9th/10th Grade Course Selections: Find the “Sweet Spot”

As colleges shift away from using standardized test scores to evaluate applicants, admission representatives are scrutinizing the “rigor” of your child’s academic program relative to what their school offers more. As such, the choices they make in their 9th and 10th-grade years can impact their college options later. With this in mind, some parents might think that they should encourage their children to take all the hardest classes a school offers. But, it’s not that simple, and too much rigor is not good either. A better option is to collaborate with your child to find a good balance, the “sweet spot,” between the rigor of their academic program and everything else on their plate. 

Each spring your child will select classes for the upcoming school year. While graduation requirements might dictate some of their choices, they may have the ability to choose a class’s level (honors, AP, college preparatory, accelerated, etc. Please note: some schools don’t level their classes.) and to choose their electives. 

In many schools, the course selection process starts with your child’s teachers making class recommendations. Teacher recommendations are important. The teachers know your child’s academic strengths and challenges. But, the teachers won’t necessarily know how your child spends time outside of school. Perhaps your child has a part-time job or participates in a time-demanding activity. Collectively, the teacher recommendations might be too ambitious because the teachers don’t know what recommendations all the other teachers are making for your child. So, while striving for academic rigor in one’s program is good, there is a larger context to consider.  Spending some time to find that “sweet spot” between academic rigor and extracurricular commitments/interests, will allow your child will learn more, develop more confidence, and be happier.

Your child’s School Counselor has a good sense of how challenging and how much time Honors Geometry or AP US History, for example, will demand.  If you have concerns that your child’s proposed schedule is too rigorous, or not rigorous enough, please reach out to your child’s School Counselor!  If your child hopes to play NCAA Division I or II athletics, you will want to be sure they are taking classes that enable them to be “academically eligible.” Some classes might not meet the NCAA’s eligibility criteria. The School Counselors will have this information. JMT College Consulting can assist you and your child with academic planning and determining athletic eligibility as well.  

Having worked as a School Counselor, I would see students each year who would try to sign up for courses that, as a group, were far too ambitious given everything else that they had on their plates and, some students who would try to sign up for classes that wouldn’t challenge them enough. Taking appropriate academic risks is good! Colleges like that! Your child will grow and learn more by being appropriately challenged. Finding that balance of classes that play to their strengths and interests while also challenging them, leads to optimal learning conditions. And, remember to encourage them to leave time for friends and extracurricular interests. Stretching a bit is good, being super stressed-out is not! 

Think “sweet spot!” 

If you have questions or want to learn more, please reach out to JMT College Consulting