Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Ack! HS dropped a needed class-- what to do?

Okay-- so. German. DD is applying to some pretty elite colleges (Stanford, MIT, HMC, etc.) and she MUST-must-must-must have foreign language. Not 'dabbling' a year here in one, a year there in another.

She's got over a year of German at this point, and we were set for her to take a second. In fact, we made arrangements for better off-line support in this course already (since 32 hours a year didn't seem like adequate instruction to us)...

but now the school does not have a teacher for this class at all.

Options:

a) see what the school comes up with-- though for another student we know enrolled in German I this year, it was apparently "take Digital photography. And ASL. Again."

b) try to get the school to pay for college enrollment-- at local University. (Unlikely, let's just say-- extremely so, in my opinion after nearly a decade with them. The second major problem is that with classes still 6 weeks away-- all that DD can get is a seat on a waiting list for ANY foreign language there).

c) Independent study(???) Obviously this won't be on her transcripts. I wonder how much that will matter. But there is no way around the fact that she has NO means of having TWO years of the same foreign language on them at this point. She's taken different languages (if you count ASL), but not more than a year.

d) SAT II subject after independent study.

e) CLEP after independent study.

What would you do-- and why?

I left off one other option--

community ed (non-credit) classes in ASL through local community college.

The problem with ANY of these options is-- how on earth do we make it so that her application isn't "weeded" automatically at the colleges she'll be applying to??

I thought you could get credit with CTY? Check with them and see how much it counts, how they have been used with other students.

THANK YOU-- I know that we looked at EPGY open enrollment at one time, but recall that DD has no IQ scores-- so whatever she enrolls in, it needs to be "open" in that respect.

WHEW! She qualifies at CTY via her PSAT scores, it looks like. YAY!

Not-so-great is that she can't take German with CTY.

In unrelated GOOD news, she can take Precalculus via CTY.

There was a recent thread here about online German courses, I believe it was started by kcab; there was also a recent discussion of same on the well-trained mind forum. Not at home now so too difficult to provide links-sorry.

Thanks-- I'll look for it after I take DD to work.

HK - Whatever you choose to do, find a way to put a note in her common application stating that the high school dropped German her senior year, so she did 'whatever' to continue her German studies. It probably actually doesn't matter too much what she does as long as she does SOMETHING. She is a rising senior, right? So any self study/AP-CLEP option will come to fruition (taking the test) after her admission decisions are complete. She also could possibly take an online course at a college (if you search for "online german classes college credit" some options come up). You would have to pay (but honestly, you would have to pay for CTY too!). You also might just check with the other talent search programs like NUMATS and TIPS to see if they are offering anything, although I think it is unlikely.

The common app changed this year and I am not sure if they still allow this, but previouly there was a section where you could put "additional information". This is just the kind of stuff that goes in there. I would not sweat it too much... my D2 dropped foreign language altogether 2nd semester of jr year due to a scheduling conflict. She self studied and picked up the next year again. Colleges did not seem to care at all.

It could actually work in her favor. Colleges like to see that the kid showed some kind of initiative to go beyond what their high school offers and to get over roadblocks when they occur.

Yeah-- I'm thinking this, as well. If she could take the German SAT II in December (unfortunately, German isn't offered other than in December and June), that might also work in her favor-- particularly if she were to additionally pick up Spanish I and enroll in Spanish II for Winter term at the local CC, too.

I'd love it if she were to CLEP a pair of languages in the spring-- I think that would definitely make her look okay.

Honestly, it's not the end of the world as long as there is a way to make sure that her application isn't DQ'ed automatically by institutions.

In fact, it will improve her class rank somewhat if German II isn't included in her GPA, since it's unweighted.

She certainly has plenty of credits to graduate without it.

The University of Missouri's online high school offers German. Open enrollment, accredited, cheap.

As for extra help, you could put an ad on Craifslist and hire a tutor for a couple hours (or whatever) per week.

Thank you, Val-- that's exactly what I needed.

There is also a university that does a TON of extension/distance coursework-- Nebraska? Or is it Iowa? Illinois? One of the midwestern states.

I'd love, if she can't get it onto her regular high school transcript (and hey-- she probably can't)-- for her to take a college course here, because that could be a good move strategically for her.