A safe and intellectually challenging environment for young scholars.
Qualified students within our day school enjoy the option of replacing regular courses with AP courses. These courses allow the student to increase his overall GPA with a class that can earn up to 5 points. The grades and credits from these classes are readily transferable to other schools and colleges, including the UC/CSU system.
The School of Choice has developed a young intellectuals' club for the most advanced students -- those who wish to earn college credit for their work in high school. The College Board, makers of the SAT, offers these classes in over thirty subjects each May. Students may turn in portfolios for Studio Art, C++ programs for Computer Science, math problems for Calculus, or essays and multiple choice answers for English Literature and World History. Students of any age can challenge the AP tests; our students frequently do, and all of them have passed. They may well joke with each other with wit no one can match, but they also out-read and out-write students everywhere. They are destined for great colleges, and for leadership beyond.
Why should students enroll in AP classes? AP classes look great on college applications; they can help immensely with admissions to colleges of choice because they can boost GPA by a point each class and help prove that high school students can perform at a University level. AP classes help students graduate from college early, since most colleges accept AP credit. Students who become AP scholars with nine AP courses may enter college as sophomores. This saves students time and money later on, in expensive colleges, particularly if they pass courses that let them enter their major more quickly. They let neophytes explore career or college interests while zealous students treasure beloved subjects in depth. Students can enter their careers with fewer debts and calmer parents!
Why should students take AP classes at The School of Choice? Tutoring centers generally can not offer high school credit geared to the University of California's A to G requirements, but we do. By passing AP classes here, students will boost their high school GPA's with grades that can give up to five points (5.0). Complete descriptions of the many AP courses we offer can be found in the English, History, Math, Science and Computer Science pages of 'Our Curricula.'
Community college classes, by contrast, may not transfer out-of-state; this suggests that students may get only the illusion of a college education. (The Headmaster, Mr. Arne, had fled these institutions because he felt that teaching college-level classes to high school students seemed more honorable than teaching high-school classes in college.) Junior colleges can pay starving graduate students with publication pressures low wages to teach classes which suit confused purposes: helping students enter four-year colleges, giving vocational training, or just entertaining the public. High school students may mix with weaker students who are not bound for the best universities; those who continue in JC's have statistically less chance of graduating from four-year colleges. Local public schools, who lose their best teachers yearly and sacrifice AP classes to budgetary crises, may not have teachers with adequate teaching experience or subject knowledge to teach these challenging courses properly.
Teachers with Masters Degrees in subjects they love and college-teaching experience generally teach AP courses at The School of Choice. Frequently, our instructors are more knowledgeable than instructors elsewhere. In classes of five or fewer, we give students far more individual attention, particularly in critical areas of writing or test-taking skills. We can supplement high school classes, or replace them with more interesting and rigorous materials. We teach students as early as the eighth, ninth or tenth grades because we have hard-working geniuses who can handle AP rigors. Yet they take few risks, because they are not enrolled visibly in AP courses. We form the perfect bridge to college life.
We urge our best students to join our most elite club: the House of AP. If Jaime Escalente's students from the worst of schools could pass the Calculus AP, surely tough-minded Silicon Valley students can match their achievement. Here students can discuss great books and ideas with excited peers.
Here they can practice creativity. They can debate. They can challenge each other with hard questions. They can seek the meaning of life for their first time. They can give themselves a true college education. The School of Choice created an AP-based curricula for its high school students because the Headmasters want to work with children at that level. Join us for a fun challenge!