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Anonymous wrote:My son only took 6 classes junior and senior year. He got into three top 20 schools.

Sure. Name them. And where did he go?

Brown, Vanderbilt, Cornell. He went to Drexel.

I have heard of the first three, but not the last one.

Extremely interesting, and unlikely, choice... Quite possibly the only person ever to turn down those and go to Drexel.

Drexel may have offered money.

Yes, Drexel offered more money but he's a very practical person and wanted the coops that Drexel offered. We visited Cornell in the spring after he was admitted and it was cold and gray and pretty depressing so that knocked it off the list. He liked Vanderbilt but felt like it was too southern and preppy and full of fraternities and sororities. He liked Brown but it was too expensive.

The info about Cornell and Vanderbilt could have been gleaned from a simple google search. I don't think you're genuine. Your posts reek of BS.

We visited Cornell in the summer. It was beautiful. Sunny and low humidity. We went back in late March I believe and there was still snow on the ground. It was cold and gray and depressing. He was turned off and says no thanks.

How much research are you people doing? Central NY is one of the gloomiest places on Earth. I went to Colgate nearby and it's no secret that weather is the biggest downside.
I'm shocked at how many people apply to schools they have not researched. If weather is important, why not look at the weather before applying?
Seems like that application to Cornell could have gone somewhere else and not have been wasted.

We visited every school before applying. I loved Cornell after our visit and so did my son. I know this concept is hard for DCUMs but things change sometimes. We both knew it would be cold there in the winter but the only word to describe snow on the ground in the spring (for us) is depressing. It was probably around the middle of April because my son's birthday is then and we drove all of the way home to have his birthday dinner. The students looked tired and I think our tour guide said they had already had spring break so they shouldn't have been dragging like that. It was a totally different vibe the second time we visited.

PP, I wonder if the posters criticizing you are really parents of teenagers that have gone through the college admissions process. When I read your earlier post about visiting Cornell in summer and then going back in March I was immediately reminded of a friend whose (well warned) kid was gung ho (in summer) about going to RIT and then changed their mind in March!

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Anonymous wrote:How are colleges going to know if a student has a free period? The transcript doesn't have the student's actual schedule -- just the classes being taken.

Idiots.

Well if they list 5 classes when previously they listed 6 I'm sure the admissions folks aren't that idiotic when it comes to subtraction.

If you have 6 rigorous academic classes (science, math, English, social studies, foreign language, and misc), it doesn't really matter to them whether you take a study hall. EC's where you win awards would matter far more.

No that's backwards. ECs are just the icing on the academic cake.

Nope, many students have a 4.0, and near-perfect SATs these days ECs are what differentiates them. College admissions really doesn't care if you took 7th period band, art, psychology or a study hall if your other classes were challenging.

You literally just defined "the icing on the cake"

Call it what you want but in the end national awards matter a free period with an otherwise rigorous schedule not so much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:How are colleges going to know if a student has a free period? The transcript doesn't have the student's actual schedule -- just the classes being taken.

Idiots.

Well if they list 5 classes when previously they listed 6 I'm sure the admissions folks aren't that idiotic when it comes to subtraction.

If you have 6 rigorous academic classes (science, math, English, social studies, foreign language, and misc), it doesn't really matter to them whether you take a study hall. EC's where you win awards would matter far more.

No that's backwards. ECs are just the icing on the academic cake.

Nope, many students have a 4.0, and near-perfect SATs these days ECs are what differentiates them. College admissions really doesn't care if you took 7th period band, art, psychology or a study hall if your other classes were challenging.

You literally just defined "the icing on the cake"

Anonymous wrote:Yeah - I don't get what the motivation is. Will your child struggle with a full schedule? If so, that SHOULD communicate to elite schools that your DC is not as prepared as others. If it is not a question of struggling, is a lack of motivation? Or wanting to spend the time on some other worthy pursuit? WHY did you have your DC take a summer class?

Kids were encouraged to take the 1/2 semester Health over summer, I guess we didn’t know better.
And we are left with 1/2 semesters in Senior year with limited options, since most courses are full year.
we could do more PE I guess, but why not just simply have a free period instead.
DS has already completed Calc BC and Spanish AP (got 5 on both), not like he is struggling academically.

Anonymous wrote:yes it looks bad

Yes, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Anonymous wrote:Mine had run out of classes by senior year - fall term he ended up taking mostly community college courses because the only advanced class he had left at the HS was AP CS. Spring I think he took two academic classes and weightlifting. But before senior year he had always taken dual enrollment in addition to regular HS classes so he already had completed all of his graduation requirements by fall of senior year.

Lots of people complete graduation requirements before graduation. The message should be that learning itself is important, not checking the boxes.

Mine had run out of classes by senior year - fall term he ended up taking mostly community college courses because the only advanced class he had left at the HS was AP CS. Spring I think he took two academic classes and weightlifting. But before senior year he had always taken dual enrollment in addition to regular HS classes so he already had completed all of his graduation requirements by fall of senior year.

My son will have a resource class on his transcript as well no first period for certain high school years due to sleep apnea issues. Colleges will have to balance that with his near-all-AP course load and high test scores. He's bright, but he has LDs and medical diagnoses. It is what it is. The college that understands he's still an interesting person will be the right fit.

Yeah - I don't get what the motivation is. Will your child struggle with a full schedule? If so, that SHOULD communicate to elite schools that your DC is not as prepared as others. If it is not a question of struggling, is a lack of motivation? Or wanting to spend the time on some other worthy pursuit? WHY did you have your DC take a summer class?

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Anonymous wrote:Do study halls look bad in 9th grade?

No. You just need to have the core classes. Colleges don’t care about electives. A study hall (or reduced schedule) does not show up on the transcript.

I have a feeling parents answering the question are thinking in terms of different schools. For many (the majority of) schools, it won't matter. For the most competitive schools, it will. Schools aren't looking at your application in isolation; they are comparing you to the other applicants in your high school. If the other applicants are seemingly taking their senior year more seriously, they will have a leg up. For a state school, there are plenty of admissions slots so this won't make much difference. For a tippy top school, other applicants from your school will probably have very competitive profiles, and taking a course off senior year certainly would matter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are colleges going to know if a student has a free period? The transcript doesn't have the student's actual schedule -- just the classes being taken.

Idiots.

Well if they list 5 classes when previously they listed 6 I'm sure the admissions folks aren't that idiotic when it comes to subtraction.

If you have 6 rigorous academic classes (science, math, English, social studies, foreign language, and misc), it doesn't really matter to them whether you take a study hall. EC's where you win awards would matter far more.

No that's backwards. ECs are just the icing on the academic cake.

Nope, many students have a 4.0, and near-perfect SATs these days ECs are what differentiates them. College admissions really doesn't care if you took 7th period band, art, psychology or a study hall if your other classes were challenging.