<p>S2’s schedule (IR major):
IB HL English 2
IB HL Bio
IB HL Euro Hist 2
IB SL Philosophy
TOK/EE (1 sem.)
AP Stat
AP Comp Gov’t (self-study during hole in schedule)</p>
<p>S1’s senior year (math/CS major):
Linear Algebra (post AP)
Complex Analysis (post AP)
Origins of Math (proof-based, post-AP)
Mathematical Physics (post-AP)
Artifical Intelligence (post-AP)
Honors English (was sorry he didn’t take AP Lit)
AP Comp Gov’t
Media and Society (took it for the teacher; course itself was a big disappointment)
Editorial/tech staff - online newspaper (full web redesign and new database development)
Lab TA for accelerated AP Comp Sci AB</p>
<p>Really? I see it the other way around. My state requires a 1 semester Consumer Ed course, for example. I see no reason for my kids not to wait til spring semester senior year to take that.</p>
<p>I also am not getting how the basics don’t fill up the schedule. Our school has 7 class periods. The state requires 4 years of phys ed, so that leaves 6. Now, you fill those with the basics – an English, a math, a science, a history / social science, and a foreign language. That leaves exactly one period for individual interests. And, within there, you have to fit in any distribution requirements (e.g., fine arts, business, consumer education) that your school or state may require. If a student is in music / chorus / band / orchestra, they really have no opportunity to take anything just for personal interest. I don’t know, to me it’s college, not high school, where you get to play around with experimenting with art history and music theory and all that stuff. I don’t know how you do it in high school without jeopardizing your basics. Unless your districts all have more class periods in a day.</p>
<p>^^^ Our hs used to have every kid take 7 classes, but due to budget cuts next year the kids are only taking 6 classes. We didn’t require seniors to take phys ed (violated state law, but no one ever did anything about it), and in order to graduate kids needed 4 years of English, and 3 years of math, science & social studies. That left a lot of choices for senior year, although most kids took 4 years of math, science & social studies. </p>
<p>I’m posting my D’s schedule only to prove that not every kid on CC takes all AP classes:
English (honors)
Psychology (honors)
Anatomy & Physiology (honors)
AP Statistics (no calculus, now or ever!)
AP Studio Art
1st semester - either Sociology or Digital Photography (schedules aren’t finalized)
2nd semester - Senior Project</p>
<p>S (now a declared Economics major with a 3.8 GPA at a top-40 LAC) took:
English (honors)
Intro to Calculus (honors)
Anatomy & Physiology (honors)
AP Spanish
AP Economics
Wind Ensemble
1 semester Sociology (honors)
1 semester Contemporary Issues (honors)</p>
<p>I’m with you, PizzaGirl. I don’t know how they fit it all in. I also see how much summer homework my S has for his upcoming AP class (only one, not eight APs), and I gotta wonder how much summer homework do the 6+ AP class kids have?</p>
<p>AP homework + summer club team + work (volunteering) + a couple of camps + just being a kid = full summer</p>
<p>Last year D had:
AP Eng. Lit and Comp
AP French
AP European History- after the AP exam, this class was required to complete a PIG (People in Gvt,) project
Accounting- dual credit with a local college
Physics
PE- required
Religion-required, seniors get to choose 2, 1 semester courses and although I can’t remember what she took the 1st part of the year, the second semester was Social Justice</p>
<p>She will be a Vocal Performance Major in about 10 days and was able to have 18 credits accepted from the AP and dual-credit courses from HS. Her school had a pretty set curriculum with not a lot of room for electives, since the state required PE (even though she would have hours of dance in shows she was in outside of school!) and the school required Religion. She had tons of homework every evening and weekends and was always studying when not working or rehearsing. She would even tote a full backpack along on audition weekends and spend time in between auditions and meetings working on something for one class or another. College will be a breeze compared to what she has been used to!</p>
<p>Listen, if you don’t want to see my kid’s schedule and others, then go read a different thread. What is the point of posting, “I don’t see the point of your post?” I want to see what courses college-bound high school seniors are taking. It’s interesting to me. If you don’t find it interesting, then go away.</p>
<p>And as for bragging, none of you know who I am, and I don’t know who you are, so what would be the point of that?</p>
<p>The only people who need to get a life worse than parents posting about their kids on CC are people who post about people who post on CC. If everyone felt the need to butt into other people’s conversations only to say they’re not interested in the topic, this would be a sorry, sorry world indeed. Now how about letting those of us who want to talk about this subject get on with it?</p>
<p>I am with Pizzagirl. Even though kids attend independent school that doesn’t have to follow state requirements, after you take the “necessary” four years of math, science, language and history… you only have a very limited time frame.</p>
<p>Senior year schedule:
AP Latin
CIS Econ (1st semester)
AP Calc (AB)
AP Bio
English (post AP) a lot practice in writing good critical/analytical essays IMO.
Speech (required of all seniors in line with senior speech)- 1st semester
Printmaking (last required art credit)</p>
<p>Also second semester seniors are done with school after AP exams and do a special senior project. (Basically, they get them the heck out of the bldg so as not to distract the underclassmen!)</p>
<p>My son had a good time in HS, worked his butt off in some classes and in others did what he had to do. He played 3 sports for three years and also had a ton of friends and some serious down time. Also, he never did summer work before taking AP classes - what’s with that? Are these semester only AP’s? </p>
<p>In the end, the college he is going to attend only accepts five classes for credit and, except ifor a few cases, these do not excuse you from entry level classes. It’s a top 10 LAC and I am not worried about his being able to handle the work in the least. He stayed up past midnight to study less than a handful of time his entire four years of HS. I never understood the kids who were having to study until 2am, thinking to myself, that’s what you do in college, not HS.</p>
<p>I know it’s just opinion, and it’s not slamming the conversation, but I am just adding that as senior schedules go, they really have less to do with the college application process than classes taken junior year. And in all sincerity, I do hope all these super-achievers know how to sit and simply wonder about the world sometimes. It amazes me how, as a society, we’re losing our ability to just “be.”</p>
<p>Agreed. Just as you can’t live without the regenerative power of sleep, I don’t think you can truly learn without the regenerative power of vegging out under the stars once in a while.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with this at all. I know plenty of super academics who don’t have the ability to be curious in the least! And I know others who are surprisingly academic, who have incredible wit and are always having a lot of fun in life. Over half the graduating class of son’s HS are attending schools consistently rated in the top 20 of CLA’s and Universities. Over a dozen to Ivies. I’m just saying that taking a slew of AP’s or loading your schedule up with academic endeavors is not the definition of deep and thoughtful intelligence. Nor is it the only thing colleges consider in the application process.</p>
<p>S1’s school had an eight period day (plus lunch). Most of the junior/senior year courses were one-semester, so he had an opportunity to take a lot of interesting stuff. S2 has a seven period day and six IB courses. Between the “shorter” day and state-mandated graduation requirements, there is not a lot of room for other options. OTOH, his senior schedule reflects his interests pretty accurately, though I know there are a couple of courses he could never squeeze in that he really wanted to take.</p>
<p>This reminds me… in 8th grade the kids were given the hs “Course of Study” book that lists all the classes our hs offers, with descriptions. A friend’s son went thru the book and checked off all the Math classes he wanted to take (pretty much every one the school offered). My friend looked at her son and said, “So how many years are you planning to stay in high school?”</p>
<p>Three of my son’s Fall classes (Microbio, Speech, and Organic Chem) are one semester only. Would colleges mind very much if he scheduled easy classes for the Spring semester, to give himself a break? (I’m asking this, but I have a feeling he’ll still schedule hard classes.)</p>
<p>I know colleges occasionally rescind offers of admission due to low Spring-semester grades. But do they ever rescind offers due to the Spring-semester classes being too easy?</p>
<p>Mantori, as long as he’s taking SOMETHING (not 3 study halls) and getting similar grades to what he was getting when he was accepted, he should be fine.</p>
<p>The application will ask what he’s signed up to take in the spring anyway, so there shouldn’t be any surprises.</p>
<p>Thanks, Lafalum84. I don’t think he’ll load up on study halls or cream puff classes like gym, so I guess he’ll be okay. I was thinking more like history and art instead of science and math. (I should be ashamed of myself for thinking of history and art as somehow less academically rigorous than science and math, but that’s what we engineers are prone to do!)</p>
<p>Actually, my son, since so many AP’s were year long, had held off on that one art to specifically take second semester of senior year… still, it was part of the required courses. he didn’t take another history class second semester and so, yes, he had that extra study hall but it was certainly mitigated by the APs. Truth is, second semester of senior year gets SO busy with so much other stuff on the calendar that the last two months simply FLY by and there’s lots of parties and get togthers etc et taking up a lot of time. This is not just specific to S’s school, but was the same for older D back in 2003 public school. </p>
<p>My dd is taking AP Art History, AP World History, AP English, AP Spanish, Film, Chemistry (yuck for her), Comparative Religion/Economics/Government (one per trimester).
She’s student council president, so it will be a busy year!</p>
<p>S1 actually took the slightly easier schedule in the fall of senior year. Turned out to be a very wise move. He “made up” for it with a heavy schedule courseload second semester – but one with courses he really liked, which kept him motivated.</p>
<p>Honors Senior English was unquestionably the hardest course – because the teacher assigned art projects and other stupid %$#$. He was SO ready to move on to real English!</p>
<p>I can’t believe parents have nothing better to do than occupy themselves around their kids. I am seriously laughing my bu$$ off. I am a senior with a schedule:
AP CALCULUS
AP STATISTICS
AP PHYSICS
AP EUROPEAN HISTORY
HONORS ENGLISH
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Either you are too obsessive with your kids or you are desperately trying to help them succeed and later on in life they will fail because you all will not be pushing them anymore.
I am so glad that my parents do not even know what cc is and they barely care about college admissions aside from what I tell them. This resulted in me being independent without an obsessive parent. Do your kids a favor, please.
Sincerely, president of many clubs and a winner of many awards/certificates(just so you know we’re not wasting our time here). Go Yale!</p>