Month: November 2010

What are honors courses?

What are honors courses?

First you need to check as to whether or not your school offers honors courses to freshmen. Some only allow students to take such courses from their sophomore year. Unlike AP courses, which are offered to juniors and seniors, honors courses vary in terms of curriculum and rigor of expectations. While AP (Advanced Placement) courses deliver a prescribed curriculum, honors courses in California are designed for the University of California system. Teachers who want to offer honors classes must submit the course outline to UC with a copy of the curriculum and examples of tests to be administered. Every high school has a list of their honors courses on file with UC. Successful completion of an honors course adds a point to a student’s grade point average. So in many ways, honors courses are specifically designed to enhance a student’s chances of admission to the University of California, which generally considers for admission only those within the top 12% of their class. In some schools, students need to take honors courses to qualify for AP classes. Such courses are stringent in their requirements and students need to be properly prepared. Honors classes can help student’s develop the strong writing skills necessary to succeed in AP classes.

Source: http://www.nvo.com/sos/articles/article.nhtml?uid=10007

Honors Courses

The CSU assigns extra points for up to eight semesters of approved honors level, AP or IB courses taken in the last three years of high school: A=5 points, B=4 points, C=3 points. No more than two approved honors level courses taken in the tenth grade may be given extra points. Extra points cannot be earned for honors, IB or Advanced Placement courses where the grade of D was received.

In order to be an “approved honors level course,” that high school course must be identified as honors level on your official high school “A-G” course list. You can find your school’s course list at www.ucop.edu/doorways/.

Source: http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/california-state-university-csu/gpa_calculator.asp

Use this search engine to find a California high school or program’s UC certified course list. For DVHS 2010-2011 Course List, click here.

Source: Palo Alto High School mailing list

UC, Cal State proposing tuition hikes this fall – San Jose Mercury News

UC, Cal State proposing tuition hikes this fall – San Jose Mercury News

  • UC system is preparing to raise undergraduate tuition by $822 this coming fall, an 8 percent increase that will bring the average cost at the 10 campuses to $12,150
  • Cal State trustees, meanwhile, this week will vote on two tuition hikes — 5 percent, or $105, for the second half of the current school year and 10 percent on top of the new fee, or $440, this coming fall. Cal State tuition will cost $4,884 in fall 2011
  • UC raised tuition twice in the past year — a 32 percent increase overall, sending the cost past the $10,000 mark for the first time.
  • UC Retirement Plan, which went 20 years without contributions by either the university or its employees. The $30 billion fund, which has fallen at least $12 billion behind what it needs to pay retirees, took a 19.2 percent hit in 2008-09.

 

  • UC – from 1990 to 2011 – $2,000 to $11,124 – about 5 times increase in 20 years
  • CSU – from 1990 to 2011 – $1,000 to $4,884 – about 5 times increase in 20 years

Palo Alto Online : High school life: To whom it may concern

Palo Alto Online : High school life: To whom it may concern

Some ideas from a veteran teacher at Gunn High School, Palo Alto:

■ Start the school day later on Thursday so that kids can catch an extra hour of sleep;

■ Have the Adolescent Counseling staff visit classrooms to say “hi”;

■ Restrict the use of cell phones and other devices on campus during school hours;

■ Host a once-a-month, school-wide evening potluck so parents, teachers, students, administrators and counselors can mingle and hobnob;

■ Emphasize to new teachers, and enshrine in our culture, the immense worth of moment-to-moment affirmation of students (as expressed in Project Cornerstone’s “40 Ways Teachers Can Show Students That They Care”);

■ Unplug the round-the-clock, online feature that enables teachers to post, and students and parents to track, grades on tests, quizzes, homework and papers on a 24/7 basis;

■ Change summer-school curricula back from two semesters to only one (students’ GPAs and AP course loads — and most importantly, the kids themselves — will survive);

■ Require parents of a student registering for more than two AP classes to sign a form acknowledging that this course load may result in detrimental losses of sleep, time with friends and time with teachers and may lower their child’s resiliency, increase his or her anxiety and affect mental health;

■ Scuttle the “Titan Profiles” from morning televised announcements. These portraits of achievement are sometimes agreed to in order to please an adult but can also discourage our kids most affected by depression;

■ Move the counselors’ presentation on how to approach college applications from junior year back to senior year;

■ Add a technology that monitors students’ total nightly homework (with a function that gives teachers feedback on how long their assignments are actually taking) to the technology that tracks attendance and grades;

■ Institute policies that require special attention to homework loads in the immediate wake of any campus trauma (and require deferment of disturbing learning materials such as films or books that deal with genocide, war or torture);

■ Survey students to rate all teachers and coaches and administrators on how approachable they are (with the results communicated to the educators only upon request, in complete confidentiality, and with follow-up support and guidance or coaching made available);

■ Fairly and consistently enforce, and clearly communicate, rules against academic dishonesty so that our kids’ anxieties about whether the academic playing-field is level are allayed;

■ Keep teachers’ full-time loads at five classes rather than, as was proposed this past year, adding a sixth, once-a-week class period in which faculty are expected to bond with 20 more students and facilitate group discussions of personal issues;

■ Commit to the smallest reasonable class sizes so that teachers’ energies are husbanded and every student has a maximum chance to be heard, recognized and valued.

Sizing Yourself Up Survey | FiskeGuide.com

Sizing Yourself Up Survey | FiskeGuide.com

Self-knowledge is crucial to the matching process at the heart of a successful college search. This 30-item survey offers a simple way to get a handle on some critical issues in college selection – and what sort of college may fit your preferences.

Open House : Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising – San Francisco

Fashionistas! A date for your calendar!  On Saturday, November 20th, 2010,  the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising – San Francisco campus will be hosting an open house and live runway show of fashion design students.  To RSVP for this event go to www.fidm.edu/openhouse

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Summer Program : TRAVEL TO SOUTH AFRICA & MOZAMBIQUE, SUMMER 2011

The trip of a lifetime! Students are invited to join FUNDaFIELD clubs at Monte Vista, San Ramon, Dougherty and Dublin High Schools in an “Evening of Information” on Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 from 7:00-8:00 pm at Monte Vista, in the College and Career Center.  We will go over the 6/18-7/4/2010, combined high school, trip details!  Students will join FundAField in hosting their fourth soccer tournament in Africa.  Tournament will be held in Kwandebele, home of the Ndebele tribe.  We will also take a two day Safari in Kruger National Park and visiting Mozambique to spend time in a rural, artistic village.  If interested in attending the informational meeting email Cathy Haberl @ chaberl@mvhigh.net with your name, phone number and email address.  More info at www.FUNDaFIELD.org

 

Early Decision and Early Action Admissions

Mission San Jose High School | Counselors

EARLY DECISION plans are binding. Your child agrees to attend the college if accepted and if the college offers an adequate financial aid package. Although your child can apply to only one college for early decision, applying to other colleges though the regular admissions process is allowed. If your child is accepted by the first-choice college early, all other applications must be withdrawn.

EARLY ACTION plans are similar but not binding. If accepted, your child can choose to commit to the college immediately, or wait until the spring. Under these plans, your child may also apply early action to other colleges.

SINGLE-CHOICE EARLY ACTION is a new option offered by a few colleges. This plan works the same way as other early action plans, but candidates may not apply early (either Early Decision or Early Action) to any other college. Your child can still apply regular decision plans and is not required to give a final answer until the regular decision deadline.

Early Action and Early Decision plans should be used with discretion. If a student has any reservations about attending that school, or if their application profile is not complete, they should wait to apply regular decision. The applicant pool for early decisions is extremely discriminating. If your student’s record is not superior in every way, he/she should devote their energies to strengthening it and applying to regular decision instead. In addition, many early decision/early action schools who deny a student early admission may not allow them to apply for regular decision.

Early admissions programs can be very advantageous to college applicants, depending on their profile and situation. A high school student who is sure of what school they want to go to and whose profile is superb can benefit from early admissions. However, students who have any questions at all are not encouraged to apply early, as they are then required to forgo all other options and commit to spending four years and thousands of dollars at a particular institution..

Collegewise: Don’t fall for the sham

Collegewise: Don’t fall for the sham

Non-believers should read The Chosen, a UC Berkeley sociologist’s exhaustive study of college admissions.  His findings showed there was no measurable difference between the outcomes of students who attended the most selective schools and those who attended any of over a hundred schools that accepted more of their applicants. The graduates of famous colleges don’t get better paying jobs, they aren’t happier, they aren’t more successful, their lives aren’t any better, etc.