The Senior Year - BASIS Independent Silicon Valley

The very last year at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley is a bridge from traditional classroom learning to applying knowledge in a real context. By this time, most students have their Advanced Placement (AP) courses and graduation requirements nearly completed. As such, this year is designed to act as a capstone to their whole educational experience through three elements: daily college counseling courses, college-level capstone and post-AP courses, and the Senior Project, a unique opportunity to independently pursue their own research interests.

Please note, graduation requirements do vary for students based on the grade they enter our program and their prior coursework. As such, not all students are eligible to participate in all aspects of the Senior Year. Contact us for more information.

College Counseling Capstone CoursesThe Senior Project

College Counseling

Unlike students at most schools, students at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley take a daily class solely dedicated to college counseling for the entirety of their senior year. The focus is to help seniors identify, target, and ultimately achieve entrance to the college or university best suited for them. Our expert counselors are dedicated to understanding each student’s strengths and aspirations, and teaching them how to convey themselves compellingly in the college admissions process. They work closely with our students to explore their passions, career interests, and long-term goals, and provide personal letters of recommendation and ongoing support during the application process itself.

Our counselors guide students to examine the various academic paths each institution offers and encourage students to think about what type of person, scholar, and professional they hope to become. They also understand and address the pressure that many students feel during the college admissions process. There is no other class like College Counseling at our school: students write more than any humanities course we offer, get to know their peers on a meaningful level, further develop their critical thinking skills by keeping up to date with current events, learn how to cope with cooking away from home, and more. And at the end of it, they not only prepare an incredible college admissions application, but ready themselves for the important next phase of their educational journeys.

With each passing year we grow even more proud of the paths our students choose to take and the impressive, growing list of their admission to some of the most elite, selective colleges and universities in the world.

Explore our outstanding college admissions here

Capstone Courses

Capstone courses are a teacher-created counterpart to AP® courses: AP typically cover a lot of content, broadly, while capstones offer students the opportunity to dive deep into a narrow segment of a field. In these advanced, college-level courses, our teachers’ talents shine as they develop original courses often tied to their own academic passions or areas of expertise. In each capstone, students transition from the classroom-style learning typical of high school to discussion-based or lab-based learning typical of college courses.

Here’s a sample list of capstone courses we have offered in past years. The list of what we offer grows and changes with each passing year:

Multi-Variable Vector Calculus
Game Theory and Behavioral Economics
Category Theory
Quantum Mechanics
Differential Equations
The Biology of Cancer
Inorganic Chemistry
Immigration Narratives
Post-Colonial Literature
Various Language Capstones (focused on translation)

The Senior Project

The Senior Project is an independent, student-led project and the culmination of the BASIS Independent high school experience. After three and a half years of academic preparation in high school, our seniors are ready to spend the last trimester of their high school careers applying the skills and knowledge they have gained to develop a project that is insightful, academically rigorous, and highly professional in nature.

They start by designing a research question—often centered on a subject they are passionate or curious about—and then embark on a journey to answer it, documenting and analyzing their findings as they go. They seek an internal BASIS Independent advisor as well as an external advisor to support and guide their research. Students may choose to conduct their research in public or private institutions, in the form of internships or experimental research at university labs, field work abroad, or research conducted remotely from home. From explorations into new-age technology to cutting-edge medical advancements to social justice, the Senior Project offers students the opportunity to channel their innate curiosity within the framework of a highly academic, intellectual experience that readies them for the type of self-direction and self-discipline expected in an undergraduate and graduate setting.

The Class of 2017 was an important milestone for our BASIS Independent Schools family as the first cohort to participate in Senior Projects. This year, the Class of 2018, which comprises the students who joined us in grade 9, has followed in their footsteps with equal fervor.

Explore their projects and blogs here