Junior Year Schedule. Top Student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No foreign language?

Taking level 4 this year and is DONE. I would love for him to continue but am not pushing it. He literally complains about Spanish daily and his schedule next year is hard.

Isn't it a big deal for colleges to see 3+ years of foreign language in high school? From everything I've heard, it doesn't matter how far a student gets in a language but instead how many years they take in high school. So even though he got to Spanish 4 in Sophomore year, colleges will see 2 years of language. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!

That is what everyone says on this board. It seems beyond dumb to me. My younger kid is in Spanish 2 in 8th grade. He hates Spanish, and taking 3 more years is NOT what he wants to do. If the bolded is actually correct, he'd be better off starting over in Spanish 1 next year and just gliding through it through his junior year. Can that possibly be what colleges want? It seems very a**-backwards. My older kid will end up in Spanish 7 by graduation, but they like Spanish okay, so that's okay for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume it is Blair magnet. Why is he taking AP classes instead of magnet electives?

Wouldn’t be Blair, as magnet kids dont take AP comp class or AP calc. They take the tests, but not the ap classes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No foreign language?

Taking level 4 this year and is DONE. I would love for him to continue but am not pushing it. He literally complains about Spanish daily and his schedule next year is hard.

Isn't it a big deal for colleges to see 3+ years of foreign language in high school? From everything I've heard, it doesn't matter how far a student gets in a language but instead how many years they take in high school. So even though he got to Spanish 4 in Sophomore year, colleges will see 2 years of language. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!

Yes. Competitive colleges want the FL. MS doesn’t count, in the college’s eyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No foreign language?

Taking level 4 this year and is DONE. I would love for him to continue but am not pushing it. He literally complains about Spanish daily and his schedule next year is hard.

Isn't it a big deal for colleges to see 3+ years of foreign language in high school? From everything I've heard, it doesn't matter how far a student gets in a language but instead how many years they take in high school. So even though he got to Spanish 4 in Sophomore year, colleges will see 2 years of language. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!

That is what everyone says on this board. It seems beyond dumb to me. My younger kid is in Spanish 2 in 8th grade. He hates Spanish, and taking 3 more years is NOT what he wants to do. If the bolded is actually correct, he'd be better off starting over in Spanish 1 next year and just gliding through it through his junior year. Can that possibly be what colleges want? It seems very a**-backwards. My older kid will end up in Spanish 7 by graduation, but they like Spanish okay, so that's okay for them.

Your child will be able to test out of FL in college. Many colleges require it, unless you either took the AP test or can test out of their test at the college. In terms of college, they want to see rigor. FL is rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is considering taking the following classes…
AP Cal BC
AP Physics DP
AP Lang
AP World
Beyond AP CS (Formerly AP CS 2). He’s taking Java this year.
Easy Elective

How rough common is this schedule? He’s taking 2 APs as a sophomore NSL and Java. He has straight As but not 100s in his classes. He works hard for his grades.

He’s not a top student but is in a magnet program.

.

Not to rain on your parade, or your great student, but lots of kid have similar. And for what it’s worth, Poolesville/Blair kids take Physics in 9th, and a lot are done with the equivalent of AP comp sci in 10th (and take the test in 10th). Most take the AP calc test in either 10 or 11. Most kids i know take AP World and AP lang in 11th, most take an AP foreign lang (or at least a foreign lang in 11th). Everyone knows that 11th grade is the toughest of all the grades….. Your kids should take the classes they want/think colleges want, and things they enjoy. This is MoCo- this schedule is like most of ours kids…..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No foreign language?

Taking level 4 this year and is DONE. I would love for him to continue but am not pushing it. He literally complains about Spanish daily and his schedule next year is hard.

Isn't it a big deal for colleges to see 3+ years of foreign language in high school? From everything I've heard, it doesn't matter how far a student gets in a language but instead how many years they take in high school. So even though he got to Spanish 4 in Sophomore year, colleges will see 2 years of language. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!

That is what everyone says on this board. It seems beyond dumb to me. My younger kid is in Spanish 2 in 8th grade. He hates Spanish, and taking 3 more years is NOT what he wants to do. If the bolded is actually correct, he'd be better off starting over in Spanish 1 next year and just gliding through it through his junior year. Can that possibly be what colleges want? It seems very a**-backwards. My older kid will end up in Spanish 7 by graduation, but they like Spanish okay, so that's okay for them.

Yep. Very a**-backwards but it is what it is.

Note - did your son get As in middle school Spanish 1 and 2? If he did, he may not be allowed to retake Spanish 1 and 2 in high school.

My DD - not a big fan of languages either - had As in Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school. Signed up for Spanish 3 as a freshmen. It was kinda challenging for her so she tried to see if she could just retake Spanish 1. She was told she couldn't because she already got As in those classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only concern about that schedule is AP World. It is a slog. It’s a ton of material and memorization. Maybe it’s okay if there isn’t too much rote memorization required for the other classes.

Unfortunately that class is required by his program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No foreign language?

Taking level 4 this year and is DONE. I would love for him to continue but am not pushing it. He literally complains about Spanish daily and his schedule next year is hard.

Isn't it a big deal for colleges to see 3+ years of foreign language in high school? From everything I've heard, it doesn't matter how far a student gets in a language but instead how many years they take in high school. So even though he got to Spanish 4 in Sophomore year, colleges will see 2 years of language. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong!

I’ve heard that as well but if a college doesn’t take him for that reason so be it- it wasn’t the right fit. I think it’s stupid if they take a kid who got through Spanish 3 in HS vs one who got through Spanish 4 but two of those years were in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only concern about that schedule is AP World. It is a slog. It’s a ton of material and memorization. Maybe it’s okay if there isn’t too much rote memorization required for the other classes.

Not as bad as AP US which presumably he already took and passed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only concern about that schedule is AP World. It is a slog. It’s a ton of material and memorization. Maybe it’s okay if there isn’t too much rote memorization required for the other classes.

And many colleges do not give credit for it (UMD)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is considering taking the following classes…
AP Cal BC
AP Physics DP
AP Lang
AP World
Beyond AP CS (Formerly AP CS 2). He’s taking Java this year.
Easy Elective

How rough common is this schedule? He’s taking 2 APs as a sophomore NSL and Java. He has straight As but not 100s in his classes. He works hard for his grades.

He’s not a top student but is in a magnet program.

.

Not to rain on your parade, or your great student, but lots of kid have similar. And for what it’s worth, Poolesville/Blair kids take Physics in 9th, and a lot are done with the equivalent of AP comp sci in 10th (and take the test in 10th). Most take the AP calc test in either 10 or 11. Most kids i know take AP World and AP lang in 11th, most take an AP foreign lang (or at least a foreign lang in 11th). Everyone knows that 11th grade is the toughest of all the grades….. Your kids should take the classes they want/think colleges want, and things they enjoy. This is MoCo- this schedule is like most of ours kids…..

My son is taking AP CS A this year as a sophomore. Well that makes me feel better that the schedule isn’t too uncommon! Mental health is important so I want to make sure that the schedule isn’t too much pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only concern about that schedule is AP World. It is a slog. It’s a ton of material and memorization. Maybe it’s okay if there isn’t too much rote memorization required for the other classes.

And many colleges do not give credit for it (UMD)

UMD does give credit or they did for my 2021 graduate- it’s just elective though not a history credit which is annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is considering taking the following classes…
AP Cal BC
AP Physics DP
AP Lang
AP World
Beyond AP CS (Formerly AP CS 2). He’s taking Java this year.
Easy Elective

How rough common is this schedule? He’s taking 2 APs as a sophomore NSL and Java. He has straight As but not 100s in his classes. He works hard for his grades.

He’s not a top student but is in a magnet program.

.

Not to rain on your parade, or your great student, but lots of kid have similar. And for what it’s worth, Poolesville/Blair kids take Physics in 9th, and a lot are done with the equivalent of AP comp sci in 10th (and take the test in 10th). Most take the AP calc test in either 10 or 11. Most kids i know take AP World and AP lang in 11th, most take an AP foreign lang (or at least a foreign lang in 11th). Everyone knows that 11th grade is the toughest of all the grades….. Your kids should take the classes they want/think colleges want, and things they enjoy. This is MoCo- this schedule is like most of ours kids…..

My son is taking AP CS A this year as a sophomore. Well that makes me feel better that the schedule isn’t too uncommon! Mental health is important so I want to make sure that the schedule isn’t too much pressure.

Just for clarification the next CS class he’ll take next year is beyond AP in his magnet.