High School Guide: Admissions, reviews, and advice

Chemistry and computer tech? What kind of weird combo is that?

Larry Walker24 said:Chemistry and computer tech? What kind of weird combo is that?

Well, the most logical choice would be Computer Science, but apparently, that’s an elective—so that’s off the table. That leaves us with chemistry, history, or maybe music. Honestly, it doesn't really matter; none of those subjects are actually going to help someone working as a computer technician, I suppose.

Chemistry isn't really the issue here, but when they were forced to pick three more subjects...
Regarding physics instruction, from what I gather, the quality varies wildly depending on which school district you're in. In my local high school, for instance, the curriculum is actually quite rigorous and demanding—just recently, we were tackling complex circuit problems, calculating resistances, and working through series and parallel voltages. Last year, our school even produced state champions in physics! But then I hear stories about other schools where kids just memorize a handful of definitions and call it a day.

At the end of the day, though, you can't blame the students if the teaching they're receiving is subpar. ☕

mellowskipper said:Well, the most logical choice would be Computer Science, but apparently, that’s an elective—so that’s off the table. That leaves us with chemistry, history, or maybe music. Honestly, it doesn't really matter; none of those subjects are actually going to help someone working as a computer technician, I suppose.

It's actually mandatory in 5th and 6th grade.
it could work...

Susan James said:It's actually mandatory in 5th and 6th grade.
it could work...

If that's the case, then I honestly don't get why it isn't already implemented?
I mean, basic chemistry, right?

mellowskipper said:If that's the case, then I honestly don't get why it isn't already implemented?
I mean, basic chemistry, right?

The main reason is that they’d have to overhaul the entire school district policy.
Right now, for 5th and 6th grade, they only look at the overall GPA, whereas for 7th and 8th, they start factoring in specific subject grades.
Can you imagine the total chaos if they suddenly decided to switch things up and look at individual subject grades for 5th and 6th grade instead of just that general average? (Which, let's be honest, isn't even a super helpful metric anyway).

Susan James said:The main reason is that they’d have to overhaul the entire school district policy.
Right now, for 5th and 6th grade, they only look at the overall GPA, whereas for 7th and 8th, they start factoring in specific subject grades.
Can you imagine the total chaos if they suddenly decided to switch things up and look at individual subject grades for 5th and 6th grade instead of just that general average? (Which, let's be honest, isn't even a super helpful metric anyway).

Under the old scoring system, they used to only care about 7th and 8th-grade marks. Then, out of nowhere, they decided to overhaul everything and started factoring in the 5th and 6th-grade GPAs for the class that was currently in 8th grade. So, I guess we actually do have a precedent for them creating this kind of mess.

Susan James said:The main reason is that they’d have to overhaul the entire school district policy.
Right now, for 5th and 6th grade, they only look at the overall GPA, whereas for 7th and 8th, they start factoring in specific subject grades.
Can you imagine the total chaos if they suddenly decided to switch things up and look at individual subject grades for 5th and 6th grade instead of just that general average? (Which, let's be honest, isn't even a super helpful metric anyway).

So, apparently, changing the regulations isn't even within the scope of Congressional procedure—which means the bureaucrats over at the Department have to fix it themselves, and then the Secretary has to sign off on it. It’s just... honestly, it's appalling.
I suppose I have to agree regarding this senseless category—though I'm not exactly thrilled about it.

I suppose I should probably address this—though I’m not entirely sure why it matters at this point—but regarding capttawish... kaže:
Under the old grading system—back when things were actually straightforward—they only looked at seventh and eighth grade marks. Then, out of nowhere, they decided to overhaul the entire scoring process and suddenly started factoring in the overall GPA from fifth and sixth grade too... which, of course, hit the generation that was already sitting in eighth grade at the time. So, I guess it’s not exactly a new phenomenon to see them introduce this kind of chaos. There's definitely a precedent for it.

Yeah, we’re looking at a total revolution in how the scoring and admissions systems actually work.

Betty Wood54 said:Under the old scoring system, they used to only care about 7th and 8th-grade marks. Then, out of nowhere, they decided to overhaul everything and started factoring in the 5th and 6th-grade GPAs for the class that was currently in 8th grade. So, I guess we actually do have a precedent for them creating this kind of mess.

Oh, and another thing... last year, they changed how extra points for "health" or "socioeconomic status" were applied just a few months before enrollment started. I think those points still exist, but they don't count toward the total score anymore; they only act as a tiebreaker if two students have the exact same number.
That's actually an improvement over how it used to be.

If you're choosing between grading Chemistry in 7th/8th grade versus Computer Science in 5th/6th grade, and I were on the school board, I wouldn't hesitate for a second if I felt the criteria actually helped select students for a program specifically focused on tech.

Susan James said:Oh, and another thing... last year, they changed how extra points for "health" or "socioeconomic status" were applied just a few months before enrollment started. I think those points still exist, but they don't count toward the total score anymore; they only act as a tiebreaker if two students have the exact same number.
That's actually an improvement over how it used to be.

If you're choosing between grading Chemistry in 7th/8th grade versus Computer Science in 5th/6th grade, and I were on the school board, I wouldn't hesitate for a second if I felt the criteria actually helped select students for a program specifically focused on tech.

+

Just make attending computer science classes in 7th and 8th grade a mandatory requirement.

Larry Walker24 said:+

Just make attending computer science classes in 7th and 8th grade a mandatory requirement.

Now you're going to hear that they can't implement that because not every school district offers those specific tech requirements.🤣

(It doesn't really matter if some schools lack the resources or the motivation to send kids to sports competitions, since those points still count toward their standing just as much as academic competition scores do.😬)

Susan James said:Now you're going to hear that they can't implement that because not every school district offers those specific tech requirements.🤣

(It doesn't really matter if some schools lack the resources or the motivation to send kids to sports competitions, since those points still count toward their standing just as much as academic competition scores do.😬)

The thing is, they have what they need. Since they had to update the curriculum for 5th and 6th grade just so Blaž could hire his MIT grads, every single school now meets the criteria and is basically forced to offer elective computer science from 1st through 8th grade.
It's just like how everyone offers elective foreign languages, but—well, damn—the Supreme Court ruled that using those points for admissions was discriminatory, so that was that.

Man, my kid actually gave up on computer science back in seventh grade. Back in fifth grade, they had this amazing teacher who kept things super engaging—they were doing really cool, hands-on stuff like programming in Python. It was easily his favorite subject in school.

But then sixth grade rolled around, and they got this new teacher who pushed an "advanced" curriculum that was basically the exact opposite of fun. He spent the whole year complaining because it became mind-numbingly boring. They were just rehashing everything he already knew, and if he hit a topic he hadn't seen before, they’d spend the entire class period dragging out a concept that should have taken him three minutes to grasp.

Even though he was cruising through with easy A's, it felt like such a massive waste of time and mental energy that he just checked out completely. Honestly, I don't blame him. My only worry is that schools shouldn't suddenly make passing computer science in seventh or eighth grade a strict requirement for getting into high school. 😬

Sarah Hall53 said:The thing is, they have what they need. Since they had to update the curriculum for 5th and 6th grade just so Blaž could hire his MIT grads, every single school now meets the criteria and is basically forced to offer elective computer science from 1st through 8th grade.
It's just like how everyone offers elective foreign languages, but—well, damn—the Supreme Court ruled that using those points for admissions was discriminatory, so that was that.

Which schools are Blaze's people from Cleveland actually teaching at?🤔
From what I know, most of them are teachers from the tech-heavy programs, basically just lecturing about high-level computer science theory.
🤷

I still think a solid MIT grad can hold their own and find a great job in the market.

That whole language point is total nonsense, especially when you combine it with extra credit for things like school swim team championships (or volleyball, table tennis, or whatever sports the school happens to offer—schools that don't even provide those options to kids in other districts).

Oh, come on, don't even get me started on Caltech 🤣
I mean, seriously, some students from Caltech land high-paying jobs in their field a full year before they even toss their caps at graduation—we're talking six figures, sometimes way more. You’d think they’d need someone like Blanche to hand them those roles on a silver platter 😵

But hey, we all know who's really to blame for everything 🤦

hiddendriver34 said:Man, my kid actually gave up on computer science back in seventh grade. Back in fifth grade, they had this amazing teacher who kept things super engaging—they were doing really cool, hands-on stuff like programming in Python. It was easily his favorite subject in school.

But then sixth grade rolled around, and they got this new teacher who pushed an "advanced" curriculum that was basically the exact opposite of fun. He spent the whole year complaining because it became mind-numbingly boring. They were just rehashing everything he already knew, and if he hit a topic he hadn't seen before, they’d spend the entire class period dragging out a concept that should have taken him three minutes to grasp.

Even though he was cruising through with easy A's, it felt like such a massive waste of time and mental energy that he just checked out completely. Honestly, I don't blame him. My only worry is that schools shouldn't suddenly make passing computer science in seventh or eighth grade a strict requirement for getting into high school. 😬

Exactly. My daughter dropped it in seventh grade too because it just wasn't stimulating enough. Plus, she was training for her sport five days a week, often right during the computer science block. The school didn't really make a fuss about it either, mostly because finding good tech teachers is such a struggle in the US that they just accommodate whatever schedules work for them. ☕

I guess we'll see how it goes with my son. His current teacher is... well, just okay, nothing special. But they have moved on to using Python now, so perhaps things will pick up and get a bit more interesting.

Susan James said:Which schools are Blaze's people from Cleveland actually teaching at?🤔
From what I know, most of them are teachers from the tech-heavy programs, basically just lecturing about high-level computer science theory.
🤷

I still think a solid MIT grad can hold their own and find a great job in the market.

That whole language point is total nonsense, especially when you combine it with extra credit for things like school swim team championships (or volleyball, table tennis, or whatever sports the school happens to offer—schools that don't even provide those options to kids in other districts).

A school offering those kinds of sports doesn't actually contribute much to the outcome; typically, the kids heading to competitions are the ones already training hard at local clubs. If there happen to be enough kids in one sport to form a team, the school simply signs them up for the district tournaments.
Essentially, the school hasn't invested a single ounce of effort or time into these kids' athletic achievements.

Honestly, awarding extra points for any kind of competitive achievement makes far more sense than this sudden flood of dyslexia diagnoses and similar excuses.🙄

Is there actually some kind of admissions coordinator or a specific point of contact at high schools—I’m not even sure what the official title would be, I guess—that I can reach out to?
Would it be possible to request an appointment to sit down with my kid and have a brief conversation if they’re interested in a particular school and have a few questions?
Or am I just supposed to browse the school's website and call it a day?

mellowskipper said:Is there actually some kind of admissions coordinator or a specific point of contact at high schools—I’m not even sure what the official title would be, I guess—that I can reach out to?
Would it be possible to request an appointment to sit down with my kid and have a brief conversation if they’re interested in a particular school and have a few questions?
Or am I just supposed to browse the school's website and call it a day?

I can't speak for the official district policy, but for our local high school, I’d suggest reaching out to the school counselor. She pops into parent meetings every now and then, and she’s always mentioned that we can swing by for anything—not just when things go sideways. Honestly, she seems super friendly and easy to talk to, really approachable...

That's about all I know.

Jason Ortiz5 said:I can't speak for the official district policy, but for our local high school, I’d suggest reaching out to the school counselor. She pops into parent meetings every now and then, and she’s always mentioned that we can swing by for anything—not just when things go sideways. Honestly, she seems super friendly and easy to talk to, really approachable...

That's about all I know.

Alright, thanks. I think I'll try reaching out to the counselors at those two high schools I've been looking at. Maybe they'll have some open house events coming up soon, which might be a better way to handle it.