Give me an idea what classes 9th graders register for?

[Anonymous]

We are going to be new to MCPS and the registration seems so overwhelming. We looked over what would be our MS into into high school selection, the slideshows, etc... There is no help. My DD has guidance counselors each that helped with classes in middle school. Yet I am falling short with getting help.

My DD has been in all honors courses for science (bio/earth) math (geometry) and US history, and has already taken 2 years of HS Spanish and 1 year of HS ASL.

The pathways are so ridiculously confusing and adding capstones and other options. Very overwhelmed. Can anyone give me an idea of a typical course load for freshman who is very smart but also has a life outside of school/homework

[Anonymous]

My freshman is finishing up this year, they took:
APUSH, honors bio, honors algebra 2, honors English, Spanish 3, creative writing, soccer/yoga

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman is finishing up this year, they took:
APUSH, honors bio, honors algebra 2, honors English, Spanish 3, creative writing, soccer/yoga

And my kid did have a life outside of school, JV sports and a social life.

[Anonymous]

wht is APUSH?

[Anonymous]

My humanities kid took:

- AP US Gov (with AP US History, AP World History and Philosophy/Sociology/AP Micro and AP Macroeconomics in subsequent years)

- AP Computer Science Principles to satisfy tech requirement and increase weighted GPA

- English 9 (with English 10, AP Lang then AP Lit later)

- Honors Algebra 2 (which led to AP Calc BC)

- Honors Bio (then Honors Chem and Honors Phys)

- Latin 2 (which led to AP Latin, and he took AP French in 10th grade privately since we're French citizens)

- and some elective I can't remember. There is a health requirement he took during the summer because at the time it was a one semester course, and he fulfilled his PE requirement at some point.

[Anonymous]

APUSH is AP US History. It varies by high school if they allow 9th graders to take this or not. Some school have 9th graders take AP Government instead, or Honors US History.

[Anonymous]

Different schools have different recommendations

[Anonymous]

Which high school will your kid be attending? Each school does things a little differently, and their web site should have a page in the Counseling section about registration for rising 9th graders.

[Anonymous]

17:41 again. If your child is organized and processes information quickly, he can choose to load up his schedule with AP courses. For kids who are a little immature, it's sometimes best to wait until 10th grade. But then, if they want to play the college arms race, they have to take a good many later, which gets intense if the chosen APs are time-consuming (a lot of reading AP World History) and/or intellectually challenging (AP Physics C- yikes!).

I made a chart for my kid, which took into account his academic preferences (he knew he wasn't a science person), the MCPS graduation requirements (tech, PE, health, art, language), the MD requirements (math class every year), and niggly things like that health class which was only one semester (this may have changed).

All high schools have special programs your child may or may be eligible for or interested in. Check with your counselor, but don't agonize too much, because at the end of the day, colleges just want: the highest GPA kids can possibly get while challenging themselves with the most challenging coursework their high school offers. So it's a game of finding which challenging courses your kid can get As in (unless it's AP Physics C or AP Calc BC, which are very demanding and a B is pretty good).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
17:41 again. If your child is organized and processes information quickly, he can choose to load up his schedule with AP courses. For kids who are a little immature, it's sometimes best to wait until 10th grade. But then, if they want to play the college arms race, they have to take a good many later, which gets intense if the chosen APs are time-consuming (a lot of reading AP World History) and/or intellectually challenging (AP Physics C- yikes!).

I made a chart for my kid, which took into account his academic preferences (he knew he wasn't a science person), the MCPS graduation requirements (tech, PE, health, art, language), the MD requirements (math class every year), and niggly things like that health class which was only one semester (this may have changed).

All high schools have special programs your child may or may be eligible for or interested in. Check with your counselor, but don't agonize too much, because at the end of the day, colleges just want: the highest GPA kids can possibly get while challenging themselves with the most challenging coursework their high school offers. So it's a game of finding which challenging courses your kid can get As in (unless it's AP Physics C or AP Calc BC, which are very demanding and a B is pretty good).

Point being: I realized when my son was signing up for 9th grade courses that we actually needed to chart his whole high school course progression at that time. So we really took the time to assess what he wanted to do. Since you're not signing up in winter like the MCPS 8th graders, please double check with the high school that your child can still sign up for all his desired courses (some may be full up).

[Anonymous]

Call or email their future guidance counselor. They talked me through it and got my kid registered. She was really nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different schools have different recommendations

+1
Tell us your school and wait for someone from that school to respond. People around here have strong opinions, but the norms differ by school, so ignore advice of someone from a different school (or doesn't specify). Kids will end up with the same basic courses by senior year, but the preferred order differs by school for some reason.