We are bit tired of topics on wasting money and index fund investing.
If I myself need a break from it, I am sure you need a break from it as well.
So let's cover a bit different topic in this episode.
How is the high school in USA different from the ones in India?
What are all the things that we should be aware of if we are planning on sending our kids to high school here in USA?
We will dig deeper into those topics in this episode.
Hi. My name is Vijay Mohan. You are watching - Investment Insights.
The way schooling system is categorized in USA is - Kindergarten to 5th grade is Elementary.
Some elementary schools have up to 6th grade.
6th to 8th is Middle school.
9th to 12th is High School.
There is no division of secondary and higher secondary like in India (Tamil nadu).
From 9th to 12th, all 4 years will be in same high school.
Class, standard is called as grade.
"Which grade is your son in?" "He is in 6th grade" - a conversation will go like this.
After coming to High school, 9th grade, 10th grades etc. have another name as well.
We might have heard this when talking to parents of high schoolers.
If we ask, "What is your daughter studying?", response would ve "High school sophomore".
When we hear this for first time, we will definitely get confused.
9th grade - High school freshman.
10th grade - High school sophomore.
11th grade - High school Junior.
12th grade - High school senior.
Is your head spinning now? Don't worry. Your whole body will spin in few minutes.
Can you imagine how much is the high school fees here? Zero.
There is no fees in a public school.
You might think, then the quality must be compromised.
But, No. 90% of the kids here in US go to public school.
Quality is that good.
How about school bus fees? That is free as well.
I sam saying free. But it is not actually free as we are paying the tax.
We can say, "Illusion of free".
Don't get jealous yet. For all the money that we save from school fees, we pay even more in college fees.
College fees is that expensive.
"Are you at least spending money for the books?"
Nope. We get that for free from school as well.
That too in high school, all kids get an iPad.
"All books are there in the iPad app. Refer there." would be their recommendation.
Even then, the kids are carrying huge loads in their bags. Not sure what they actually carry.
How about uniform? "You can wear casual clothes. Just come decent." is all they say.
How about the subjects in the high school?
What do they say back in India? "9th standard? These are all the subjects. Learn as much as possible and score the highest marks you can."
Here it is like wild goose chase.
"Per year you can choose 6 or 7 subjects. But you can choose anything you want" is what they would say here.
There are more than 700 courses offered in my son's high school.
What we call as subjects is called as courses here.
New immigrant parents get confused with all that 700 options.
"How can we guide our kids? What courses would be appropriate for them?"
No worries. I will share what I know here.
You can use this as a starting point.
First check out your high school graduation requirements.
It will be listed clearly in their curriculum.
What we are seeing here is our high school graduation requirements.
English - we have to study english all 4 years.
Mathematics - at least 3 years, we should study Maths.
Top colleges would expect us to take Maths for all 4 years.
Science - we should study at least for 2 years.
Top colleges expect us to do it for 4 years.
Social Studies - that too should have been covered for 2 years.
Top colleges expect 3 to 4 years of Social Studies. It is better for us to target all 4 years.
World Language - we should have studies at least one year.
Top colleges expect 2 to 4 years of world language.
It is better to choose one language for all 4 years. At least have a target for 3 years.
Many take Spanish. In US, Spanish is the most used language next to English.
These are all main core requirements. Other than these, there will be Physical Edcation, music etc. requirements.
That's it? It does not look that complicated at all - you might think.
Let's check out the core courses list.
We already know that we have to choose English for all 4 years. You can see how many options are there for that 4.
Almost 30 options. Same story in other subjects as well.
Let's dig little deeper into Mathematics course.
The maths path in US looks like this - Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2/PreCalculus, Trigonometry/Calculus A, Calculus BC.
We have to learn each for one year.
In India, it is a standard maths subject for all 9th standard. But it is not like that here.
Here it is totally different for different kids depending on their capability.
Let's say Anjali is pretty good in Maths,
Then Anjali would finish Algebra 1 in her 7th grade itself and Geometry in 8th grade.
When she goes to high school, she will be ready to take "Algebra2/PreCalculs" in 9th grade.
What we see here at the top most will be the path of Anjali.
10th - Trigonometry/Calculus A, 11th - AP Calculus BC
In 12th, she can take either Multivariable Calculus or Statistics.
This will be the path for smart kids like Anjali.
Kids who are at next level will take Geometry in 9th grade.
Then those kids would finish their 12th grade by taking Calculus BC.
The next level kids will take Algebra 1 in their 9th grade.
There are even kids who take Algebra 1 only in their 10th grade.
Like this, depending on the capability of every kid, their course path will be totally different.
If a kid is smart, they would have identified that in their elementary school and put them in a gifted program.
They usually progress little bit faster than other kids.
Note the AP name in some of the courses - it means "Advanced Placement".
All these AP courses are college level courses. They offer them for smart kids in High School.
As we saw earlier, Anjali can take 2 AP courses - AP Calculus BC and AP Statistics - just in Math itself.
Many colleges give credit for these AP classes.
That means, if these AP courses are required courses in college, then we do not have to take them again in college.
Many kids finish 10 to 15 AP courses in High School.
There are extreme kinds who have finished 25 AP courses.
If we do not have to take 12 courses in college because of these AP courses, then that will save 1 year from our college.
Not just time, it saves money as well.
Like I said before, not all colleges accept the credit for AP courses.
Check the colleges that you are planning on apply whether they accept AP courses credit and plan accordingly.
How about science?
Science is not that complicated. Back home, till 10th standard, we will have just one "Science" subject.
Here, they split into Biology, Chemistry and Physics in 9th grade itself.
Also, they learn just one of them full focused in a given year.
Biology in 9th, Chemistry in 10th, Physics in 11th.
There are 3 levels in 9th grade Freshman Biology.
The basic general category is S131.
The next level is S137.
Then we have the most advanced - honors level - S138.
Some high schools let the kids take AP Biology in freshman itself.
Out school does not do that. Honors level is the maximum.
So a smart kid would choose, Honors Biology in 9th, Honors Chemistry in 10th, AP Physics 1&2 in 11th.
In 12th, they would choose either AP Biology or AP Chemistry.
This is the course plan that we have put together for my son.
We have identified all the courses that he could potentially take in all 4 years from 9th grade.
Identifying the course plan early will be helpful in our planing.
A kids can take up to 7 courses in a year.
A below average kid will be allowed to take only 6 courses per year.
7 course per year means, we will be able to take only 28 courses in 4 years.
Rather than choosing a random 28 courses, it is better to choose the courses that fits our career plan.
To have strong writing skills, we have AP Language and Literature composition in our English plan.
We have already reviewed Maths and Science.
My son is not much interested in sports. But has a good interest in music.
To have another activity other than core education, we have band in our plan for all 4 years.
Band is music class. The kid can choose, clarinet or flute or drums etc. as their choice of instrument and can participate in orchestra band or marching band.
Many kids stay in band for only 1 or 2 years.
Participating in an activity for all 4 years consistently will be seen as positive by College admission.
So it is better to participate in all 4 years on any given extra activity.
Spanish. This too, many choose for just 2 years.
Like I said earlier, to have full focus in all 4 years, we have Spanish for all 4 years.
Social Studies. AP World History, AP Human Geography, AP US History, AP Macro Economics - we planned to cover all these in 4 years.
But we were not able to fit these in our 28 courses list. So we covered World History as part of summer itself.
We have the other 3 in our schedule from 10th.
Computer Science Electives - AP CS Principles, AP Computer Science A, Mobile App Development - all in our plan for now.
Most probably my son will choose AP Psychology or something similar instead of Mobile development. But this is our plan for now.
So a course plan totally differs for every kid. They do not sit in the same class like we do in back home.
They move around the school to different classrooms for each subject. Classmates will be different for different classes as well.
As the kids have to move around for every period, they have a 5 min break in between each periods.
Exams. Back home, 10th and 12th final are the most important ones.
It is not like that here. From 9th grade, each and every quiz, homework, test in the class is important. All will be included in the final grade.
Each teacher will clearly communicate in the year beginning itself on how they will grade.
This is a grading scale published for my son's Algebra 2 class.
Tests - 55%, Quiz - 15%, Homework - 10% and Final exam - 20%.
If we have to get an A grade for this course, it is important to target A grade for each and every submission.
There will homework everyday. Quiz every week. Test every 2 weeks. All these for just one course.
Then imagine how it will be for all 7 courses? High school will stressful for all the kids.
It is better to be ready to handle that kind of work load.
There are no marks like in India. All are grades.
The average of all grades is GPA. Grade Point Average.
A grade is 4 points. B grade is 3 points. C grade is 2 points. D grade is 1 point.
Let's say that I take 2 courses. Got A grade in one and B grade in another.
Then my GPA would be, 4 points from A, 3 points from B, the average of these two - 3.5 would be my GPA.
So a high school GPA would be, grade point average of all the courses that we take in High school.
This GPA plays an important role in college admission.
May kids that go to top college will have a perfect 4.0 as their GPA.
That means, they got A grade in all the courses they took in High school.
This is normal GPA. There is a weighted GPA as well.
Weighted GPA is to differentiate the grades from a honors course to a regular course.
Every school differs on how they assign weightage for their honors/AP courses.
In our school, they add 0.222 to the final GPA for each honors level courses.
If I have taken 2 honors level courses and if I score A grade in both, then the regular unweighted GPA would be 4.0.
But the weighted GPA would be 4.44. This is like getting 110 for 100.
These extra points come handy for college admission.
This shows how kids have challenged themselves on their coursework.
That does not mean that we should torture kids forcing them to take honors classes. We should make them take courses within their comfort.
We don't want to sign up for a rigorous course that puts even B grade at risk.
Clubs. Every high school offers many evening clubs.
There are more than 50 clubs in our high school.
There will be many varieties of clubs like - Maths, Science, Robotics, Debate Speech etc.
Our kids might get a chance to participate at state or even national level thru these clubs.
All these extra activities can help with our college application.
So we do not want to leave them out as optional. We should sign up for clubs that matches kids strengths and interests.
That is all I know about US high school.
I am sure that I would have missed many other key points.
Experience parents, please share your experience in comments below.
We will soon meet again in another episode. Thank You!