High rigor kid may have 2 free periods senior year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has 2 free periods and accepted to a Top 20 (ranked 10-20).

No explaining. 5 of the 6 classes are AP, and the kid has taken 8 AP through junior year (four 5s and four 4s)...so will be 13 in total through senior year.

Literally, just submitted his transcript through junior year and input senior schedule. Never mentioned anything about the two free periods and the school never asked.

+1, same here

[Anonymous]

OP here: Yes, he will be trying for a few top colleges.

What he will do with 2 free periods:
Semster 1: 1) college apps 2)volunteer math tutor in school's academic center so he won't be doing it as much during lunch and after school like he does this year.

Semester 2: 1) continue tutoring 2) more college apps if EA/ED doesn't work out 3) go out for lunch with friends which he has no time for this year

Sounds like a good use of time to me but I'm no AO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Yes, he will be trying for a few top colleges.

What he will do with 2 free periods:
Semster 1: 1) college apps 2)volunteer math tutor in school's academic center so he won't be doing it as much during lunch and after school like he does this year.

Semester 2: 1) continue tutoring 2) more college apps if EA/ED doesn't work out 3) go out for lunch with friends which he has no time for this year

Sounds like a good use of time to me but I'm no AO.

Sounds good to me. If he already has enough rigor, it's fine. Senior year balance is a major plus for quality of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges just see the courses you take, not your daily schedule. Our competitive private school advises kids to take 5 core academic classes each year: english, math, history, science, foreign language. Having free periods first semester senior year is good if doesnt interfere with the core academic classes. Applications and essay writing and pressure on senior q1 grades is intense! (My kid did extra electives in 9th/10th but dropped after to keep up grades in core subjects). Kid got ed1 acceptance so pressure is now off. Don't underestimate the amount of time and work required to submit strong application essays...

Op here. Thanks for this. Sounds reasonable to me.

I think I will have him ask his counselor about this since I'm getting a lot of different answers here. I've seen the school profile and there's nothing indicating how many classes are required, but maybe the counselor lists it separately somewhere.

In general, every year he has 8 slots to fill (which includes PE). So even if he gets 2 free periods next year because he's doing p.e. early, 7 slots will be filled, which will appear as 1 free period. I guess that's correct from what most people here are saying. In any event, we will confirm with the counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has this ever happened to your kid? If so, how did they explain it to colleges in their application materials?

Scenario is DS signed up for early p.e. next year so he could take 2 additional AP courses during the school year. (His school only allows a few APs for sophomore year, so many kids take 4-5 APs junior and senior years. He is taking 5 this year.) In his counselor meeting today, he was told that he isn't allowed to take 2 social science APs in one year and the second math AP cannot be guaranteed. He will most likely have 1 free period next year and quite possibly 2. He has no interest in taking "filler" non-AP courses in these slots, but he has run out of APs to take otherwise.

Would colleges see/notice that he took early p.e., making at least one of the free periods justifiable? He says he could work on college apps during the one free period at least.

Thoughts, other ideas welcome.

I would explain to him that a non-AP class is not "filler." They are classes. They are normal high school classes and some of them are a higher level than many AP classes. His high school career is not a college application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would encourage a fun elective. Some kids find their calling in those “filler” classes.

This.

I know kids like to bulk up in 1-2 study halls and then 5 grade weighted 5.0 hi notes or AP classes but high school should be a time to try new things or your favorite teachers’ electives.

I tried accounting, current events and British lit. Plus my language didn’t have AP.

True the valediction was a 5.0 kid with two study halls most of jr senior year, who cheated on AP tests by writing notes on her shoes. But by graduation everyone but Purdue saw through her…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember also the perverse situation that any nonAP will lower their GPA. DS had 2 free period but got all As in 5 AP courses - which apparently impressed the admissions committee at his top 40 first choice college.

This is exactly what DS told me. Non-AP will affect weighted GPA more so than a free period.

No DE offerings at his high school are at the appropriate level or in an area of interest. They are Intro to Life Sciences, Nurse Assistant Training etc. There's also MV Calc/Linear Algebra but that is the 1 math AP he's guaranteed to get next year.

As for transcript, the name of the class is "Early Bird PE" so I guess it will be listed as such? Maybe AOs have no time to look at granular detail though.

Hate this weighted vs non weighted class ranking GPA BS.

AUDIT the elective and take 1 study hall, if needed.
Can you audit two classes per semester? Then do that and have fun.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No way.....1 free period is fine, not 2.

+1. Top schools are looking to see if your kid can handle the rigor of college -two free periods says no

said nobody ever

There is advice against free periods from college counselors and admissions officers. Take an elective.

My child's school requires a free period, for everyone. I don't believe that anyone has given this blanket advice.

Then your school would have that in their profile that they send. That's irrelevant here. If your school DOESN'T require a free period, having 2 will impact rigor.

stop saying this. it's not universally true.

At DC's public high school, the free period is not mentioned. Only classes in which the child is enrolled. I would still recommend some other electives just to round out the education - art, psych, econ, environmental science, stats, etc.

Psych not allowed since he will be taking Euro History. Apparently 2 AP SS/History classes not allowed at this school. Counselor said something about lack of teachers, which sounds sketchy to me.

He's taking Stats this year (along with Calc BC). Will essentially be taking 2 science class next year (Physics and Chem alternating in 1 block period). Has already taken Econ.

I guess the answer here is ap Environmental Science (not really interested), or a non-AP fun elective, which will not be fun for him. He will see it as a waste of time.

Thanks everyone for your input -

Request an exception. They do this, private or public high schools for students in good standing. Then he can take two lib arts classes at once. Bfd. Ask again, pitch it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:mine had two. now at yale.

how would a college even know you had a free period. your transcript just list classes

Even a Yale AO can count to 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Yes, he will be trying for a few top colleges.

What he will do with 2 free periods:
Semster 1: 1) college apps 2)volunteer math tutor in school's academic center so he won't be doing it as much during lunch and after school like he does this year.

Semester 2: 1) continue tutoring 2) more college apps if EA/ED doesn't work out 3) go out for lunch with friends which he has no time for this year

Sounds like a good use of time to me but I'm no AO.

Hmm.

Waste of an opportunity to learn more and try something new, but up to him.

Colleges aren’t stupid and know what schools are on an 8 person schedule or block schedule. As long as you can demonstrate you did something productive with your two hours a day of blow off time….

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No way.....1 free period is fine, not 2.

+1. Top schools are looking to see if your kid can handle the rigor of college -two free periods says no

said nobody ever

There is advice against free periods from college counselors and admissions officers. Take an elective.

GPA wreckers

Once the gpa is over 4.0 it’s splitting hairs.

not when UVA has a 4.4 floor

UVA doesn't have a 4.4 floor for electives, and someone maxed out on APs is far above 4.4 anyway.

One semester of a non honors class is a 0.02 GPA doffe

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No way.....1 free period is fine, not 2.

+1. Top schools are looking to see if your kid can handle the rigor of college -two free periods says no

said nobody ever

There is advice against free periods from college counselors and admissions officers. Take an elective.

My child's school requires a free period, for everyone. I don't believe that anyone has given this blanket advice.

Then your school would have that in their profile that they send. That's irrelevant here. If your school DOESN'T require a free period, having 2 will impact rigor.

stop saying this. it's not universally true.

At DC's public high school, the free period is not mentioned. Only classes in which the child is enrolled. I would still recommend some other electives just to round out the education - art, psych, econ, environmental science, stats, etc.

They don’t have to mention it. The school profile will say that students have seven periods a day. Then, the admissions officer will see that Johnny takes six classes a day. He doesn’t need someone to spell out that one of those periods is missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: Yes, he will be trying for a few top colleges.

What he will do with 2 free periods:
Semster 1: 1) college apps 2)volunteer math tutor in school's academic center so he won't be doing it as much during lunch and after school like he does this year.

Semester 2: 1) continue tutoring 2) more college apps if EA/ED doesn't work out 3) go out for lunch with friends which he has no time for this year

Sounds like a good use of time to me but I'm no AO.

Everyone else is doing that plus 7 classes.

But I'm sure going out to restaurants for lunch will put him over the top, assuming he has 3 martinis.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No way.....1 free period is fine, not 2.

+1. Top schools are looking to see if your kid can handle the rigor of college -two free periods says no

said nobody ever

There is advice against free periods from college counselors and admissions officers. Take an elective.

GPA wreckers

Once the gpa is over 4.0 it’s splitting hairs.

not when UVA has a 4.4 floor

UVA doesn't have a 4.4 floor for electives, and someone maxed out on APs is far above 4.4 anyway.

One semester of a non honors class is a 0.02 GPA doffe

My kid is taking the maximum number of APs allowed by their school and has always had A’s and will not have a 4.4. The number presented by UVA is not adjusted for the differences in waiting at different schools. The dean has said that 1 million times.

[Anonymous]

At the very least he should self-study for an AP and/or do an online self-paced AP class or college-level class.