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For those who have graduated kids in HS...help!


Homeschoolmom3
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I have posted a similar question in the HS forum but still not sure what to do.  I have talked with our homeschool agency here in VA and some to colleges and still can't get a straight answer.

 

My son took many courses early on for instance in Literature/Grammar/Writing etc. 

9th Grade:  Rhetoric (1 credit ) and Literature/Grammar (1 credit)

10th Grade:  Grammar Comp (1 College course) 1 credit?  + Literature (1/2 credit done at home)

11th Grade:  Grammar Comp (1 college course) 1 credit? + British Literature (college course) 1 credit?

 

So would he need to have another english/lit class his senior year?  Would it look bad if he didn't take one?  He has already filled all prereq for college in this area...

 

He is planning on taking the following DE courses his senior year:  American History 1 & 2, and a Higher Math, and Biology;  possibly Speech or a Psych class if we can get in but wants to work more and possibly intern.  Really struggling with his last year and I don't want to make it seem like he is slacking.

 

I know core is required:  4 yrs. history, english, math, science  for colleges

 

He has way more than he needs in regards to credits so is it okay to just count credits or does it have to be in each year?

 

Also his Latin he took 4 yrs. but took 2 yrs. in MS.  They say don't put MS classes on transcript but I need to include to show 4 yrs. of foreign language.  Also with math - he took Geometry in 8th grade some want to see he took that I understand Alg. 1 will show up when taken Alg2.  Any suggestions on people who have gone before me and dealt with these issues?

 

Thanks!

 

 

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My older sons graduated from ps and did not take English in their senior years.  They started high school English in 8th grade so they still had four credits of English, but none of them wanted to take it during their senior years.  They were all accepted into all of the colleges they applied to.  They all did go into engineering, though, and they weren't homeschooled.  I will have the same issue with my dd who is homeschooled.  She will start DE English as a junior and I think I will have her take at least one extra class because I don't want her having three semesters without English.

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I'm in Alabama. Not sure about the differences in the state requirements--but our transcripts didn't say what year in high school which courses were taken. It was laid out by subject, so maybe English was listed first in a column. 4 spots for English grades in that column--a grade for each semester. But nowhere does it specify which year those English courses were taken. Same with math. There was a section with space for 4 maths, and (my cover school) filled in Alegebra 1 (taken in 8th grade), Algebra 2, Geometry, and so on. So....it doesn't matter for us what grade the courses were taken--as long as they were high school level classes, I include them on the transcript.

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How competitive are the colleges he is applying to? I think that might make a difference here.

 

My current 11th grader will have not have a specific English credit his senior year but he will have DE public speaking. The college he plans on is not competitive and he will be easily admitted. If he was shooting for more competitive schools I would probably have a more full 12th grade schedule including an English course.

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How competitive are the colleges he is applying to? I think that might make a difference here.

 

 

That is yet to be seen.  :(  He still is not solid on a major either and gap years are looking good right now!  I am hoping to get him in public speaking but wasn't sure if that would really count in the english category. 

 

Thanks for all of your replies!

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My older sons graduated from ps and did not take English in their senior years.  They started high school English in 8th grade so they still had four credits of English, but none of them wanted to take it during their senior years.  They were all accepted into all of the colleges they applied to.  They all did go into engineering, though, and they weren't homeschooled.  I will have the same issue with my dd who is homeschooled.  She will start DE English as a junior and I think I will have her take at least one extra class because I don't want her having three semesters without English.

 

What type of schools did they attend?  Curious to see if it matters.  He is thinking on doing engineering/aerospace etc. but not sure. 

 

How did you label the transcript?  I see where here they really like to see it broken by grade not subject.  If I could do subject I feel it wouldn't look so bad.  :confused1:

 

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That is yet to be seen.  :(  He still is not solid on a major either and gap years are looking good right now!  I am hoping to get him in public speaking but wasn't sure if that would really count in the english category. 

 

Thanks for all of your replies!

I think it is debatable if public speaking counts as English. To me it is an English elective if that makes sense. I wouldn't have used it as one of his four core credits. But that is just me and my opinions are not official in any way whatsoever. LOL.

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I graduated 2 children in VA and had a 3rd DEing at VCU at 16. (Our ps friends who took math and foreign language in middle school had those credits carried up to high school.) I absolutely included them on mine when we lived there. My 16 yr who submitted his transcript to VCU for DE had alg 1, geo, alg 2, AoPS intermediate alg, French 1 all from middle school. They obviously had no problem with it.

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In the transcripts I created for my oldest, classes were listed by subject rather than year. One of the colleges she applied to actually asked that it be submitted this way, as it helped them easily assess if the student had checked all of the boxes credit-wise. I liked how it looked so I kept it that way for the other schools. I had a column for when the course was taken and that was recorded by year. Credits gained pre-high school were listed with the other credits. All of the schools she applied to were big state schools. She was accepted to all of them.

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I graduated 2 children in VA and had a 3rd DEing at VCU at 16. (Our ps friends who took math and foreign language in middle school had those credits carried up to high school.) I absolutely included them on mine when we lived there. My 16 yr who submitted his transcript to VCU for DE had alg 1, geo, alg 2, AoPS intermediate alg, French 1 all from middle school. They obviously had no problem with it.

 

Thanks for responding...we are in VA too.  How did you list your classes by years or subjects?  Did you have children not take all of the core classes each year in HS?

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What type of schools did they attend?  Curious to see if it matters.  He is thinking on doing engineering/aerospace etc. but not sure. 

 

How did you label the transcript?  I see where here they really like to see it broken by grade not subject.  If I could do subject I feel it wouldn't look so bad.  :confused1:

 

 

They all attended Ohio State University for engineering, but were accepted to all the schools they applied to.  They all graduated from public school, though, so I didn't make a transcript.  My daughter, who is homeschooled, might take something like Creative Writing (which she loves) in her senior year just to have an English credit for that year.

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I homeschooled in VA. Two of my kids were accepted as Monroe Scholars at W&M and another as an Echols Scholar at UVA.

 

* One only had three years of Latin -- in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade.

 

* One had no science her senior year.

 

* None had more than two years of science labs, and one only had one year.

 

I think colleges list all the "requirements" to help give people an idea of what they are looking for, but even the "requirements" seem to be flexible for an academically strong student with interesting EC's.  When dd1 decided to not take a science her senior year, I called W&M to find out if they would accept her without a fourth year of science. The admissions office stated that no, it wouldn't. Dd1 applied anyway and was accepted as a Monroe Scholar....... so don't believe everything the admissions office tells you!

 

We did our transcripts by year, dumping the Algebra 1 and foreign languages taken in 8th grade into a separate section above the "by year" section. While we weren't crazy about clearly showing that they were shy of a requirement or two, we did want to show the progression of classes. Also, they all juggled crazy loads their junior year and we wanted the colleges to clearly see how wildly over-achieving their junior years all were.

 

Conclusion -- help your son pursue the education that is best for him, showcase it as best you can in the guidance counselor part of the application, and know that you did your best and what will happen will happen.

 

 

 

 

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I have two that graduated public school in VA. Their transcripts included foreign language and math taken in middle school. French 1,2,3 , Latin 1,2 algebra 1, 2 and geometry went on their high school transcripts and were taken in middle school. Middle school was homeschool. So, the public high school put mommy credits from middle school on their own transcript. These classes were all classes that the public school offers for high school credit in middle school.

 

Both kids took French and math all the way through senior year so I don't know if the fact that they continued with greater depth makes a difference.

 

I don't think it is necessary to have credits spread across 4 years. It might look off if all your English credits were from grade 9 or 10, but that's not the case and you have more than one DE credit.

Edited by Diana P.
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Thanks for responding...we are in VA too. How did you list your classes by years or subjects? Did you have children not take all of the core classes each year in HS?

This is the format I use. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=23443

 

My kids do not take core classes every yr in high school. I give credit for math, science, and foreign language in middle school. Fwiw, I would not skip an English credit, ever, even if it meant they graduated with more than 4 credits.

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This is the format I use. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=23443

 

My kids do not take core classes every yr in high school. I give credit for math, science, and foreign language in middle school. Fwiw, I would not skip an English credit, ever, even if it meant they graduated with more than 4 credits.

 

Thanks for the info....so you would have him take another English class his senior year even though he doesn't need it in college? 

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Thanks for the info....so you would have him take another English class his senior year even though he doesn't need it in college?

I have my kids take all sorts of subjects they don't need. I don't see English as a subject for checking off an admissions criteria list. I see it as a subject that culturally informs through literature and challenges them to articulate thoughts in writing. (both never had an "end" and can always improve)

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I would not (and did not) hesitate to include math and foreign language courses on a transcript to show progression through the subject.  I listed them in their own section since the transcript was organized by school year.  

 

I think showing core courses is more about showing the progression and credits rather than taking one per year.  If you can show progress through a subject to the same level as taking one course per year then (IMHO) you are fine.  In this case I would probably organize the transcript by subject rather than year though.  This would best demonstrate to an admissions board your student's progress through a subject.

 

I will add (and I'm not critiquing your current selections-just speaking generically) that you would want to show that senior year is still full of challenging, high level courses and not a significant step backwards in either difficulty, credit totals, or number of courses.  An easy senior year after a challenging first three isn't helpful on an application.

 

That said, I think an English class and a math class every year (sufficient credits or not) is a bare minimum.

 

(I guess I should add that my college student is in a VA school and my high school student is also in VA.)

Edited by JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst
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Both of my girls did full-time dual enrollment in 11th and 12th grade. My oldest started full-time DE at 14, and I graduated her from high school at 16. Even though they had far more credits than they needed, I still required them to take both a writing class and a literature class each year, so that was one or the other each semester. 

 

So I still require English, science and math during the senior year, though they both had more than enough credits to meet college application requirements.

 

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I would at least do a homeschooled half-credit in literature for his senior year, so there is something in the 12th grade slot for English. Personally, I would try to do two quick half-credits, one over the summer and the other either on weekends or over breaks during the school year. The minimum for a half-credit is 60 hours; that's an hour a day for 2 months over the summer, or 90 minutes/wk over the course of a 40 week school year, or about 90 minutes/day during the six weeks or so when his DE classes are on winter & spring break.

 

Each short course could focus on a genre of interest (science fiction, dystopia, steampunk), a particular author (Tolkien, Lewis, Shakespeare — e.g. read and watch some Shakespeare plays and listen to one of the Great Courses on the subject), or just use it as a catch-all for books he's wanted to read (or you wanted him to read) that you haven't had time for yet.

 

 

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It looks as if he has taken two college composition courses and one college literature class.  If he took two college level English courses in his junior year, then I would find it hard to believe any school would deny admissions based upon not having a senior-year English course.  If he is taking two college courses each semester, fall and spring, of his senior year and met all other graduation requirements in your state, you could create some electives or senior project based upon an internship or other special interest without it looking like he was slacking.

 

I grouped items vertically on the transcript by category (English, Math, Social Studies, etc.) but placed grades in credits in columns by year so that I could calculate a yearly GPA as well as a cumulative GPA.  DS had taken two semesters of a foreign language at a university in both 9th and 10th grades.  So, I listed FL1, FL2, FL3, and FL4 but two of those had a grade and credit in 9th grade and two had a grade and credit in 10th grade.  That way it was clear that he had four foreign language courses but the years he took them matched with the college transcript.  I did include a vertical column for 8th grade courses and placed only the 8th grade courses that were high school level courses that met graduation requirements on the transcript.  

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This is the format I use. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=23443

 

My kids do not take core classes every yr in high school. I give credit for math, science, and foreign language in middle school. Fwiw, I would not skip an English credit, ever, even if it meant they graduated with more than 4 credits.

I like the format of that transcript, but I'd have to edit it in order to make it work. I need more lines in some sections and less in others. Before I spend hours trying, is it possible to edit that form and, if so, what program should I edit it in? Thank you!

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I like the format of that transcript, but I'd have to edit it in order to make it work. I need more lines in some sections and less in others. Before I spend hours trying, is it possible to edit that form and, if so, what program should I edit it in? Thank you!

Lots of us have used that transcript thanks to the brilliant work of Dori B in the hs2coll yahoo group. Join that group if you're not already a member, and you can find a copy of her transcript in the Files section. It's listed as Transcript Final.xls and is an editable Excel spreadsheet. HTH.

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Lots of us have used that transcript thanks to the brilliant work of Dori B in the hs2coll yahoo group. Join that group if you're not already a member, and you can find a copy of her transcript in the Files section. It's listed as Transcript Final.xls and is an editable Excel spreadsheet. HTH.

 

:iagree:

Dori B is such a generous member of the yahoo group.  I modeled my course description document after hers, which you should also be able to find in the Files section.

 

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Lots of us have used that transcript thanks to the brilliant work of Dori B in the hs2coll yahoo group. Join that group if you're not already a member, and you can find a copy of her transcript in the Files section. It's listed as Transcript Final.xls and is an editable Excel spreadsheet. HTH.

Thank you, Kathy! I appreciate it.

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