Course Description Question: Order?

[Jenny in Florida]

Okay, I actually have two questions, but the second didn't occur to me until after I typed the title, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to change it.

 

First: Those of you who attached a file of course descriptions to the Common App, how did you organize the descriptions? Did you put them in order alphabetically by course title, grouped by academic year or maybe by subject area? As I recall, in the document I created for my daughter, I grouped them by subject area. But that was a few years ago, and her situation was weird, anyway.

 

So, I'd love to hear how you all have done this?

 

Also, is it reasonable for some of the course descriptions to run two pages? For example, if I include a full reading list for the English courses or a full list of performances for choir, there's no way to fit those on one page each. Is that acceptable?

 

Edit: Okay, I thought of a third question, too.

 

Did you include course descriptions for outside classes? For example, my son has taken a bunch of FLVS classes. I have course descriptions for them, formatted to match the ones I wrote for our self-designed courses. But I'm thinking we don't need to include those, since FLVS is a recognized, accredited agency?

 

But then what about things like Aleks, where the content was online but there's no agency issuing a grade? Should I include the descriptions for those?

[8filltheheart]

I think a 1 page course description is way too much info.   I managed to get course descriptions for 40+ credit hours in 8 1/2 pages.   I organized by subject and then by yr within the subject.

 

FWIW, I used a multi-column approach.   Course title (which also included info about if it was outsourced, grade, credits (some of his courses were only .5 credits), and test scores (for AP or SAT2 exams)--next curriculum (which included book titles and ISBN #s)--3rd description (which I learned to condense and keep fairly brief b/c I started off giving way too much info and was told that was a big no-no.   Glad I took that advice.)

 

Also, I used small font!  :)

[regentrude]

First: Those of you who attached a file of course descriptions to the Common App, how did you organize the descriptions? Did you put them in order alphabetically by course title, grouped by academic year or maybe by subject area? As I recall, in the document I created for my daughter, I grouped them by subject area. But that was a few years ago, and her situation was weird, anyway.

 

Since I grouped the transcript by subject areas, I sorted the course descriptions by subject as well, in the same order. Within a subject, courses are sorted by year.

 

 

Also, is it reasonable for some of the course descriptions to run two pages? For example, if I include a full reading list for the English courses or a full list of performances for choir, there's no way to fit those on one page each. Is that acceptable?

 

No, I think this is way too much. Nobody is going to read this much.

I have limited myself to the short form of course descriptions with maximum half a page for each. I have not included a complete reading list with the course description, just listed major works we studied. For choir, I would simply list the number of performances, not each individual one.

 

 

Did you include course descriptions for outside classes? For example, my son has taken a bunch of FLVS classes. I have course descriptions for them, formatted to match the ones I wrote for our self-designed courses. But I'm thinking we don't need to include those, since FLVS is a recognized, accredited agency?

 

Yes. For the college courses DD has taken, I included the short description from the course catalog, usually 2-3 lines of text. I also listed the textbook used, the name of the instructor, and the prerequisites to demonstrate the level of the course.

I put a note "detailed syllabus available upon request".

 

 

But then what about things like Aleks, where the content was online but there's no agency issuing a grade? Should I include the descriptions for those?

 

If you use it for a course, it goes into your course description as a resource. I assume you assigned the grade?

 

I have some courses that are ungraded, but I wrote descriptions for those as well.

[Kareni]

One way I kept my course descriptions relatively short was to exclude text and other book titles.  I included those in my daughter's reading list.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Teachin'Mine]

Normally I would agree that course descriptions should be short, but when it comes to performance arts I think it's all about what you've done and they'd like to see what he's done.   To shorten the English course description, you might want to include a reading list separately and just highlight some in the description, or list some of the genres or authors.   If you wanted to shorten the choir description, you could have a separate list of performance works and a more general overview in the course description.  Just some thoughts.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My course descriptions were relatively short.  The longest one was about a third of a page - that was for a homegrown English class with a non-traditional course of study.  I put mine in order they appeared on the transcript - by year.  Each grade had about 1 1/2 pages and I did a page break for each new grade.  I also put a header at the top so they could find things easily. 

[Sunshine State Sue]

My course descriptions were grouped by subject, then year within subject.  I emailed them to you. 

 

I am not fond of writing, so mine were concise. 

 

I imagine FLVS provides a transcrip being an accredited agency, so I would not include those courses.  All our outside courses without a transcript were in the course descriptions.

 

HTH!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have a set of course descriptions that is for my benefit and for possible submission to NCAA that can run pretty long. History courses are over a page each because of the NCAA requirement to specify Title, author and ISBN. So I have a full bibliography with ISBN that I can trim down.

 

I know that no one else is likely to want to see that much detail. So for the actual college apps, I will probably pare it down to major works used.

 

I can get about 3 math classes on one page, without playing around with the font.