<p>I currently go to a relatively small charter school, and our current sophomore class has 148 students. I am #1 in my class, and will be because I'm miles ahead of my classmates. A new school was opening near by with brand new facilities, highly qualified teachers, and a great athletic program. I've been at my current charter for 5 years, through middle school, and I'm not sure whether I should leave it to go to the new high school. I'm sure I could still be the valedictorian there, and they have a lot more AP classes than our school that I'm interested in. </p>
<p>Also, I'm aiming for undergrad from MIT, and I wanted to take AP Chemistry and AP Physics, but none of them are offered at my school and only 5 students signed up for AP Chemistry. I'd rather not self-study those classes as I want to get a 5, but our school doesn't have many lab supplies or good teachers, while the new school does. </p>
<p>I'm just worried about having to "start over" at the new school, since I'd have to become acquainted with all the teachers that I've known at my current school for a long time. So, if your child were in this predicament, what would you recommend them to do?</p>
<p>I would definitely transfer. No question about it. It seems like you would have a lot more opportunities at the new school. Don't worry about "starting over". You will get acclimated quickly and be in a better situation for college admissions.</p>
<p>Also, there are maybe 5 teachers in high school who have been here longer than one year and plan on returning next year, because as one teacher described it, the school's organization is "crazy." That's a plus, since I don't have to feel bad about missing out on recommendations since no teacher lasts long enough ;\ The thing is I'm well known in the office and I'm sure they'd do whatever is necessary to help me, so I'm still not sure whether to go to a brand new high school that will have it's first year in 2008-2009 school year.</p>
<p>My daughter changed high schools between 10th and 11th grades. It was harder than we expected, but she was going into a class that had been together for two years, and she had trouble getting into the right classes in 11th grade. You won't have those problems if the new school is just starting up. She kept all of her friends at the old school, the school sent a transcript and info sheet to colleges for her, and one of the teachers wrote a recommendation for her (to help overcome the facts that her transcript from the new school oversimplified her transcript from the old school, and that the GC at the new school refused to comment on her courses in 9th and 10th grades). Socially, she was fine; it took a few months, but she made plenty of friends at the new school, and appreciated the variety. Several years on, the high school friend she is closest to is from the new school, even though she sees people from the old school more frequently.</p>
<p>Anyway, in your situation, it looks like there really isn't much reason not to transfer. The only other thing to explore might be taking the classes you want at the new school without transferring.</p>
<p>Could you describe the problems that your daughter faced? I know my school's office staff well, so I could ask them for their transcript as well if necessary and I'm pretty sure that reporting grades wouldn't be a problem. </p>
<p>Also, at our school most teachers leave after a year or two, so I wouldn't be missing many "long term relationships" as all the good teachers leave, so that's another thing that I feel is a good reason to switch over.</p>
<p>Obviously it's hard to know for sure if a new high school will live up to its promise, but there is something exciting about being part of something new. I think this is a great opportunity. Since it's a new high school, everyone will be getting to know each other. It should be fun.</p>
<p>I have a question. They say that they plan on offering around 22 ap classes their first year, and the student body is nearly 1600-1700 students. Are there any chances that classes such as ap chemistry or ap physics B might not be offered due to lack of enrollment, or is that a mathematical improbability due to the huge student core.</p>
<p>Our high school offers around 24 AP classes with an enrollment of 3000+. There are usually two sessions of each AP with some exceptions. What has been a problem multiple times is scheduling issues. He's had something that had to be juggled a bit each year due to AP classes. My son had a hard time because there was only one AP Latin class (with only 5 or 6 students) which forced him to take AP Chemistry at the same time as an advanced Calc class (post AP) which also only had 5 or 6 students. He ended up doing the math class as an independent study. I don't think you'd be likely to have problems with the two APs you mentioned.</p>
<p>The first thing I would do is check out how many of these plans for the new school are actually concrete. There have been new schools that have opened where I live that had plenty of wonderful plans, but come opening day, things didn't pan out. I can think of one school that opened that was positive their enrollment numbers would be far higher than what they actually turned out to be. I suggest you do a little digging and find out how many things are actually in place and are scheduled for <em>go</em> in the 2008-09 school year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. Here's material I found on broward county's website:</p>
<p>"The District projects that 2,760 students will be impacted by the boundary changes in 2008/09. One thousand, four hundred and five (1,405) students will move from Cypress Bay High School, with 777 going to West Broward High School and 628 to Western High School. One thousand and six (1,006) students currently enrolled at Everglades High School in 2007/08 will move to West Broward High School, while 349 students will move from Miramar High School to Everglades High School in 2008/09.
"</p>
<p>Essentially they made it mandatory for a lot of students to transfer over there due to Cypress Bay High School [largest in America] being overcroweded, as well as overcrowding in other schools. That's why I feel relatively certain about the school's population, but I'd definitely like to get more info on it. </p>
<p>They have a seminar with the principal tomorrow which I will be definitely be attending to get a lot of questions answered, and hopefully I'll be able to transfer with confidence that I'm going to a good place. Again, thanks for all the help guys.</p>