Do top colleges "punish" kids for taking fun electives?

[Anonymous]

Band, music, theater are fine.

Home ec and “shop”? Not worth the credits.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think it is a shame that young teens are so career-oriented that they can't explore the Arts or practical/fun skills.

My kid did take Yoga for PE credits once. And I wanted her to take the school's Financial Literacy offering (to learn about credit worthiness, for example, and student loans and buying a car). Unfortunately, she was steered away from it since the counselor thought she was "too smart.." Apparently, they perceive that class as a way for math-challenged kids to meet the graduation requirement.

That is wrong, don't you think? Practical skills come in handy in life.

I do. But I am the parent who is baffled why college prep students need BC Calc unless they are applying for math, engineering, physics or the like. But AP stats is considered a mark against you. I guess Calc is rigorous? But I’d prefer rigorous and useful.

+1 My DD wants to do something in environmental science. She's on an accelerated math track and will do Calc AB in junior year so she could take Calc BC in senior year but I'd rather she take AP Stats. That will give her an introduction to the math that will be more important for her in college. At least she'll have the ability to take both. It annoys me that kids who are in pre-calc in 11th have to take Calc in 12th to have "rigor" instead of taking stats, which is probably more useful.

AB followed by BC?? That isn’t what was intended. Take one of them and move on.

That depends on how it’s taught. Some schools teach them as a sequence. First semester Calc. Second semester Calc.

I'm PP, I also thought it was one or the other but when DS was picking Junior year classes his math teacher told me most of the higher level kids at his school do it as a 2-yr sequence so he chose to do it that way. He wants to major in math so the two years to get a solid Calc foundation before college will be good for him. He'll also take AP Stats senior year.

+1. TJ does it this way. Or used to. You can/could do straight into BC, or AB and what the kids call “senior BC”. Two different paths, depending on college and career goals. It’s about half and half as to where kids go. Mostly straight to BC is the engineering and physics kids. Like a lot of things there, AB is nnot a cakewalk. AB is like BC on steroids and BC goes into multi variable.

The new principal killed “senior BC” and the math department is pissed. As in, said at BTS night, they did this without talking to us and we are pissed. My kid got caught in the crossfire. Did the two year path, and it changed midstream. So now he’s a senior sitting in BC sleeping his way to an easy A. It’s stupid, but I’ll take it. Math was the hardest part of the curriculum for my kid and college apps are due now. He can use one less thing on his plate this month. Better than the poor juniors thrown into class with seniors who all got 5s on the AB and compete with them for grades. He’ll need to wake up in a month or two when they hit the new material though. And that will be brutal. Senior BC was taught with the understanding these were not engineering kids, and they were seniors, and they had some mercy on them.

In the DMV, where many kids go into Calc in junior year, this makes a lot of sense. Do BC and multi/ linear for the engineering crowd and AB to BC for those that don’t want or need multi. And teach two different BC classes. “I’m a junior whose taken, Calc (AB or BC), now what?” is going to be an issue for my base school kid. My answer is will probably be Stats, because she wants a humanities field that will use it. I know kids who do AP Physics C or APCS as a senior “math”. But non-engineering kids feel pressure to multi/linear as the most rigorous math. And that’s nuts. Assuming you need Calc at all in humanities fields, you don’t need three college semesters of it plus linear algebra.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Band, music, theater are fine.

Home ec and “shop”? Not worth the credits.

Here in the 21st century it’s called tech ed (or Design Tech). It’s extremely useful. In STEM subjects and in life. As noted, TJ requires it for freshmen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Band, music, theater are fine.

Home ec and “shop”? Not worth the credits.

Here in the 21st century it’s called tech ed (or Design Tech). It’s extremely useful. In STEM subjects and in life. As noted, TJ requires it for freshmen.

At TJ, where they are really struggling to get enough APs, right? LOL.

Did they require a cooking class too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top colleges do not punish kids for taking fun electives.



Their parents do. a sad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Top colleges do not punish kids for taking fun electives.



Their parents do. a sad thing.

Kids ultimately make their own decisions. And not all parents push for top colleges.

BUT if they want to get into a top college, taking home ec their junior year for fun isn’t the best choice.