Do colleges care about PE?

[Garga]

My boys do karate and that is seeming to satisfy the state for the PE requirement to homeschool (Pennsylvania.)

 

But I was wondering if colleges expect to see some sort of PE credit on the transcript. I could cite the karate, but do they even care at all about it?

 

I know that a lot of homeschoolers do PE. Some do it because they like it. Some do it because it's required for graduation from high school. Does anyone do PE because a college wants to see it?

 

Because if a college wants to see it on a transcript, I'll put more effort into beefing up our PE. But if they don't care, then I'm good (and the state of PA is good) with what we're doing.

[hopskipjump]

In our experience, no - not one college cared (my dd did not have a PE credit on her transcript - but she was in a varsity sport). DD applied to 8 or 10 universities (how quickly I forget those kinds of things!)

 

The only time *I* would have cared about the PE credit was if PE were a district, or state, requirement for graduation. Since my dd fulfilled all of OUR state/district requirements for graduation, I added to the transcript a notation that our homeschooling was in accordance with this-or-that state law and her diploma states that she fulfilled the requirements for graduation in our state (I used more sophisticated language that that obviously, lolol! But it's been a while and I can't clearly remember...)

[J-rap]

If it's a requirement for your district, then I'd put it on your transcript.  Our district requires a semester of health and a semester of fitness (anything).  I know high schools here try to make sure students have everything they need for colleges in the state, so if the district requires a class, I usually do it.  (I could be more pro-active and research what various colleges require, but it's easier to just follow the district's requirements.  :))

 

 

[Carrie12345]

This is not an *informed* answer, but...

 

I can't imagine schools looking for rigorous PE for admissions.  Unless maybe if someone is planning to study fitness?

That said, some colleges apparently care about PE in the sense that they require their students to take it.  ESU still demands 2 semesters for graduation.

[G5052]

Not required, but I think that having a well-rounded transcript has to be a positive. We also match the state's pre-college diploma, so mine have personal finance, health, and a credit of fine arts/industrial arts.

 

I used mine's Aikido and then listed their belts in activities. They do about 15 hours a month not including outside reading and practice at home, so it's a very solid credit.

[StillStanding]

We are required to have P.E to graduate but nobody has ever asked us what we did for P.E. My umbrella school accepts any kind of physical activity, including bowling. I just add hours spent moving: swimming, hiking, walking, and the occasional exercise video.

Edited September 8, 2016 by StillStanding

[happypamama]

I asked about that here a while ago, and nobody said their kids' colleges needed it for admission (or health either).

 

PA requires PE (and health) sometime between 7th and 12th grade, and the public schools require PE to graduate, but I do not believe it's part of the homeschool graduation requirement for 9th-12th grade. So since DD did karate the last two years in 7th and 8th (and health last year), as far as my understanding of the law, she's done the required PE. Now, she's still doing karate, as you know, and she plans to continue, but since we don't need it to count as PE, we will be counting it as an extracurricular activity since it's her main one.

Edited September 4, 2016 by happypamama

[happypamama]

http://www.askpauline.com/hs/homeschoolhighschool.html#evalsigned

 

That's the interpretation of the law that I am taking.

[creekland]

We had it on our transcript because I wanted to match ps graduates, but we listed it as pass/fail and didn't put it into the GPA because I wanted our transcript to focus more on academics.

 

The only thing sort of remotely similar that I've heard from some college admissions (group) sessions are that they only want a GPA to reflect the four major subjects and any foreign languages (assuming they are in a traditional major).  They also don't do Honors weighting - they just expect AP or similar level classes.  Those colleges take a transcript and form their own GPA unweighted/unpadded.  Other colleges just accept numbers and don't care.  Often this goes along with their selectivity (more selective = more of their own modification to put everyone on similar terms).

[Pistachio mom]

My legal organization recommended that I have a numerical average for everything - including PE. I was told that it can help a GPA. In our state, one of the state scholarships depends on GPA, and this is why I was advised this way.  If you decide to record it, you will want to think about how to grade to the most advantage for your student. For example:  class time 60% of grade, 20 % participation in meets/shows/ competition 20%, outside reading/research - maybe this would include watching other karate recordings, a biography of someone in this field, etc.....  You could even include a paper on any topic of his choice related to karate. 

 

You could rename it something related to exercise and have karate be one component of the course.... The ideas are endless.  I was of the opinion that for electives like PE and Fine Arts performance a letter grade was fine, but I was advised otherwise due to the details of my state.  You might want to check this out.

 

Another idea, you could instead include it also on his activity list - to highlight it.

 

Personally, I have not seen PE on a college admissions requirement list for incoming freshman. You might want to check the admissions policies of the schools in which he is interested.

[Rebel Yell]

My boys do karate and that is seeming to satisfy the state for the PE requirement to homeschool (Pennsylvania.)

But I was wondering if colleges expect to see some sort of PE credit on the transcript. I could cite the karate, but do they even care at all about it?

I know that a lot of homeschoolers do PE. Some do it because they like it. Some do it because it's required for graduation from high school. Does anyone do PE because a college wants to see it?

Because if a college wants to see it on a transcript, I'll put more effort into beefing up our PE. But if they don't care, then I'm good (and the state of PA is good) with what we're doing.

I asked about that here a while ago, and nobody said their kids' colleges needed it for admission (or health either).

PA requires PE (and health) sometime between 7th and 12th grade, and the public schools require PE to graduate, but I do not believe it's part of the homeschool graduation requirement for 9th-12th grade. So since DD did karate the last two years in 7th and 8th (and health last year), as far as my understanding of the law, she's done the required PE. Now, she's still doing karate, as you know, and she plans to continue, but since we don't need it to count as PE, we will be counting it as an extracurricular activity since it's her main one.

Someone beat me to it! PE is NOT required in PA for homeschool high school graduation. NOTHING in the law specifies what "counts" as PE. (If you are using a paid diploma program they might have other requirements beyond the actual law.) So keep doing what works for your student. And look into some most-likely future schools and find out what THEY want to see as far as PE. Edited September 5, 2016 by Rebel Yell