My son is planning for the 4 years of HS - nothing is chosen yet, but he has aspirations for medical field as a career. Would like to get some feedback …
HS Credits from Junior High:
Algebra I
Geometry PreAP
Principles of Engineering (this counts as 1 credit, it is fun, but this is not what my son wants to do)
Freshman
English 1 PreAP
Algebra II PreAP
AP Geography
Biology PreAP
Boy’s PE/Team Soccer – Boys (he will try out, but competition will dictate if he makes it or not)
Spanish 1
Band 1 (marching band)
Sophomore
English II PreAP
Chemistry PreAP
Precalculus PreAP
AP Statistics
Debate 1
Spanish 2
Band 2 (marching band)
Summer: AP Government
Junior
AP Eng Lang & Comp
AP Physics 1
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
Psychology PreAP (0.5 credit)
Band 3 (marching ?)
Summer: AP Economics
Senior
AP Eng Lit & Comp
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics II
AP Psychology
AP US History
Band 4 (marching ?)
Soccer and band are things he enjoys and we do not want to give up on them. If he makes the soccer team, great - if not he will continue with local club where he plays now. The same with band. I am concerned about course overload - the above plan is 4 more credits than he actually needs to graduate. They are:
AP Calculus BC
AP Chemistry
AP Physics II
AP Psychology
He needs world history or European history, arts or art history.
He should have 3 years+ in foreign language.
I don’t think it’s necessary to take AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Geography.
No need to spend summer time to take AP Government, AP Economics. He should take them during regular semesters.
Too many AP classes.
I think it’s too early to plan for the whole 4 years.
@ coolweather - thanks. Sorry, it is AP Human Geography - and it forms part of the required social studies credit (substitutes for world history or world geography) - one of those three is required. AP Statistics and Psychology are certainly dispensable. I was thinking drop Physics II as well …
It probably is early to plan it out like that … it started with looking at freshman classes.
Yes. He can take 1 year Physics instead 2 AP Physics. Less than 5% receive 5 on AP Physics 1 exam.
He can take AP Physics C after taking Calc AB too. Some top colleges recommend 2 years in history.
I see a few possible issues that you may want to double check with the high school counselor.
ELA looks good
History - do you need specific ones such as two years of US History and 1 World History (APUSH only replaces one year not two for us) I would definitely see if you need a World History
Foreign Language - while only two may be needed to graduate many colleges want to see completion of level 3 and some through level 4/AP
MATH - we need math all 4 years - math taken before high school or double during one year doesn’t count
Science - 3 AP Lab sciences at once sounds like too much, will the school allow that, do sciences take up more than one class period?
Gym - many people don’t list it on CC but since you did is only 1 year needed - we need 3 semesters plus 1 semester of health even student athletes.
Band - we can take art, music or business classes. Since you have band you would be set.
NO NO NO DOn’t take 3 AP lab science classes junior year! Augh!
If he is pre-med, he will not need complex physics. Move Chem or Bio to senior year.
Take AP Calc junior year…either AB or BC depending on how he is doing.
Can he take BC senior year if he took AB junior year? Can he take Calc 2 or Calc 3 at his local Community College? Could he take AP stats?
@ momtogirls2 … thanks. We were lost when we saw the sheer array of classes offered and the confusing set of rules to graduate. So we need:
4 years of English (or 4 credits),
3 social studies (Govt, Economics, US History are must),
3 math (but you need a 4th any way if you want distinguished achievement),
4.5 elective (of which debate or some communication is a must), band counts
2 language
3 science
1 fine arts (band counts, but this credit cannot be used as the elective, so say Band for first year)
1 PE (the soccer will count if he gets to play, marching band counts as 0.5 credit for PE) - we live an area with a very healthy population of soccer lovers … there are some good kids … so not sure if he can make it.
4 additional credits … This depends on the student’s interest can be in the areas of STEM, health etc … the number of classes offered is a lot. And there is a 0.5 credit health ed.
Plus the way it is structured, some are pre-req for others … so they can only go sequentially. We heard the “drop band” from his friends. He loves band, so we see no reason to stop now, till he stops enjoying it.
Does your high school offer any plan of courses? It seems like you are starting from scratch and are just putting together a schedule in a vacuum. I know that our high school has a meeting in Feb with the parents of incoming freshman and they are then given a student handbook and course guide with all the annual requirements and typical tracking. If you don’t have this yet, maybe you are just starting too early.
@ me29034 - Yes, but only guidelines. The meeting was late last week for us, course catalog/packet was provided - we have until end of this week to turn in 9th grade plan. This needs to include what specialty the student plans to graduate with - i.e. STEM, Health, Fine Arts, Humanities etc. We were told we will have one opportunity to make changes in May.
@ momtogirls2 - Do pre-med schools list what HS classes they look for in an application? We were going by the suggestions at this link for the first draft plan … If the link does not come through in the post - it is from the prepscholar blog …
3 good prerequisites that can help with premed as electives (may be the same as 1 and 2)
At our school as long as you meet graduation requirements your electives can be all over the place but a typical 9th grade schedule would be
English 1 college prep or honors
Math - varies cp/h could be algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2 etc
3 foreign language 1 or 2 cp/h
4 US History 1 cp/h
5 biology cp/h - take state test at the end of the year
6 combination of PE/PE or health/PE
7 elective - band, newspaper, accounting etc.
You’re definitely not starting too early! It’s honestly a good way to make sure he has space for what he wants to take and meets all of the requirements. I tried planning out my entire schedule, but I found it far too stressful and never finished the plan before my freshman year, and now I have a rough draft of my next 3 years (rising sophomore). Interests could change, obviously, and he might end up liking chemistry better than bio or the other way around. That could help him choose which AP science classes to take. I also think that taking a third year of Spanish would be helpful for college admissions (it’s actually required to take 3 years for the honors diploma at my school). You might want to look into the PLTW biomed program if it’s available, but with all the other required classes, he may or may not want to get into a 4-year academic “track”. It frees up a lot of elective space without it.
there are some good kids … so not sure if he can make it.