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How does block-class scheduling work?

By Rajkamal Rao

One of the most difficult things to understand about a high school student's daily routine is the block-class schedule. Teenagers seem to embrace it fine, almost right from the day they are introduced to the idea. It's adults who have a problem in comprehending what at first glance appears to be a highly convoluted system!

School districts engage in block class schedules to maximize resources (class room space, time during a day, the availability of teachers, variety of classes to avoid boredom, and the number of school weeks in a semester). Block scheduling works well whether the school follows a semester system or a trimester system (such as HEB ISD where the year is broken down into three 12-week trimesters).

The easiest way to explain this concept is through an example. Consider Frisco ISD which works on the so-called A-B block schedule. Here's the schedule for Wakeland High School.

Wakeland High School Day
9:00 am - 4:15 pm

Bell Schedule
1A and 1B periods   9:00 am - 10:30 am
2A and 2B periods   10:35 am - 12:05pm

Tutorial/Advisory    12:10 pm - 12:35 pm everyday

3A and 3B periods   12:40 pm - 2:40 pm
4A and 4B periods   2:45 pm – 4:15 pm

Lunch Times
(A) 12:35 – 1:02
(B)   1:07 – 1:34
(C)   1:39 – 2:06
(D)   2:11 – 2:39

Notice that both A and B Blocks have 4 class periods each, with each period lasting 1½ hours. Each Block-class combination is worth a ½ credit during a semester of 18 weeks.

During week 1 of the Fall semester, a high school student taking her favorite subject would have three A-Block classes (M-W-F) and 2 B-Block classes (Tue, Thu). During week 2, she would have three B-Block classes (M-W-F) and two A-Block classes (Tue, Thu). In effect, each student sits in a 1½-hour class period for five classes over two weeks, amounting to 7½ hours of instruction. This amounts to 7½ x 9 = 67.5 hours of instruction over an entire semester. Why 9? Because there are nine two-week blocks in an 18-week semester.

Suppose a student has the following Fall schedule:

Pre-AP English II (Assume A-Block)

AP Spanish 4
Pre-AP Chemistry
AP Computer Science (Fall)

What this schedule means is that she will sit in Pre-AP English II for three days during week 1 (M-W-F) and two days during week 2 (Tue-Thurs). Over two weeks, she will have sat in 5 English classes, consuming 7½ hours of instruction. Over 18 weeks, this would amount to 45 English classes (9 x 5), 67½ hours of classes. At the end of the Fall semester, she would have earned a ½ credit for Pre-AP English II. To earn the balance of the ½ credit, she would continue taking Pre-AP English in the Spring semester, again on the same A-B Block schedule, for an additional 67½ hours of class time. This amounts to 135 hours of instruction over an entire year, the typical depth of commitment to earn a full high school credit.

So what's the maximum number of credits that a student can earn in a year? That's easy. We know there are 6 instructional hours a day, i.e., 30 hours a week. There are 36 weeks in a school year. This adds up to 36 * 30 = 1,080 hours during a school year. Divide this by 135 hours and you get 8 credits.

What about double-blocked classes? Some subjects, such as AP Computer Science, have too much content to complete in a year through standard single-blocking. By double-blocking this course, the student ends up taking AP Computer Science every day of the week during the entire semester, and thus, the entire year. This amounts to 270 hours of instruction over an entire year. In return, the student earns two high school credits. The below schedule is of one continuing AP Computer Science in the Spring semester.

AP World History
Pre-AP PreCalc
AP Computer Science (Spring)
Debate - 2

[For the record, FISD does not list AP Computer Science as a double-blocked course, but as one that earns 2 credits, so the effect is the same. A better example for double-blocked courses is GT American Studies which integrates two Advanced Placement courses (and like AP Computer Science) is worth 2 credits. GT American Studies combines AP Language and Composition with AP U.S History; therefore, the class is double blocked over the A day/B day time block].

The summary is that students earning a full high school credit in the A-B block scheduling arrangement will take a class 3 days a week, followed by 2 days the next week. They will continue this 2-week schedule for the entire year.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

Common questions which confront high school families

By Rajkamal Rao

Image: Rao Advisors

We have cataloged below the most common questions which high school families ask us. While most families know generic answers to them, they look to us for assistance in creating strategies specific to their children.

How do we define a student’s interests and develop a personal brand?
Which high school courses/tracks/endorsements/DLAs/PA’s should we aim for?
What are dual credit courses and what are the benefits?
pSAT/SAT/ACT/All? When?
Should I send my child to a test-prep academy for the SAT/ACT?
How important is the PSAT-11?
What is the difference between unweighted and weighted GPAs?
My friend's school district uses a more generous scale of GPA bonus weights. Is this fair to me?
I am relocating. How important is my target location's school district?
Should I consider private high schools?
Should I consider charter schools? Magnet schools?
Is TAMS a good option for my student?
How important is class rank for college admissions?
How can I track my child's weighted average GPA at home?
If Naviance sends out unweighted GPA scores to colleges, how will colleges know that I took tough courses?
What's the college pricing ladder?
What's the difference between counselor and teacher recommendations?
What's my chance of obtaining a merit scholarship in college?
AP/IB/Both? When? How many AP courses?
What is AP Capstone and why is it so popular?
How to develop a brag sheet?
Which extracurricular activities should my child pursue? How many?
My student wants to be an NCAA Div 1/Div 2/Div 3 athlete. How can you help?
How can my student engage in serving the community?
What summer programs should I consider for my student?
How do we balance work experience/internship/extracurricular activities into the student profile?
How do we exploit the Coalition’s free tools?
What are key planning milestones, grades 9 – 12?
Which states/regions to avoid because co-op/internship chances may be fewer?
Why may an out of state private college be less expensive than studying in-state?
How much should we rely on college rankings?
Which reputed resources are the best to conduct college research?
Which types of colleges should we avoid?
What are three innovative ways to lower college costs?
How do we group colleges into Dream, Core, and Safe buckets?
What selection factors are relevant to finalizing colleges?
Should I focus on the brand of a college or my major?
I received a CAP offer from the University of Texas. Should I consider it?
What’s the difference between Subjective & Objective pieces of an application?
How do we analyze Net Price Estimates?
How do we conduct scholarship searches?
From whom should we get recommendation letters?
How do we maximize the potential of a LinkedIn profile?
Common App or Universal College App or Coalition App or individual college app?
What application strategies should we employ - Rolling, EA or ED?
What modern tools can we use to predict and improve college acceptance?
What online tools can we leverage to visit schools?
How do you prepare for campus visits?
How can we help you successfully write winning college essays?
What social networking tools can we employ to learn about others’ profiles?
How does America pay for college?
How to leverage new FAFSA rules, including the IRS Data Retrieval Tool?
How to take advantage of federal tax credits and deductions?
How to avoid making common mistakes throughout the process?
How expensive are professional counselors?
How many times should I take the SAT/ACT?
How do you prepare teenage children for the summer vacation?
How important is the STAAR test?
How do you prepare for AP Physics?
How do we fine-tune our teenager's high school course roadmap?
Why are Advanced Placement (AP) Courses So Important?
How to improve strength of high school curriculum?
Is an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma a good choice?
Does a "good" school district mean your high school student will be successful?
How to interpret PSAT-11 scores for National Merit Scholarships?
Should High School Students Audit a Class?
Can you give us a primer on College Essays?
How do you send transcripts to colleges?
How do you appeal a decision made by a college?
Is a BS/MD program a good choice?
How can I leverage community colleges to transfer to a 4-year college?
I am on an H-1B visa. How will this impact my student's college career, including financial aid?
I am on an H-1B visa. How can I ensure that my student qualifies for in-state tuition?

Texas A&M: Campus Visit Observations

By Rajkamal Rao

The Water Tank at Texas A&M. Image credit: Rao Advisors LLC.

On June 24, 2019, we visited Texas A&M (TAMU) in College Station, TX, for a campus visit and presentation program. Our verdict? If you're interested in Engineering, Computer Science, Math, Sciences, or Business, this should be on your shortlist.

All You Need To Know About Texas A&M

The best way to visit Texas A&M is to register in advance. The visitor center is easy to find and parking at the University Center Garage is $2/hour.

Texas A&M is in small College Station, easily approachable on State Highway 6 which connects Houston to Waco. The neighborhood has the look and feel of a college town: for miles on all sides, the university is the region's largest employer. TAMU is one of the largest land-grant institutions in the country, and huge in size, at over 5,400 acres, and in the size of its student-body, at nearly 65,000 students. Texas A&M is also a big school for sending cadets to the U.S. Armed Forces. In fact, other than the major military academies operated by the U.S. Government, no college sends as many ROTC officers to the U.S. Navy, Air Force, the Marines, and the Army.

An extremely proud institution, everything on the Texas A&M campus has a tradition, dating back to the early 1900's. "Howdy!" is the popular welcome. Aggie is how a TAMU graduate is known as. For many years Aggies have followed a Code of Honor : “Aggies do not lie, cheat, or steal, nor do they tolerate those who do.” The Aggie network is world-famous for a public institution, helping other Aggies not only in school, but throughout careers and life.


The campus is so large that free buses operate on a 7-15 minute cycle. Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC.

Kyle Field, the famous stadium which hosts Aggie Football. Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

Memorial Student Center is unbelievably large. Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

Well-manicured lawns separate large department buildings. Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC.

Freshman dorm room, Lechner Hall. Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

Here are key observations from our participation in various official information sessions.

TAMU operates ten colleges within its large campus, such as the College of Engineering, or the College of Business.

TAMU offers bright students a chance to take Honors courses, or even, be designated into an Honors program. Open to students in all majors, the University Honors Program provides the resources of a major research university with course, community and extracurricular opportunities.

TAMU selects 800-1,200 students in each incoming Freshmen class and places them into University, College or Department programs. Admission to some Honors Programs as an incoming Freshman requires a separate application.

The student-teacher ratio is 20:1, relatively low for a large public school. Honors classes have even smaller ratios.

Payscale.com ranks TAMU as #1 in Texas for Return on College Investment in terms of getting jobs after graduation.

There are three ways to get into TAMU. The Top 10% rule fills 51% of all incoming Freshmen seats. The Academic Admit rule (minimum of 1360 on the SAT or an ACT Composite of 30 and a Top 25% rank in a Texas high school) fills 16% of all Freshmen seats and was officially retired as an automatic admit pathway beginning the class of 2021. The remaining seats are filled through a holistic evaluation (grades, test scores, essays, extracurriculars) of the application.

The application window is open from July 1 - Dec 1. Honors applications are available on Aug 1. The College of Engineering has an Early Action deadline of Oct 15. All students are required to submit a diversity essay. “Texas A&M University believes that diversity is an important part of academic excellence and that it is essential to living our core values (loyalty, integrity, excellence, leadership, respect, and selfless service). Describe the benefits of diversity and inclusion for you personally and for the Texas A&M campus community. (250-300 words).”

Freshmen students do not have to live on campus although TAMU operates the nation's largest housing infrastructure for students. Dorm rooms are comfortable and are offered at different price points ($2,000 - $5,000 per semester).

Our takeaway

Texas A&M is an excellent public university option for Texas residents. Most students typically opt for UT Austin but for some programs such as Engineering, Sciences, and Business, Texas A&M is an attractive alternative. The Aggie network, the lifestyle of a small college town, and proximity to the big Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, and Austin) for commutes to visit family, and for internship/job opportunities all make TAMU a smart choice.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

Go back to "Rao Advisors - Home".

How useful is the Net Price Estimator?

Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

By Rajkamal Rao

If you reviewed our post on the College Pricing Ladder, the above graphic should be familiar to you. It shows that Net Price is the amount that a student pays to attend an institution in a single academic year AFTER subtracting scholarships and grants the student receives. [Scholarships and grants are forms of financial aid that a student does not have to pay back]. This is the U.S. Department of Education's official definition of Net Price. We throw in tax credits and deductions because these too are amounts that you're entitled to, and you do not have to pay back.

Just like buyers of cars never really pay sticker price and are able to negotiate a lower price before driving them out of a dealer’s lot, most families rarely pay the sticker price listed on a college website. But while buying a car at the lowest price demonstrates negotiating skills of the buyer, no negotiating skills are needed to obtain the Net Price estimate for a family.

The net price of attending college is highly tailored to an individual’s family situation and considers a variety of factors completely unrelated to the merit of the student. Nearly all undergraduate students are considered dependent upon their parents unless they answered "Yes" to any of the questions in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) checklist, run by the U.S. Department of Education.

Factors such as whether the parents are unmarried, divorced or separated; the number of children in college; the size of the household; family income, savings, value of College 529's, assets, the value of home businesses and family commitments, such as alimony and medical payments which are not covered by insurance; family debt; the age of the primary home; debt remaining on the primary home; willingness of students to work in the summer or during term, are all considered as inputs into a black-box algorithm to estimate what the college thinks is a fair Net Price for your situation. The only things that are not factored into the black-box are a family's retirement savings (401K, IRAs) and social security income.

Two students with identical academic accomplishments can therefore be offered entirely different net price estimates from the same school. The College Board reminds us: “It is possible that your net cost will be lower at a college with a high sticker price or higher at a college with a lower sticker price. You may find that some colleges you thought were financially out of your reach may be very affordable.”

To estimate net price, visit your desired school’s website and be prepared to spend 20-30 minutes to answer many questions about your situation to get the most accurate estimate. The most elite schools, with extremely large endowments, like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and Princeton, run their own net price calculators on their websites. Nearly 200 other schools, including Brown, Cornell, Duke, Penn, Rice, and Carnegie Mellon, use the one-stop site of the College Board’s. The advantage here is that once you enter your family's information and save it on the College Board's website, calculating the NPE for each participating college is fairly easy as you can simply jump through screens which auto-populate for each school, making minor modifications as desired.

To estimate net price, you can also use the government's Federal Student Aid Estimator, which approximates the calculation of the Student Aid Index (SAI). The SAI is an eligibility index number that a college’s or career school’s financial aid office uses to determine how much federal student aid you would receive if you attended the school. This number results from the information that you provide in your FAFSA form. Read Ron Lieber's excellent NY Times piece on Nov 23, 2024 about the latest FAFSA process.

Remember that the cost of college attendance is collectively borne by the family, the student, the university or college, the state government (in the case of public colleges), the federal government and private entities which make merit scholarship awards, such as those associated with the National Merit Scholarship program. The degree to which each of these external parties assumes financial responsibility will determine how much the family pays.

The "Net Price" is simply the difference between the sticker price and the discounts the family has been offered. The family is ultimately responsible for the Net Price. The Net Price Estimator is therefore a number which indicates how much your family will pay for college - through savings, loans or a student's work-study dollars.

Nearly all financial awards are need-based. External merit scholarships are extremely rare, and when given out, are rather small. Most are one-time. Determining financial need is a complex exercise and is facilitated through huge black-box websites - FAFSA® and the College Scholarship Service (CSS), run by the College Board.

While the Net Price Estimate is an excellent tool to start shortlisting colleges, remember that the only binding contract is that which is made by the college after you fill out your FAFSA and/or CSS application. This financial award information is revealed to a student along with an offer of admission and will include a full breakdown of how much the student will pay for tuition, fees, meals, and lodging.

To review a typical loan schedule so that you can estimate your monthly payments on a student loan when you know the Loan Amount, Interest Rate (e.g., 3.73%), Loan Term in Months (e.g., 120) and the Number of Monthly Payments in the First Year (assuming you want to make more than 12 payments), use a mortgage calculator. Because of a series of Fed interest rate hikes, borrowers with federal undergraduate loans disbursed after July 1, 2022 (and before July 1, 2023) will pay 4.99 percent, up from 3.73 percent for loans disbursed the year-earlier period. (Source: NY Times).

Our takeaways

Two families are unlikely to have the same Net Price because each family's set of circumstances is likely to be different. Families often try to compare financial awards received by another child as though this is somehow representative of that child's merit. But in 99% of these cases, the difference in the Net Price is because of that other child's family situation. In the United States, merit has very little to do in determining financial awards.

Set a budget for your family and short-list schools based on Net Price Estimates. If the NPE for a desired school is within $1,000 of your budget, you may proceed to include that school. If it is greater than $5,000, you need to reassess your budget or drop the school altogether.

Net Price estimates tend to deviate significantly from the sticker price largely for private colleges and universities - which tend to offer tuition discounts. For public schools, the tuition sticker price is fixed by state law and falls into two categories - the discounted in-state tuition or the more expensive out-of-state tuition. For many families, in-state public colleges represent the best bargain because they are more affordable and there's always a college that will accept a student, regardless of high school performance. For some students, it may be worthwhile to consider out-of-state colleges that may offer in-state tuition benefits in that state for specific majors - generally on a reciprocity basis.

Stanford University: Campus Visit Observations

By Rajkamal Rao

Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

On June 10, 2019, we visited Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif, for a campus visit. Our verdict? If you're lucky enough to be one of 1,600 freshmen selected, you should probably say "Yes!!!!!!!"

All You Need To Know About Stanford

The best way to visit Stanford is to register in advance. The visitor center is easy to find and parking is $2/hour. Inside the center, you can view multiple video clips that are constantly running. An information session is generally held at 10 AM and repeats at 2 PM. A campus tour starts at 11:30 AM and again at 3:30 PM. Each tour lasts 70 minutes.

Stanford is in small, scenic, Palo Alto. The neighborhood around Stanford feels like any other northern California suburb. The university is beautiful with over 40,000 trees on a 3,300+ acre campus.

Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

Here are key observations and notes from our participation in the official information session.

One of the most important things Stanford looks for in a high school student is if he/she has exploited all that the high school offers. If a school offers AP/IB courses, Stanford expects students to sign up for as many of them provided students are interested in those topics. If you're a humanities student, Stanford does not expect you to take AP Calculus.

It's almost impossible to transfer AP credits. Stanford allows you to take an exam to exempt out of certain courses, generally limited to 2-3 courses.

Like we often tell our clients, Stanford suggests that you take both the SAT and the ACT so that you can submit whichever is the better score.

There are no score cutoffs but clearly, the higher the score, the better.

SAT subject tests are optional. Yes, optional means optional.

Stanford expects you to pursue any extracurricular activity which reflects your passion. This is identical to our advice on extracurricular activities. You don't have to be part of a school club. You don't have to have performed research. In fact, if you take care of a sibling at home, that counts as a meaningful activity.

Stanford says that the admissions office reads every application and likes to understand the student's context. It's a good idea to therefore include high school demographic information.

Stanford needs two recommendation letters from teachers, with at least one from your core teachers (Science, Social Studies, Math and English). An optional recommendation letter may be submitted from anyone who is not a family member (Athletics coach, volunteer service director, etc).

The counselor recommendation is required and does not count in the 2+1 recommendation letter package.

Stanford supplemental essays are relatively short, 300 words or so, but are intended to represent who you are. Check out our post on essays and contact us to learn how we can help.

Interviews are optional but recommended. Not everyone is selected for an interview, so just because a student doesn't receive an interview invitation does not mean that he/she will not likely get in.

Stanford follows a non-binding Early Action calendar, for those students who already have their grades well set or for those who are applying for athletic admissions. Stanford is a big Pac-10 college with heavy emphasis on sports.

Stanford follows the rigorous quarter system (8-weeks), so expect to take your first mid-term exams in the 3rd week of school!

Stanford is a need-blind institution which means that admissions decisions are unrelated to a family's ability to pay. In general the $65,000/$125,000 rule applies. If your family makes $65,000 or less (with proportional assets), Stanford will pay for tuition, room and board. If your family makes $125,000 or less (with proportional assets), Stanford will pay for tuition.

There's no core curriculum at Stanford. There's no impacted major. There are no minimum number of courses needed to declare a major. You generally meet with a PMA (pre-major advisor) at the end of your Sophomore year and decide on which classes to take for the remaining two years. Then you may be assigned a faculty advisor.

Stanford offers numerous research and internship opportunities, many more so than there are students for. Many opt to work for startups.

Stanford's study-abroad program is extremely popular. It offers tieups with numerous institutions around the world, including Oxford.

Nearly all students live on campus given the expense of housing in the bay area. Bike paths are common. There's no air conditioning in campus housing.

Dining options on campus are limited to the dining halls. There's not a lot of choice of restaurants and cafes on campus.

Stanford is known for a supportive and collaborative community unlike some schools in the northeast.

The idea of residence colleges comes from Cambridge, Oxford, Yale, and Princeton. Students feel an identity first to their residence college, then to Stanford and then on to the world. Friendships are made in the residence colleges because this is where you eat, sleep and live. Intramural sports are often competitions between residence colleges. For overprotective parents worried about how their teenagers will adapt to an independent life, residence halls are a great way to transition the change.

Our takeaway

Stanford is America's most selective research institution, admitting fewer than 5% of applicants. If you're lucky enough to be admitted, you should strongly consider it.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

Go back to "Rao Advisors - Home".

Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown and Penn: 2019 Information Session

Image Credit: Rao Advisors LLC

By Rajkamal Rao

On May 21 2019, five elite colleges - Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown and Penn - presented an information session in Ft. Worth to a group of 150+ parents and high school juniors. In many ways, the evening was similar to a session a few weeks earlier when Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and Rice presented.

But back to the Harvard, Stanford, et al colleges. Each school is private, co-ed, and has a reputation for research. Each school is highly selective and is proud of its need-blind admission policy, which means that offers of admission go out regardless of families' ability to pay. Each school promises that for families making up to $65,000, all expenses for tuition, room, and board are met by the school. For families making up to $125,000, tuition expenses are zero, although room and board expenses still apply. Each school says that parents must visit their net price estimate site to get an idea of what they will likely pay.

Class sizes are small. Each school offers 100+ clubs. All proudly host Division 1/NCAA sports teams. Stanford is a big player in the PAC. Nearly all have residence halls which bring a distinct student experience. If a student is lucky enough to win admission, his/her future is virtually assured given the brand.

Harvard's great selling point is that it offers 3,500+ courses each year, including classes that students can take at MIT. Duke says that Durham's small city experience - and the huge campus - are draws. Georgetown's campus is the smallest among the five, but perched on the Potomac and minutes from the White House, it offers excellent opportunities for students interested in politics and international affairs.

Stanford's major appeal are the size of the campus, the location and the proximity to technology and venture companies. Penn's location, midway between New York and Washington, is also appealing.

Getting in

Like we said for other elite schools, you must have a near perfect student profile - grades, test scores, evidence of taking on difficult courses in high school, recommendations, essays, strong extracurriculars, leadership in community service and a personality which stands out. And all these are just to get past the gate. After that, getting in requires a nod from God.

Each school prides itself on trying to know more about you through its supplemental essays. An excellent essay still doesn't get you in, but an average essay surely gets you out of contention. Read our primer on essays to prepare.

There are so many administrative things to keep tabs on that one needs to be tremendously organized to complete all tasks within stated deadlines. Here's a summary of each school's Early Action, Early Decision and Regular deadlines.

Image Courtesy: Joint presentation of the five schools.

As a rule, financial aid deadlines don't coincide with deadlines from the office of admissions. All schools will require both the FAFSA and the CSS applications to be completed.

Our takeaway

Hire a professional counselor - it's worth the investment. We are glad to help and offer you peace of mind during the admissions process. Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Go back to "Rao Advisors - Home".

Frisco ISD changes Course Grade Weights

Image Courtesy: Frisco Independent School District

By Rajkamal Rao

The 2019-2020 Frisco ISD Course Catalog has an important update for students who are currently in the 8th grade and will graduate in 2023. See pages 20 and 21.

Currently, students taking Pre-AP and other designated courses attract a GPA bonus similar to AP courses - that is, on a scale of 6. In fact, Frisco is the only major school district which treats Pre-AP and AP courses as being the same level of difficulty. This is bizarre because any student will tell you that the rigor in AP courses is markedly higher than Pre-AP courses.

Starting the class of 2023, the only courses which will attract a 6.0 bonus will be AP courses. Pre-AP and other designated courses will be demoted to a 5.5 scale, in line with dual credit courses.

This makes sense. Most other school districts, such as Plano, Coppell and HEB ISD were already doing what Frisco is proposing with its 2023 class.

So, how will this affect the computation of the weighted average GPA? Students who will graduate from high school before 2023 will, on average, have a higher weighted average GPA because of the 0.5 point Pre-AP bonus. This will vanish starting the 2023 graduating class.

Because weighted average GPAs are only used in the computation of the class rank, which is a relative measure within a graduating class, this change will have no material impact to any FISD student.

Takeaway

FISD is finally embracing Course Grade Weights which make sense. But students have to wait until the 2023 graduating year for the changes to apply.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

Is taking a dual credit course a good idea?

Image: Rao Advisors

By Rajkamal Rao

Many high schools offer students a chance to earn college credits right in high school, during the regular school day. Called Dual Credit, these courses are taught by college faculty (generally, community college professors) at the high school. They are more difficult to handle than regular on-level courses, but are generally easier than AP/IB courses. This is why school districts generally offer a weighted Grade Point Average (GPA) bonus which is in the middle between an on-level course and an AP/IB course.

Dual credit courses have little involvement with high school faculty once classes start. College instructors don't communicate progress with high school teachers or the guidance counseling team. Students generally must maintain at least a "C" average to earn dual credit, and complete all assignments/tests/projects as required by the instructor. Attendance requirements must also be met. Students cannot use high school activities as an excuse to skip classes.

In-state public universities and colleges are required, by law, to accept these credits when students enroll. Not all out-of-state public universities, or private universities, accept dual credit courses. AP/IB courses have a higher degree of acceptability than dual credit programs.

Advantages

Students can earn credit both towards completing high school graduation requirements and college courses. For example, a student enrolling in the "Fundamentals of Programming" course not only earns college credit but also High School/TEA credit for "Computer Programming I". If students sign up for classes with the "Texas Core Curriculum" designation, they can earn up to 42 college credits which can be seamlessly transferred to any public Texas college or university. This is equivalent to taking 14 AP courses.

The school's partnership with the community college makes it easy for students to enroll in dual credit courses without the headaches of juggling two schedules. There is generally an "open-enrollment" window towards the end of the school year when interested students are invited to attend information sessions and register. If the student agrees to sign up, he/she will get a student ID from the community college. Once the student is in the college's system - and receives an email confirmation - he/she can take additional courses in the future at the college. For example, he/she can continue on to take the remaining 18 credits on top of the Texas Core Curriculum and earn an Associates Degree, enroute to transferring to a 4-year public Texas college.

A big advantage of Dual Credit programs is that students can begin test-driving college curricula right in the comfort of their high school. College instructors don't engage in as much handholding as high school teachers do. Expect to put in lots of work, on average, at least 6 hours a week for a 3-credit hour class. Dual credit classes are an excellent way to train in time management, an essential skill for success in college.

In some cases, Dual Credit programs may be the only meaningful choice available, especially for students with specific career goals. Even the College Board's AP courses may not be satisfactory enough. For example, Frisco ISD students interested in a nursing or medicine career can take the Health Science Clinical, a two credit course offered in the 11th and 12th grades, in partnership with Collin College. This course provides intensive classroom and clinical study of healthcare and patient care skills. Students will take the Texas Nurse Aide certification exam and upon passing, can become Certified Nurse Aides (CNA).

Drawbacks

Dual credit courses cost money. A Tarrant County resident taking a dual credit course at Bell High School taught by an instructor from Tarrant County Community College must pay $64 per credit hour, that is, $192, for a dual credit class. Remember that most classes are 3-credit hour courses. Textbooks are extra. For many high school students, AP courses end up being less expensive, more rewarding (because of the higher GPA bonus) and of better value because they are accepted by more colleges around the country.

Takeaway

Dual credit courses are an excellent option for students who wish to study in the state at a public college because articulation agreements ensure seamless credit transfer. They're also excellent for students who want to accelerate through high school and college - for example, for students who want to pursue medicine.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
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Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, & Rice: Information Session Summary

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By Rajkamal Rao

On May 2 2019, five elite colleges - Brown, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and Rice - organized an information session in Ft. Worth. Over 300 people were in attendance. Please check out our post covering a similar session when Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown and Penn presented on May 21, 2019.

With marketing costs on the up, it is common these days for elite institutions with key similarities to team up for such roadshows. Each is an outstanding research university founded a long time ago, some, before the American Revolution. Each is known for distinguished academics, all with Nobel laureates on staff, many teaching undergrad classes. Class sizes are small. Each school offers 100+ clubs. All proudly host Division 1/NCAA sports teams. Nearly all have residence halls which bring a distinct student experience. All are need-blind in admissions, which means that the admissions office does not look at a family's financial ability to make an offer of admission. If a student is lucky enough to win admission, his/her future is virtually assured given the brand.

But there are also subtle differences. Rice is the smallest of them all with only 4,000 undergrads in total, that is, a Freshman class size of just 1,000. Read our detailed Rice on-campus tour report from October 2018 here.

Cornell is the most rural, 4 hours from New York City. It's the only major institution which has a college dedicated to Labor Relations.

Columbia's major appeal is that it is in New York City. This is so much a part of what the school is that New York is inscribed into its very name. Naturally, internship and job opportunities abound for students who do well.

Brown has a beautiful campus in the Ocean State of Rhode Island, close to New York City and even closer to Boston. It's the only school with an open curriculum which means that students can literally take whatever courses they want. Like most other schools, students don't have to declare their concentrations until the end of their sophomore year.

Chicago offers over 50 majors and is known to fund internships. Its Economics degree is the most sought after. It's the only major that is fully test-optional, so no ACT/SAT scores are required.

Getting in

Each school is highly selective, accepting fewer than 10% of applicants. Some are even more selective. You must have a near perfect student profile - grades, test scores, evidence of taking on difficult courses in high school, recommendations, essays, strong extracurriculars, leadership in community service and a personality which stands out. And all these are just to get past the gate. After that, getting in requires a nod from God.

Each school prides itself on trying to know more about you through its supplemental essays. An excellent essay still doesn't get you in, but an average essay surely gets you out of contention.

There are so many administrative things to keep tabs on that one needs to be tremendously organized to complete all tasks within stated deadlines. As a rule, financial aid deadlines don't coincide with deadlines from the office of admissions. All schools will require both the FAFSA and the CSS applications to be completed.

Our takeaway

How do you prepare for AP Physics I?

By Rajkamal Rao

The month of May is the time to ring in the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Of all the 34 exams offered by the College Board, the AP Physics 1 exam is among the most challenging. It is consistently the exam where the fewest exam-takers score a 5, the highest possible score on an AP test.

The exam is three hours long and has two sections — multiple-choice and free-response. You're permitted to use an advanced scientific calculator. Click here to learn more about the format of the exam.

Why is this a challenging exam?

As someone who has taught a student who went on to get a 5 on the test, I know that what makes it challenging is the wide variety of topics that are included: Kinematics, Newton's Laws, Work, Power, Energy, Rotational Motion, Sound, Simple Harmonic Motion, Friction, Collision, Moment of Inertia, Gravitation, Electricity - the list seems never ending! The course approximates to a first-semester introductory college course in algebra-based physics.

Most students feel fairly comfortable when answering end-of-chapter exercises when each chapter is taught in school. This is because students are able to apply the formulas to content that they know belongs to the chapter at hand. What makes it hard is that as they learn new chapters, their familiarity with older chapters begins to wane.

On the exam, it may not be immediately apparent to identify the chapter from which a problem may be sourced. Additionally, the same problem can be typically solved multiple ways - for example, using Newton's Laws or the Laws of Conservation of Energy.

So, how does one prepare?

The best way to prepare is to practice solving math-based problems. Examine the worked-examples in your textbook and try doing them on your own - this will give you the confidence to tackle similar problems. Chapters at the end of the textbook generally contain answers only to odd-numbered problems, but try and solve as many problems as you can. The Khan Academy is also a great resource.

An unlikely resource is YouTube. Prof. Michel van Biezen's channel is outstanding. He has over 650K subscribers, and nearly 125 million views. His problem-solving skills - and ability to teach them - are genuinely world-class, the advantage of being a full professor at a college (Loyola Marymount). Every Physics topic is covered in great detail, and for Mechanics problems - especially ones involving pulleys, blocks, and tension, there is no better source. Another teacher, who goes by JG, is outstanding at solving DC circuit problems, especially complicated ones.

As the date of the exam draws near, these official Free Response Questions from the College Board from past tests will provide excellent additional practice.

Our takeaway

AP Physics is all about practice. If you've been practicing diligently for at least two hours each week going back to the first day of school, you should be feeling reasonably confident now. If not, there's still time to step up practice using the methods described above.

A Note About Rao Advisors Premium Services
Our promise is to empower you with high-quality, ethical and free advice via this website. But parents and students often ask us if they can engage with us for individual counseling sessions. We are indebted and privileged to have earned their trust in matters which are so important to them. Please check out our public Google reviews to see what they say about us.

Individual counseling is part of the Premium Offering of Rao Advisors and involves a fee. Please contact us for more information.

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