<p>I'll tel you why. Because each day of school missed means doing that day's homework for 3-5 more hours at the very least additional to 3-5 hours of the current homework on* any* given day. Does she have those 3-5 extra hours? No, even keeping up with all the current work combined with all the ECs (which, I believe, wouldn't be as much important for gradschool-bound college students as it is for college-bound h/schoolers?) is challenging enough, especially this particular time of the year (what with all those SAT, school musicals, bunches of contests and olimpiads, All-State music events etc. mostly scheduled around March/April?). And while some teachers are easy to deal with and ready to accomodate (postpone deadlines, let the student know the homework in advance), others are not (require all the work done before going - which is physically impossible, threat by subtractng " classroom participation points" from the grade and find any other possible ways to work the student up into that "hysterical" state of the mind; and with the student who sleeps, on average, about 4-5 hours a night all this year it's not that hard). I wonder if many college profs are as rigid/intimidating about their requirements and regulations.</p>
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<p>that AP's are harder and more time-consuming than college courses</p>
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<p>No, I didnt say (or expected to hear) that. But I know that the hours spent in the classroom by high-schoolers are definitely longer than those by college students. Who then gets more flexibility in their time-management? I also wonder about ECs, all those "evidence of leadership and commitment" halabaloo - are they as important for getting into grad schools as they are for getting into colleges?</p>
<p>I think the "lite" APs are the ones that generally translate to one semester of credit and the heavier ones generally translate to two. But IMO that doesn't mean you should avoid the lighter APs and in fact I have never heard a peep from admissions folk that they know the difference or care. I haven't asked them - perhaps that will be a question I'll pose at our upcoming college night.</p>
<p>I'm a bit concerned for the daughter here. Either her high school is way out of whack with the amount of work required, or daughter needs some "how to study" help. There are many effective techniques to reduce the amount of time spent doing homework, without affecting the ultimate learning. Has the OP explored any of that? (I know that by the time I was a junior in HS, back in the dark ages, I was able to figure out what work was necessary and what was not. If we were assigned 200 pages to read at night, I was able to skim and determine what needed to be read. I rarely read the entire assignment!)</p>
<p>Either her high school is way out of whack
with the amount of work required,
or daughter needs some "how to study" help. </p>
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<p>I think it's a bit of both things. :-) DD, generally, always tends to be a thorough perefectionist, but when pushed to her edges, she starts to weigh carefully which part of the homework she can afford to skip this particular day. Unfortunately, it always tends to be in subjects which she is better at (and likes them more) with the most nice and accomodating teachers. And some teachers, it seems, just like to make it really hard on students, god knows why.</p>
<p>On the other hand, yes, her school IS known for not letting students breath, and the student body is most overachieving and super-competitive; the standards are very high. As I told before, every student is greatly discouraged by GCs to take more than 2 APs a year at this school, but they still do. Many teachers complain that this school's students have no idea how to do anything "just for fun". My D in many instances tries to do exactly that (do things that are not required but personally interesting for her) and then gets overstressed finding out that she couldn't "afford" to go beyond whats required.</p>
<p>Which time-reducing tecniques would you suggest for exploration? I'd gladly do that and try her to explore them as well.</p>
<p>Re calmom's excellent post #116: I, too, see this as a problem our country's current mindset. Everyone thinks he or she will end up a "star" if only that thick elite college envelope would arrive. I think a great many kids are in for a bit of an awakening later on. When my S started piano lessons at age 5, I was astounded to discover that his teacher had two degrees from Juilliard. (Trust me, my child's talent did not warrant this.) His present HS physics teacher graduated from MIT. A friend was unable to find a job with her Smith degree, so went to Yale to study...nursing.</p>
<p>I think the reason to go to ANY of these schools is to experience an incredible, productive, enjoyable and challenging four years. I don't think any of the three people mentioned above regrets his/her education, but to today's kids (and some parents) they're examples of horror stories.</p>