How horrible is this?

[LisaKinVA]

Alright, so ds is finishing up his freshman year.  There were some credits we just haven't gotten done -- and won't get done.

 

DS enters high school with the following credits:

 

Physical Science (with Lab)

Honors Biology (with Lab)

Honors Algebra 1

Honors Geometry

 

9th Grade:

English 9 (Composition and Literature) - 1 credit

Human Geography - 1 Credit

Health & PE - 1 Credit

Introduction to Physics (no lab, he did virtual labs, but no actual labwork)- 1 Credit

Honors Algebra 2 - 1 Credit

 

He will really only be able to complete THESE 5 credits this year (I feel really badly, but we started off behind due to moving issues, and we just couldn't get everything really together, a tutor fell through for Russian, and just well...life). I lightened up on some things just to get them DONE (didn't finish Russian, didn't finish enough for a full Literature credit, .  He has had to work fairly hard just to finish 8th and move onto 9th (finishing 8th work was high-school level course work, though)

 

Will that look just horrible on his transcript?  5 credits?  

 

We are ramping up the school work for this year.  I am planning on doing a transcript by course area, but at least one school he's looking at wants to see the credits by year, so I need to be prepared with that.

 

ETA:

He finished up Geometry in 9th, should I bump that credit into 9th grade instead of saying "completed prior to 9th?" even though he began it in 8th?  Same with Honors Biology (began in 8th, finished in 9th).  

 

[creekland]

ETA:

He finished up Geometry in 9th, should I bump that credit into 9th grade instead of saying "completed prior to 9th?" even though he began it in 8th?  Same with Honors Biology (began in 8th, finished in 9th).  

 

I would.  Credits are given when a course is completed.  Then given your special circumstances and the knowledge that the whole thing just isn't that important in life when you look at the big picture... yes, I would.  It's common for students to have Geometry and Bio in 9th, so no flags should show up.

[SanDiegoMom]

My PS older daughter on the semester system did Geometry first semester and Alg 2 second. The only thing she did in addition to your son's schedule (she had a similar schedule!) was she took two semesters of Band.

[DebbS]

I would definitely bump up the Geometry to 9th and maybe even the Biology. The reason is that most colleges will want to see  at least 3 sciences with two of them lab sciences. Since Biology is usually a 9th grade course and your son took Physical Science in 8th grade, I wouldn't hesitate to move it up.

 

Of course, you can make these final decisions somewhere around his Jr/Sr years when you have to finalize your transcript for college admissions.

[J-rap]

I would definitely bump up the Geometry to 9th and maybe even the Biology. The reason is that most colleges will want to see  at least 3 sciences with two of them lab sciences. Since Biology is usually a 9th grade course and your son took Physical Science in 8th grade, I wouldn't hesitate to move it up.

 

Of course, you can make these final decisions somewhere around his Jr/Sr years when you have to finalize your transcript for college admissions.

 

These are good points.

 

Sometimes, my senior children had a light senior year (5 credits), as they prepared for college, etc.

 

[EKS]

List by subject and you avoid the whole issue.

[Mom22ns]

He finished up Geometry in 9th, should I bump that credit into 9th grade instead of saying "completed prior to 9th?" even though he began it in 8th?  Same with Honors Biology (began in 8th, finished in 9th).  

 

I wouldn't put Geometry in 9th if you are going to have Algebra 2 in 9th. However, there is no science there, so I would definitely list the Biology. You may end up wanting to do his transcript by subject instead of by year so that 9th grade is less noticeably light. 

[LisaKinVA]

I wouldn't put Geometry in 9th if you are going to have Algebra 2 in 9th. However, there is no science there, so I would definitely list the Biology. You may end up wanting to do his transcript by subject instead of by year so that 9th grade is less noticeably light.

There is science. He took Physics, just without physical labs. It was about 180 hours of work, with a college textbook and lots of math. Really, what he's missing are electives. We didn't get to them. His English course was also nearly 200 hours. I could probably give him a half credit for Literature, but I thought that would be odd. He would really need another book study for that, as well.

 

I may wind up doing it by subject, but at least one school he's interested in wants it by year.

 

FWIW, He will wind up with more than enough credits for an advanced diploma (by VA's standards), just not all in his Freshman year. Assuming he stays on schedule this year, he will have 8 credits, followed by 2 more over the summer (both electives).

[Sebastian (a lady)]

A few thought.

 

I don't think what you have is awful. But if he completed math and science in 9th go ahead and move them. I would especially think about moving biology as I think schools are more used to seeing high school math in 8th than science.

 

You could do your own lab intensive and add the with lab designation. High school labs are planned around high school bell schedules not scientific best practice. (But then we did three dissections in on day this week so take that with a grain of salt. )

 

I think your courses look solid.

 

I think you should start a file of things you'd like to bring out in a counselor letter or school profile. International moves are not the normal experience of most high school students. (I wanted to cry when I realized all the other 5th grade scouts in my kid's den had been together since first grade in school and in scouts. No wonder they shut my kid out; they'd never had to be the new kid.)

 

Did you do enough Russian for .5 credit. We did one year of German, then did just Latin. Now my oldest is going back to do another year of German three years later. I'm pleased he's picking it up again. It will look different to have a gap, but I'd rather he learned more German and had a gap than dropped it forever to avoid an unusual transcript.

 

You can do two transcript formats. Pick the one that works best to demonstrate what your kid did. Send the secondary to a specific school if you have to. Same info but different formats.

 

Could you found host nation studies as an elective?

[foxbridgeacademy]

Alright, so ds is finishing up his freshman year.  There were some credits we just haven't gotten done -- and won't get done.

 

DS enters high school with the following credits:

 

Physical Science (with Lab)

Honors Biology (with Lab)

Honors Algebra 1

Honors Geometry

 

9th Grade:

English 9 (Composition and Literature) - 1 credit

Human Geography - 1 Credit

Health & PE - 1 Credit

Introduction to Physics (no lab, he did virtual labs, but no actual labwork)- 1 Credit

Honors Algebra 2 - 1 Credit

 

He will really only be able to complete THESE 5 credits this year (I feel really badly, but we started off behind due to moving issues, and we just couldn't get everything really together, a tutor fell through for Russian, and just well...life). I lightened up on some things just to get them DONE (didn't finish Russian, didn't finish enough for a full Literature credit, .  He has had to work fairly hard just to finish 8th and move onto 9th (finishing 8th work was high-school level course work, though)

 

Will that look just horrible on his transcript?  5 credits?  

 

We are ramping up the school work for this year.  I am planning on doing a transcript by course area, but at least one school he's looking at wants to see the credits by year, so I need to be prepared with that.

 

ETA:

He finished up Geometry in 9th, should I bump that credit into 9th grade instead of saying "completed prior to 9th?" even though he began it in 8th?  Same with Honors Biology (began in 8th, finished in 9th).  

This is what I would do and then give yourself longer to Finish Alg 2.  

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Just wanted to duck bak in to give you encouragement too.  Our first year of high school was harder than I anticipated.  I certainly didn't predict that we would then have two major moves, mid semester, in the same calendar year.  When I look at our transcripts, it is with a certain amount of sadness that reality and my plans for highschool did not have a perfect overlap (in some cases there wasn't much overlap at all - I'm still longing for poetry tea afternoons).

 

Reality intrudes on life all the time.  That doesn't mean life is inferior to the plan.

 

And just for a bit of context, you have a kid who did algebra 1 before high school and still looks on track to hit calculus by senior year or earlier.  That is not failing by any stretch.

[LisaKinVA]

This is what I would do and then give yourself longer to Finish Alg 2.  

 

Math is all done (whew!), he's finishing up Physics (10 Lessons), Health (5 lessons), Human Geography (15 lessons) and Literature...one last book.  We should be able to finish all of this and start the new year on 31 August.  

 

He has completed 1 year of Wheelock's Latin (before high school, it was a high school course, live), about a semester's worth of Italian and a semester's worth of Russian. I'm dropping Italian (because we're moving back next year and no time), he will continue on with Russian (plan is to finish up what we have and then go CC route to complete sequence once we're stateside).  

 

He's done enough here in Italy, and learned enough of the language that there could be a Host Nation Credit Elective.  I could have him watch some documentaries to round it out, and then he could write some one-page papers on the sites he's been to.  That would be an easy one to add.  He's learned a lot about the culture, transportation, civic issues... I don't think we have time to wrap that up next week, but we could make a lot of headway and have it nearly done.

 

He's done Herculaneum, the Achreological Museum, the Naples Palace, Castle Nuovo, Caserta Palace, Vesuvius, had three camping trips with local scouts (no reason I can't use those, right? Cultural Exchange), He's played chess with the Italians (no language necessary there...haha), He's spent two Memorial Day Weekends cleaning up the WWII American Cemetery in Florence, he's been to Verona, Matterra, and one other site I can't remember. 

 

I think that would be an excellent one!  Thank you! I don't think I'd fret as much with 6 credits. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

We're only doing 6 credits for 9th grade too.  I kept trying to add in another but finally realized that I would rather him do less but learn more.  Plus we, like you, have a lot going on (including a possible move mid year) and I don't want to overwhelm ME.  Good Luck and don't stress too much.

[creekland]

I wouldn't put Geometry in 9th if you are going to have Algebra 2 in 9th. However, there is no science there, so I would definitely list the Biology. You may end up wanting to do his transcript by subject instead of by year so that 9th grade is less noticeably light. 

 

FWIW, many ps kids double up taking Geometry and Alg 2 in the same year if they want to get more math in.  Those two are not at all dependent upon each other.  Putting both on the transcript for the same year will not look odd at all.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

So I went to double check my daughter's transcript-she has one math credit prior to high school (which was in line with what the local system did where we were living at the time), 6 credits freshman year, and 7.5-8 credits per years for the next 3.  I think your son will be fine.

 

I agree with pp, feel free to bump math and science into 9th if that is when he will finish.

 

I've found that as we move around our beginning and ending of courses doesn't always follow a traditional structure of Sept-May.  We adapt as best as we can when listing them on a transcript. They only thing we can't adapt is finishing senior year semesters on time as we need to have those records for applications.

 

 

[LisaKinVA]

So I went to double check my daughter's transcript-she has one math credit prior to high school (which was in line with what the local system did where we were living at the time), 6 credits freshman year, and 7.5-8 credits per years for the next 3.  I think your son will be fine.

 

I agree with pp, feel free to bump math and science into 9th if that is when he will finish.

 

I've found that as we move around our beginning and ending of courses doesn't always follow a traditional structure of Sept-May.  We adapt as best as we can when listing them on a transcript. They only thing we can't adapt is finishing senior year semesters on time as we need to have those records for applications.

Yes, he didn't finish Geometry and Biology until December 2014.  If it had been in September, we wouldn't have been in the bind we were in...but he was doing 2 sciences and 2 math courses, plus finishing his history from the year before...so we delayed starting English/Lit/History until January, and then, Russian fell through, and my in-laws and parents were here for 3 months (not all at the same time...back to back).  It was mayhem...

 

I spoke with ds last night about what he needs to complete and the Italian Language and Culture Credit.  He's on-board.  His dad is happy.  And, we can start this year on-time (which is vital for the AP exams we're planning on taking this year).  We are moving again, but after the AP exams.  I'm hoping we can have most everything finished before the move (the only things I'm not planning to be done with are PreCalc, Russian, and we'll start one elective).  I know we'll be done with The WTMA class, History, and Chemistry...praying we're done with Lit as well!