When our DD was in 8th grade they had to pick their first year of high school classes. I asked her to pick some colleges that she thought she wanted to attend, then I suggested a couple more and we wound up with a total of five. One California school, an Ivy, one overseas, the local state school, etc. Then I showed her how to look at the admissions page to see what courses were required/suggested for admission. We divided up the schools (so it would not be overwhelming) and made a list of all the classes that the universities wanted. DD then looked up what was required to graduate from High School here. Put all this in Excel and made columns so that she could see that AP US history would count for high school graduation and was recommended for 4 out of 5 colleges. Then made a 4 year plan for high school.
In the end, her High School program (designed by the school) was so rigid that there was not a lot of wiggle room. She could pick 1-2 classes per year and had options within subjects (i.e. must have PE, can pick tennis, weight lifting, etc). Having a list enabled her to see what she still needed to take every fall when she had to register. Some of her friends parents went further and looked into what the pre-requisites for specific majors at University were.
We did this all again after she had chosen a university and kind of knew what her major/minor (and grad school) plans would be so that she could sign up for freshman year classes at university.
Of course, plans change, and interests may change too, but doing the lists enabled her to see what taking (or not) a class did to her overall goals.
Last edited by brilliantcp; 05/24/18 05:38 PM. Reason: clarity
