Review progress towards PHS Graduation Requirements & be aware of IA's Regent University Admission Requirements

Materials: Student Transcript, PHS 4 Year Planner, & "Your Courses Count" (AdviserPHSGradPlanRegentU'sAdmissions.pdf)

Directions -  

1. Students mark on the PHS 4 Yr Academic Planner worksheet the letter grades for the courses they have completed, referencing their PHS Transcript

   1. Elective (non-required core courses) can be written onto graphic by student.

   2. For Courses Currently Being Taken - note those by writing a "W", for "Working On" by those courses. 

   3. Current 9th graders will only be able to mark "W" for courses planned this school year until we do this again after Term 1.

2. Read over the Regent Admission Index (RAI) to understand the 4 variables (GPA, Class Rank, ACT, # Core Yrs) and calculation formula.

   1. The easiest way to increase your RAI Score is to take more core courses because that variable is the one students have the most capability to determine  -  

      RAI Calculation

           (2 x ACT composite score; 1-36, 20 in national average, 21 is IA avg, 22 is PHS avg.)

      +  (1 x high school percentile rank; 1-99; top GPA in class gets a 99, middle GPA in class gets 50, lowest is 1)

      +  (20 x high school GPA; 3.2 class average at PHS in recent years)

      +  (5 x total number of yrs of core completed in HS; 13 yrs is minimum for entrance without World Language/Spanish)

      = Your RAI

3. Read over the "Building Your Future - Your Courses Count" graphic which details the minimum admission requirements & Right most column "Optimum Recommendations for Success".

4. See your progress towards meeting PHS graduation requirements: 

Updated 10/2017

• 56 Total credit required (14/yr) unless ILP (Individual Learning Plan; created by family & administration)

• 4 yr English (8cr; 2cr. English 9,10,11 & 2cr. elective), consider these English Electives: Creative Communication only Gr.9&10, Creative Writing (Poetry&ShrtStories), Journalism Gr.10-12, After English 11; Speech, Composition, Ancient Literature, Elizabethan Literature, Literature Since 1950, DMACC’s Communications/COM703

• 3 yr Math (6cr; 2cr. Algebra1, Geometry, & Algebra2), consider these electives: POE/EGT400 Engineering, MAT722 Applied Math, HS Trigonometry, Graceland U’s MATH1330/Elementary Functions, WITCC’s Calculus/MAT211, DMACC online Statistics/MAT157 &/or Math for Liberal Arts/MAT110

• 3 yr Science (6cr; 2cr. Physical Sci., Biology, & 2cr. of electives = Anat/Phys1&/or2, Environmental Biology, Animal Science .I, Horticulture I, Chemistry/2cr, &/or Physics/2cr, DMACC Intro to Meterology/PHS166/1 cr in 40 min two term “skinny”

• 3 yr Social Studies (6cr; includes 2cr.World History, 2cr.U.S. History, 1,r.American Government & 1cr. Elective options: Economics, World Geography, US History 3, Modern US History, Current World Issues

• 1 yr Business/Career Exploratory (1 credit) and Personal Finance (1 credit)

• Annual Physical Education Requirement: 1 course in Fall (T1orT2) & 1 in Spring (T2orT4), only 1 sport waiver per year during season of respective sport

• Electives (typically 27 electives plus PE to earn 56cr. total), * Credit Potentials do not include college online courses.

What is your credit accumulation rate?

• Students need to accumulate 56 credits over 4 years of HS to graduate, which is an annual credit accumulation rate of 14 credits per school year

• See how many credits you have earned overall, divide that by the number of terms you have completed to determine your credit accumulation rate per 9 week term.

How Many Courses can a student take in a school year?

• The 2015-16 schedule has four 80 minute blocks and two 40 minute periods each day, for a total of six course times.

  • A student who takes courses in all six would be completing 20 courses in a school year (16 block and 4 skinnies/40 minute semester periods).

  • A student who does not take a course in either of the 40 minute periods would complete four courses in one 9-week term & 16 courses in a school year.

  • Compare your PHS4yrAcademicPlanner to the Regents' Your Courses Count - Admission Requirements & Recommendations

  • Go back to the PHS 4 Yr Academic Planner graphic organizer AND UPDATE YOUR circles or write in any RAI eligible courses you now know wanted to take in future per Grade and Curricular area.

  • As time permits,

    1. point out that the variable with the most RAI formula weight is the number of years of core courses taken (English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Spanish).

       1. What elective core courses may you want to include to increase your RAI?

    2. Remember, a Regent Year equals two of our PHS grading Terms, so English 9 Part 1 and Part 2 is a Regent "Year".

    3. Use Regent online RAI calculation tool to estimate and adjust academic course planning, or ACT testing & prep

    4. See Colleges use RAI scores as criteria for giving scholarship money to incoming freshmen

       1. University of Northern Iowa 

       2. University of Iowa 

  • Put materials for this activity in the students' individual Adviser folders for future updating/reference.

  What PHS Courses, Extra-Curricular Activities, Part-Time Jobs, & Volunteer Experiences have you had that will contribute to your growth in relation to the future occupation or career that interest you?

  Make note (written &/or highlighted) of these on/within your Adviser file & consider including them in your RESUME.