversation with one of the teachers at the end of the day that cemented our decision. One thing he said was that when the program was proposed, it was the veteran teachers who were the most enthusiastic about it. They so clearly saw the logic of teaching the courses together and predicted that the students coming out of the program would have the ability to make connections across disciplines throughout the rest of their education. Alternately, if my child had more of a math/science leaning, we would probably opt for the more traditional course selection.</p>
<p>The hum program looked great to us, provided you are coming into school as a prep or maybe even a non-repeat lower mid. My son will be a repeat lower mid, if and when he enters Hotchkiss in the fall as currently planned. For him, the humanities program will probably not work this year. While he plans to take 10th grade English, as required, he has no intent to take the corresponding US history course; he has already taken three years of US history at his private day school and just finished the APUSA course last Friday by taking the AP exam, in which he thinks he did fairly well. This fall, he hopes to take AP Modern European History. So, in my humble opinion, the humanities program should and will work for some, but not for others.</p>
<p>toombs, the humanities program is a great addition to the course of study. Our child has just about finished his first yr as a lower mid at Hotchkiss and could not have a greater experience. It will be an essential part of his academic growth when he looks in the rear view mirror. As for AP european history, your child will have one of the toughest classes offered at any private school anywhere…I know because I sat in on one, but worth it’s weght in gold.</p>
<p>hotchkissdad, thanks for the insider’s tip on AP Mod Euro Historty. Looks like my boy had better be ready to strap 'er on for a fierce but enthralling fight in this course. The hottest fire makes the toughest steel. In the end, isn’t one of the primary reasons we send our baby boys and girls to select boarding schools like Hotchkiss is to face and, we hope, to triumph over the fears and wounds suffered in such intense struggles?</p>
<p>Weighted/Unweighted GPA and grading scale</p>
<p>At Hotchkiss, if you ace an AP class do you receive a 4.0 or a 5.0?
How about additional weighting for honors courses?
Do they use a 10 point scale or an 8 point scale? Is a 92 an A- or a B…and so on…</p>
<p>It wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask this but it has all been very controversial in our local area.</p>
<p>I understand the concern regarding the boosting of a 4.0 to a 5.0 GPA however this doesn’t happen at Hotchkiss. It is the traditional 90-100 gets you in the “a” range. The AP test is then looked as a separate score from the testing agency…but of course the college admissions will immediately pick this out.</p>
<p>Today, my wife and I received an email and a telephone call from the Hotchkiss Registrar expressing some concern about my son selecting PY540, AP Physics B, for this fall. Assuming he does not attend H this year as a repeat LM , he will be taking AP physics B this fall as a junior at his current private day school. If the Dean of the Science Dept. refuses to honor my son’s course selection, what is the next step, if any, he should pursue in order to gain admission into this AP course? If denied enrollment into this course, should he instead just smile, shut up and be happy he dodge a deadly bullet? If accepted into this course, should he have his head examined for jumping into a pit of burning oil?</p>
<p>Toombs:</p>
<p>We looked long and hard at that selection because our son has a really solid science foundation. He took physics this year and we’re not sure that the Foundations of Physical Science course they suggest for preps is appropriate. We ended up sending in a copy of the physics syllabus and leaving it up to them. We are hopeful that he can at least move on to the Biology/Chemistry Foundations course but we will ultimately leave it up to them because he’s only a prep. </p>
<p>I was thinking that AP Physics B would be a likely move for LM year too so if your son has a solid science foundation I’m right there with you…especially if he’s repeating. Obviously, I’m no help here but I’m definitely interested in the outcome and in later reflection. </p>
<p>In hindsight, we would have really benefitted from a 15 minute guidance session by phone. I’m sure they must get many of the same questions over and over…perhaps they should have a FAQ list for course selection…at least for new students. I’m still not sure we did the right thing by signing him up for Humanities but Pom Mom’s post made us think about veteran teachers’ opinions. Now, I’m just hoping that the veterans are actually the ones teaching Humanities!</p>
<p>Kaileigh, thanks for your comments. I agree: course selection for entering students at Hotchkiss seems to be a shot in the dark. It would be very helpful if each in-coming student had a counselor at Hotchkiss assigned to him or her right now (a) to review that student"s current record, (b) to talk to the boy or girl about his/her academic wants and needs, (c) to measure roughly the student’s abilities and then (d) to recommend courses for the child. I assume that each student at Hotchkiss currently has such an advisor or counselor helping him/her in course selection. If so, why shouldn’t each new student have right now the same assistance, especially in light of the fact that the new students know so much less about Hotchkiss and its courses than the current students.</p>
<p>In seems to me that the new kids should arrive at Hotchkiss a couple of days in the fall before the other kids, meet their advisors ASAP when they hit the campus, work with the advisors on a course plan for the school year and then sign up for the courses the advisors and new students find acceptable, subject to any necessary appoval by the parents. I’m sure that this idea could create some scheduling problems for the school, but the goal here is to do the best for the students. Having Hotchkiss advisors for new students ASAP or not setting courses for new kids until they meet with their advisors seems best for the students, in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>I spoke today with the Hotchkiss Registrar and asked her when would the school appoint an advisor for my son to help him with, among other things, course selections for this fall. She said Hotchkiss would have advisors in place in July and that they would be happy to work with the new students at that time. I guess that my son can start working with his advisor in July to smooth out any bumps he may have in his course selections and then hope for resolution of any issues about his courses by the time classes commence in September.</p>
<p>While I do not attend Hotchkiss, nor plan to, I was wondering, at least from my perspective, more specifically being the Valedictorian-equivalent of the Third Form at Berkshire School, what the average GPA is.</p>
<p>Also, I was interested to hear if Hotchkiss offered the academic opportunities that I am receiving at Berkshire. In the most recent days, I have signed up for my courses aggregate to my Fourth Form (lower-mid/sophomore equivalent) year. These include the following:</p>
<p>-Honors Chemistry
-Honors Precalculus Accelerated (the accelerated section enables the student to skip AB Calculus and go straight to BC Calculus)
-Honors English IV
-AP European History
-Honors Spanish III</p>
<p>Yes I know people in further math (as in after calculus) as lower mids at hotchkiss. It is rare though. So yes you could take all of the courses you want at Hotchkiss at that level.</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - Daniel Lippman on CNN](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEZ0MH3Le3o]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEZ0MH3Le3o)</p>
<p>Check this guy out, i bet he will be doing great things relatively soon.</p>
<p>What about the average GPA?</p>
<p>I doubt any school provides that kind of information …
At least I have never seen any school provide it. </p>
<p>I would not worry about GPA though. If a school has a very high average GPA then pehaps all the kids could be geniuses or there could be grade inflation.
If the kids have very low average GPAs then the kids could all be dumb or there could be severe grade deflation (a la Princeton).
It is an extremely weak tool to use when comparing different schools. </p>
<p>Many schools use funny GPA scales I have heard different schools using a 6 point scale a 12 point scale (like hotchkiss) a 4 point scale a 5 point scale so at the end of the day it becomes very difficult to compare. </p>
<p>So really there are so many factors that go into figuring the average GPA.</p>
<p>I will say this though it is very hard to get straight As.</p>
<p>The type of people that do have that this year for instance are Morehead Scholars, Simmens Semi-finalists, the Number 2 speaker overall at worlds, and people generally of that caliber. As you can see not easy. </p>
<p>It is hard but not impossible to get an A- average. </p>
<p>Hope that helps. </p>
<p>If you have an A- average with a few As sprinkled in you should be set for college.</p>
<p>Mutsa to answer your question yes you can take all the courses you are taking as a sophomore here. Some even take harder classes such as AP Chemistry, Biology and Calculus as sophomores.</p>
<p>News just in: Hotchkiss Girls tennis brings in another New England Championship making the grand total 7 for the year.</p>
<p>I shall say something myself: I was not handed my GPA just because I go to a less prestigious school. I study an average of four hours a night on work, if not even more than that. What I have realized about many different high schools is that as you reach the higher ranks of the Grade Point Average, if graphed as a function of time spent on work, it would look much like that of an exponential function, where the more intelligent kids work the same amount no matter what school, whether public or independent. If analyzing the masses at both schools, it is quite evident however that there would be a great difference in the statistic “Hours Spent.”</p>