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Pre IB course selection, 9th grade:

Honors LA 10
AP Calc BC
Spanish III
Honors Geography for Life
Honors Bio
PE
Honors Physics (elective)
Debate (elective)

Eight classes, school runs on block schedule.

The secret, apparently, is to do the "dumb requirements" online during summer or so...I am still finding out...

Cym - go for Biology. How are the kids supposed to perform in Science Olympiads if they are on schedule to take AP sciences only by senior year? You have to have it in your pocket, so to speak, by the time thay are juniors if they are interested in this sort of thing. And I always say - how do you know which one is your favorite, Bio, Chem or Phys if you have only taken physics?

If it concerns you, please do be informed that California University system requires 1 year of fine arts in the same subject. Important for those of us close to California, who knows what college the kid will choose to go to ???

What is your view on the number of years a kid takes math, english, foreing lang, science , social studies IF he/she aspires for top universities?
I have been told by quite a few that FOUR of each if you want to be competitive, no matter what your concentration is going to be.
Any thoughts?

(unlimited time today as I am home with a cold )

I have usually heard three years of a flang. Usually college or AP courses are taken as well.

I am also thinking college visits today. I know, sounds crazy, but we are SO isolated and planning to visit NYC this fall that might as well throw a few colleges into our trip, thinking me

I am thinking that I should probably start close to home, since there are several large universities here that S is a little familiar with, but what about a small, nice LAC, just for a feel of it? Which one will be closest to Utah?

I've heard we might go to 7 period day (wonder how that will work). I wish we had debate as an elective. I really can't figure out what's a verifiable elective (they say it depends how many kids sign up for a class to see if it "makes"). This DS loves science and engineering (at least right now).

I agree I should try for the honors bio (even though it'll be with all sophomores, but that's ok I suppose).

I wish we could get out of the PE requirement. DS will play soccer and practice 3 hrs/day after school every day in the fall and probably tennis in the spring. Sports like basketball and football count toward PE credit, but not others. It's so wrong!

Even our poor high school has MANY trips to the nearby colleges, so I would not spend my time looking at those as much as ones they won't visit. Colorado College in the Springs is supposed to be small LAC that is highly regarded. I know Ghost is talented in many areas but if he is interested in math/science, we just visited NM Tech in Socorro. It is a very good school--probably top 10 technical schools, receiving more money from govt for research than any other school (I've heard). They have so many neat research projects and opportunities. Check out SSP for when he's a junior.

We are going to visit some colleges this summer too for 10th grade DS. Maybe NY (DS is applying to a summer program there are in IL, so we'll see which he gets into/chooses).

At "our" HS kids need 1.5 PE credit for graduation. 1 full credit has to be PE but the 0.5 can be done through participation in sports. G will probably chose cross country, since fencing (his current sport) does not count. I wonder how long he will continue with fencing once this heavy workload begins If he does OK in Calc BC he will run out of math classes for sophomore and junior years (as senior will have to take IB math). Taking U courses will be VERY challenging transportation wise...

Our state requires 4 Eng & 4 math, 3 science to graduate! Can you believe that? Do you really think every high schooler is equipped to take 4 math courses. It's no problem for us--we'd plan to do that, but I just think it sets many up for failure.

Re: college visits. I want him to know what a LAC feels like, as so far he has only been exposed to big U. Will look at Colorado Springs, if DD goes to Denver.