Course selection in High School

[Anonymous]

Hello all! Are there any tips or tricks to consider when selecting high school classes to get to the highest weight / unweighted GPA for college admissions. For example, someone told us that keep PE for the senior year because you can only get a 4.0 and instead take an AP class so the GPA presented at the time of college applications will be higher. Are there other things like this to consider? Or in other words, what would your child do differently if they were picking up 9th grade course selections with the benefit of going through college applications.

[Anonymous]

The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

[Anonymous]

Please don't contribute to (or fall prey to) this type of arms race -- it's toxic, as the PP said.

Colleges will recalculate GPAs based on core/academic classes, so having an A in a non-weighted PE class shouldn't matter for admissions. MCPS doesn't rank students, so trying to get ahead of other students like this isn't a big factor to consider.

What does matter is taking rigorous classes in core academic areas and doing well, so concentrate on helping your child choose the best classes for them in those areas. If a non-weighted art or PE class appeals to them, or is a good way to balance an otherwise rigorous schedule and help with the transition to high school, it can be a good choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

There's no Honors PE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

There's no Honors PE.

May have meant Honors Health which is part of the PE department but a seperate credit requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

There's no Honors PE.

Yeah you're right, sorry, I meant HON Health. They take that the summer before HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello all! Are there any tips or tricks to consider when selecting high school classes to get to the highest weight / unweighted GPA for college admissions. For example, someone told us that keep PE for the senior year because you can only get a 4.0 and instead take an AP class so the GPA presented at the time of college applications will be higher. Are there other things like this to consider? Or in other words, what would your child do differently if they were picking up 9th grade course selections with the benefit of going through college applications.

If you want your kids to be successful help them pick classes that are appropriate rigor.

I can’t imagine the difference between when a kid takes PE is seriously impacting kids chances at top tier schools.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I'm a fan of kids taking PE in 9th grade with their age appropriate peers as a great way to meet new friends in HS in a very low stakes environment where socializing is not frowned upon

[Anonymous]

I’m the parent of a current HYP student who took PE in 9th and other unweighted electives like creative writing in 10th and 11th. She had a rigorous schedule otherwise but she enjoyed these other classes and they made her high school experience more fun. Colleges will ALL recalculate GPAs according to their own system and will not penalize your kids for taking PE or chorus or art for a couple of semesters. This is completely unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

There's no Honors PE.

There’s also no summer PE so that PP is full of shit.

[Anonymous]

Wait, there are honors and non-honors electives? So if a kid picks electives they're passionate about and they don't happen to be honors, while other kids are taking honors electives, that would bring down their GPA like 0.2-0.3 right off the bat, right? And aren't schools like UMCP really focused on the top GPA kids for acceptance? Gosh, this sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, there are honors and non-honors electives? So if a kid picks electives they're passionate about and they don't happen to be honors, while other kids are taking honors electives, that would bring down their GPA like 0.2-0.3 right off the bat, right? And aren't schools like UMCP really focused on the top GPA kids for acceptance? Gosh, this sucks.

There are not really honors electives. Pretty sure Health is Honors for All. The tech credit requirement doesn't have a traditional honors class but you can fill the credit obligation with selected AP courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who really run games with their GPAs are doing Hon PE the summer before high school online, taking only HON electives and APs with like 2 non-weighted classes total their entire high school career, and adding in community college classes.

My kid took two regular art electives in 9th and 10th. They regret it because their weighted GPA is 4.79 and they want a 4.9+. They have two semester Bs and several DE classes.

It's so toxic, OP. I wish it wasn't.

There is no online or summer school pe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, there are honors and non-honors electives? So if a kid picks electives they're passionate about and they don't happen to be honors, while other kids are taking honors electives, that would bring down their GPA like 0.2-0.3 right off the bat, right? And aren't schools like UMCP really focused on the top GPA kids for acceptance? Gosh, this sucks.

There are not really honors electives. Pretty sure Health is Honors for All. The tech credit requirement doesn't have a traditional honors class but you can fill the credit obligation with selected AP courses.

It does suck. My 8th grader is one of the few left in orchestra this year, as a lot of his classmates left to take Foundations of Computer Science in preparation for 9th grade AP Computer Science. They could take Foundations of Computer Science as a summer school class, but it brings down the GPA as a non-honors class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, there are honors and non-honors electives? So if a kid picks electives they're passionate about and they don't happen to be honors, while other kids are taking honors electives, that would bring down their GPA like 0.2-0.3 right off the bat, right? And aren't schools like UMCP really focused on the top GPA kids for acceptance? Gosh, this sucks.

My kid ended up with a weird amount of non-honors classes and still was accepted to UMD. For example, she took the equivalent of study hall one semester so she could take health as an evening class and she needed a “class” to be allowed to stay on campus during her free period. Needless to say there is no “honors” section of study hall. She also explored various interests in non-honors classes because she hadn’t done the pre-requisites in middle school to start at the honors level. She was in a magnet for middle school that offered less time for electives. I sense many magnet kids end up having to take more non-honors classes than their peers in HS for the same reason.