<p>GO ON THE TRIP. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to see extended family, as well as visit another country. I only took half of a day for my grandfather’s in town funeral when I was on medical school hospital rotations instead of spending more time with obscure old relatives I had never met- missed the chance to learn more about my family history and regret it.</p>
<p>Why not do the work ahead of time as much as possible? Your incentive will be the trip. I’m sure your teachers would be willing to help you plan your assignments, even including sending some via email while you are gone. Talk to them. Some will have the same response as a poster- can I go instead- at least privately. I’m assuming this trip is well in advance of the May AP testing so you won’t miss those. If it is this semester you will have plenty of time before them, if a spring trip you will have plenty of time before then to get ahead.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine not being able to work this out- if your teachers penalize you you can write college essays justifying your choices to both get the work done and getting the experience abroad despite obstacles. Daily school attendance is not sacred in the scheme of life, or even HS life. Learn to make the most of your life, including taking advantage of unusual opportunities.</p>
<p>the fact that you’re concerned about going indicates you already have a strong work ethic. this is obviously a good thing. 2 thoughts come to mind. </p>
<p>1) to me, it’s all about balance in life. there will always be a reason not to do something. there will always be an upcoming test, an assignment, a looming deadline. you will face the same dilemmas once you are out on your own. the trick is to find the balance. meet your responsibilities while still taking time to experience the rest life has to offer. </p>
<p>2) if your fortunate, life provides you opportunities. there’s so much to see and do in the world. soak up the history and culture you’ll be exposed to in switzerland. if for no other reason, the alps are spectacular. if you ski at all, omg!! you’ll may well learn more from this trip than in 4 days of school.</p>
<p>I can see the school side of things as well. We happen to live in a district where many families can afford overseas travel and also not everyone thinks of the impact of rearranging lesson plans or tests to accommodate missing students. While this may be one student for one week, think how difficult it would be to be a teacher with a jam packed syllabus and multiple students requesting packets or alternative lesson plans for different weeks through out the year.
My D has missed a few days on a band adjudication and always says it is simply not worth it! A compromise of a partial week seems like the best solution.</p>
<p>Many schools will not give make-up work for unexcused absences, and going to Switzerland to celebrate grandparents’ anniversary would not be considered an excused absence.</p>
<p>"Your incentive will be the trip. I’m sure your teachers would be willing to help you plan your assignments, even including sending some via email while you are gone. "</p>
<p>Teachers may not be willing to do this. It adds to their workload, and encourages other students to take unexcused absences.</p>
<p>High schools aren’t stupid. They won’t believe the kind of lie mentioned in #25, and they also probably wouldn’t excuse someone for doing something like that.</p>
<p>The main value of the trip is not the celebration, it is the opportunity to see all of the relatives he may never see again and at a time he will likely learn a lot about his family roots. That is why this is an exception to the travel rules. For an AP teacher I would think it easy to look at the scheduled assignments and make a copy of the list. The email comment was misleading, I meant the student could send them in via email. AP courses are structured to meet fixed, AP exam oriented criteria so it should be easy for a teacher to have assignments needing to be done lined up in advance. Remember the purpose of school is to educate the students, not just have their attendance and homework done.</p>
<p>Choosing the path of just staying in school shows a lack of that extra something on the part of the student. I think s/he needs encouragement to think outside of the box. Find a way to both keep with the school work and get the once in a lifetime family reunion bit. In the long run nothing matters so a choice must be made- is leading a safe humdrum life desired or taking chances/risks to lead a more interesting one worth it?</p>
<p>I am a parent who always says the same to my own D.: listen to your mother.<br>
You might be in a wrong forum asking this question.<br>
I do not know about classes, but I bet there are assignments that could be done during trip. SAT prep. could easily be done during trip, we took books to Mexico when D. was preparing for SAT.</p>
<p>A trip with parents to see elderly family members would be excused in our public school system. Shucks in our neck of the woods the first week of deer hunting season is excused. OP don’t loose sight of the tree through the forest.</p>
<p>Go on the trip. It’s a once in a lifetime family opportunity. Your family members won’t be around forever. If you plan ahead, do all you can and your HS still gives you a hard time - that is crazy. School does not equal life. Family is more important. Yes it will be hard to make everything up or learn things on your own, but put it in perspective. You will not ruin your whole transcript even if a couple of grades go down a little for that one quarter. </p>
<p>You can always write an awesome essay on your college app about your priorities in life and how this experience (choice) opened your eyes. That could explain the blip, if necessary.</p>
<p>My S, who is a HS sophomore, is adamant that I don’t take him out of school for even one day before or after a vacation for a flight. For a regular vacation, I am on board with that. For this once in a lifetime, entire family event, I say “go for it” and enjoy your family.</p>
<p>Glad you asked on this parents board because we certainly have some perspective on this.</p>
<p>"Choosing the path of just staying in school shows a lack of that extra something on the part of the student. I think s/he needs encouragement to think outside of the box. Find a way to both keep with the school work and get the once in a lifetime family reunion bit. In the long run nothing matters so a choice must be made- is leading a safe humdrum life desired or taking chances/risks to lead a more interesting one worth it? "</p>
<p>I don’t see it that way at all. The student may know that the stress and hassle of having to make up so much work would keep the student from being able to enjoy the family vacation. </p>
<p>The student also said this:</p>
<p>“I have three other commitments that week as well. I honestly do not want to go. I actually looked ahead at that week and it appears to be quite a busy one.”</p>
<p>And the student is a senior planning to apply to places like Yale EA. </p>
<p>Senior year is rough enough without missing school for an unnecessary trip abroad. </p>
<p>While I think that based on other posts, the student is overly focused on getting into a top school and eventually making lots of money, I still agree that the student has a valid point in not wanting to go on a trip that will disrupt his school year. Sounds like he’s a student who plans ahead, and it would be hard for him to deal with this kind of disruption.</p>
<p>I honestly think that a student who has what it takes to get EA into Yale can easily make up 4 days of missed HS work, no matter how many APs are on his schedule.</p>
<p>I also believe that the top schools are looking for students who are able to see the whole forest, not just the trees right in front of them.</p>
<p>He doesn’t want to go to Switzerland because he’s going to miss SAT prep? C’mon. </p>
<p>Second, I suspect that the OP attends a school that is flexible on making up missed time, otherwise he would have already played this card to his advantage. </p>
<p>Third, his trivialization of the event as a mere “vacation”. By his own words this is a whole family reunion to celebrate an important milestone in his grandparents lives, not some week-long off-season bop down to Orlando. </p>
<p>Fourth, the OP’s main complaint is that he’d rather spend the time working, well what’s stopping him. He’s going to be on a plane for hours both ways. Once there, he will doubtlessly have down time when he can do other work if he’s so motivated, but his main point is the he simply doesn’t want to go. </p>
<p>My Dad radar tells me that there’s something else we haven’t been told. I’ll stick by my earlier compromise suggestion, travel later and miss less time at school but still participate in the event. Life is full of these sorts of compromises, might as well start getting used to it.</p>
<p>It seems like I’m in the minority opinion here. I have a huge family and there is always something that is a milestone for someone (15th birthday, baby shower, wedding shower, graduation, leaving for college). When I look at my calendar, I see that there is a family event every single weekend this month. I still remember my family giving me a hard time for missing a wedding shower because I needed to take the LSAT.
Sometimes, you can say no and you are still a loving grandchild/nephew/cousin. Missing a week of school is a big problem. I know that my daughter’s school would not have found this a sufficient excuse.</p>
<p>Oh good grief, we’re talking about 4 days of school for a student who is apparently a high achiever with great credentials. He could get the flu and miss 4 days of school and it would all work out just fine. “Sorry grandmere and grandpere, I can’t come to Switzerland to celebrate your golden wedding anniversary because, gosh, I have a really busy week, and you know how it is guys, every freaking minute of a 17-year-old’s life is of critical importance to his future success in life.” OP is being obsessive about his school work and also quite selfish. If the very worst happens, and he doesn’t don’t get into Yale and it’s all because he went on this trip (ridiculous now that it’s put that way, right?), he’ll still go to an excellent college and be able to send his grandparents a picture of him in his cap and gown (and then go on to make a lot of money, or whatever his life goal is).</p>
<p>I agree with vinceh that there’s more than meets the eye to this tale.</p>
<p>I don’t know. I see how stressed my kids get if they have a doctor’s appointment or other commitment - even a school one - that causes them to miss some time in school. The pace really is intense these days. I see the OP’s point, though I see the family’s point too.</p>