We received Rite's schedule options for next year. He can take AP English or Honors English for language arts. AP Biology or regular chemistry for science. AP History or AP Social Studies (??) or regular history or social studies.

How many AP course should he take the first time around? How many should he take total to make himself competitive for the "good" universities?

His guidance counselor has not returned our calls or answered his request for an appointment. rrrrrgggh!!

What have your experiences been?

I have an additional question for those of you out there who answer Willa Gayle�s post.

I heard that our public HS does not denote AP or honors level next to the subject on the report card. Is this possible?

Willa,
I have no experience but have you been browsing college confidential? You will find a lot of insight coming both from kids and parents.
Ania

Thanks, Ania, for that college confidential tip. That looks promising. I've emailed the link to Rite, too.

Delbows, that is kind of strange. Does that mean they don't support these accelerated subjects? Does the report card reflect a greater than 4.0 grade if the kid gets an A in the AP or honors course? For example, our school gives a kid a 4.25 if he passes an AP course with an A. I'm not sure if that means the kid has to pass the AP exam or just the course -- I'm baffled by this AP stuff. 8^P

I've spent so much time the last 9 months thinking about Mite's issues, that I've been letting Rite float. Now I realize I'm going to have to play catch for him.

If I were to guess what this means (assuming the person who stated this is credible) is that they want to discourage parents from insisting that their kid get into the �higher� classes. If they do not annotate that the class is higher level, some people will opt to go with the easier class to ensure a higher grade (and GPA). I don�t know the specifics to this or even who to contact at the school to find out.
The thought of dealing with public schools again makes me nauseous. I hate having conversations where both parties understand the undercurrent, but the official has to stick to their script.
I guess I will ask my kids� friends� parents for clarification. However, if this is their policy, it is probably indicative of more **** all around which is the reason we left the public grade school.

Hi willagayle,

Are you talking about junior year or sophmore year? AP English, AP social science, etc are usually only for Junior or above.

My older daughter is a sophmore. She is taking AP chem plus 4 other honor classes this year. But she plan to take 4-5 AP classes next year. For sophmore year, I would suggest just try one to get a feel of the workload and difficulty. If he can handle it, then go all out in junior and senior year. There is difference between Honor class and AP class in terms of workload. Keep in mind that you also need to take AP exam too.

How many AP classes you need to be competitive in top universities? That is hard to say but more than a couple is my guess :-). That also has something to do with what is offered by the school. For example, if your school only has 5 AP classes and you take all of them, then you are taking the hardest classes it has to offer. But if your school offers 20 AP classes and you only take 2, then you can not claim the same way.

My daughter is in a public school. Her transcript clearly indicates the course level (Honor or AP). The school even gives 1 point extra for Honor/AP classes, so their weighted GPA could get to 4.6 or something like that. But many universities recalculate GPA so they can compare students in a consistent manner. Each university has its own way of GPA recalculation, some take away the extra points for AP/Honor, some strip away non-academic classes such as band and some do not include 9th grade GPA at all. It is just a mess.

Willa Gayle -
I'm going to be quite sharp with you now. Brace yourself.

Please tell me that you have local friends who have sent their kids off to competitive colleges and their kids have taken classes at Rite's school. If you don't, then put it in gear and cultivate some, ok? Obviously what was "hard" for one kid will be "easy" for another, but you should be able to find someone who reminds you of Rite and has been there, done that, yes?

Also, is there a drop/add period, so that kids can try things out and change their minds? Can Rite talk to the teachers and get a peek at the course outlines to get an idea of how much work it is and how approachable the teachers are? What does Rite say he wants?

This is a tough one,
Best Wishes,
Trinity

I think there are 8 AP courses offered. I'll have to look. Rite is a freshman this year, but he's being offered AP for sophmore year.

I think the grades are weighted to 4.25 max which is supposed to be in line with the state's university grading system. I THINK.

Trin-Yes I have a couple of friends who have sent their kids to competitive colleges, but none are local. I do have a friend whose 2 kids did quite a bit of AP and they are in a near by city. I do not know of any kids from our local high school who have been to a Tier 1 college, though. Our local high school has only been open 4 years or so.

I seriously do not know any other kid like Rite or Mite. We live in Redneckville. Many many of the parents I know around here do not want their kids to take a foreign language because they think their kids won't ever have to interact with a foreigner (they say this to me, wife of foreigner:^). Obviously there are other top kids in the school, but Rite is a minority and hangs out with the minorities, as is common for minorities in primarily majority schools. Two of his friends are in the top 20 students, the rest are scattered throughout the ranks.

Rite isn't a nerdy type of kid. He's very outgoing and personable. Most of the kids I know who have those traits aren't great students.

So, we're looking.

Rite wants to take all of them next year. I think he said he was to do AP English AP American History AP BIOLOGY and Algebra II. I think that's what he said. I feel badly he's only at Algebra II next year. That's my fault. Long story...some other post down the road.

oh and the guidance counselor has called and set an appt for next week. she said the deadline was "loose" and things could be changed.

If the school only offers 8 AP classes, then I would say 'what is the hurry'. If he can do one AP in 10th grade, 4 APs in 11th and 3 in 12th. Then he can finish them all.

AP English and AP history (US or world) usually go together. AP Bio may have prerequisites. Is he taking biology or chemistry this year? If not, going straight to AP bio may be a challenge. If your son really wants to do AP bio and doesn't have any background at this moment, he may take a class in a local junior college or a distance learning program such as CTY over the summer.

We want to encourage our kids to take on hard classes but we also need to make sure that they can be successful in them.

he's had bio this year. I'll check into the distance learning options for summer.

I agree. I want him to learn to stand to a challenge, but I don't want him to get such a shock that he loses faith.

I'm sorry if my "redneck" comment offended people. Apparently the way we use the term around here isn't as politically incorrect as it is in other parts of the country. I would edit the comment out of the post, but I can't figure out how to do that.

sorry sorry