Feel free to answer as many or as few of the questions below as you’d like. Thanks for looking!
I’m going into senior year next year and am planning to take these classes:
A.P. Art History
A.P. Psychology
A.P. English Literature and Composition
A.P. Physics C (online)
A.P. Calculus BC
Honors Jazz Ensemble
Independent Study (i.e. Study Hall)
What are these particular courses like, would you say? Would you say they’re a lot—is it feasible? And how do you think it will look to colleges?
Thank you! (And in essence, I’m just looking for advice/reassurance I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, etc. I hope it’s not going to seem boastful.)
Also, if you want to answer more, do you think that the following will be enough for high tier colleges or no?
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Here is background information.
Freshman Year
Honors Introductory Physics
Honors English 9
Honors Geometry
Honors Western Civilization I
Honors Spanish II
Latin I
Jazz Ensemble
Summer 2017
Honors Spanish III (Self-Study/No Credit)
Honors Latin II (Self-Study/No Credit)
Sophomore Year
Honors Biology
Honors English 10
Honors Algebra II
A.P. European History
Honors Spanish IV
Honors Latin III
Jazz Ensemble
Summer 2018
Precalculus with Trigonometry (at Community College)
Chemistry (at Virtual High School)
Junior Year
A.P. Biology
A.P. English Language and Composition
A.P. Statistics
A.P. U.S. History
A.P. Spanish Language and Culture
A.P. Latin
Honors Jazz Ensemble
Weighted GPA: 4.5591
Class Rank: 4
SAT: 1410 (although I retook it and I think it’ll be a lot higher)
Grades: My final year grades have been A- to A+ in all classes to date—although at the ends of some quarters in some classes I have had a 2 Bs (Honors English 10 Q3 and A.P. Statistics Q3) and 1 B+ (Honors English 9 Q1)
Clubs
Math Team
Classics Club
Mock Trial Team
Chess Team
National Honor Society
School Improvement Council
I’ll comment on the 4 that I’ve taken or heard about.
AP Psych - Stupid easy (for an AP) memorization class. Easy class and exam, with a bit of a workload but still on the lower end for AP classes. (Never took it though)
AP Lit - Hard. Lot’s of reading and analysis. Not for people that hate english, like myself, but I could handle it just like anyone else. Hard exam too.
AP Physics C - I self-studied for both Mech and E&M, and they suck. They just suck, they’re stupid incredibly hard in terms of material. I loved learning the material, I love physics and it interests me, but it is just really difficult. Took BC Calc along with it, so I had to wait until like november until I knew all the basic calc covered in physics C, but it was fine(ish). It’s just really hard but the exams are very nicely curved.
AP Calc BC - Lots and lots of work. My teacher didn’t check homework, but he gave out a whole lot of it and I imagine your teacher will too. Covers two semesters of calc in about the time that it takes to cover a semester of calc - maybe faster depending on when school starts and how long your teacher gives for review. If you love math and are good at it, it shouldn’t be that hard, maybe just a lot of work. I don’t know what I got, but I thought it was an easy 5.
Nice difficult selection of classes - perfect for a senior year schedule to make sure you don’t contract senioritis, lol. But seriously, they’re hard but interesting and it looks like you’ve proven yourself able to handle it already. Best of luck!
It’s a hard sequence of classes, but many kids I know from my kid’s HS take a very similar sequence of classes in 12th grade.
Physics C E&M is essentially the hardest AP out there. Mechanics is not far behind. AP Calc BC isn’t too bad for those who are very math oriented, but interesting that you didn’t take it in 11th. AP Lit is hard, workload wise. Lots and lots of analysis work. AP Psych is easy-peasy.
If you’ve been successful with you course rigor to date, these sound like logical senior year courses.
Two easier APs and a study hall might even appear to be an easier schedule than Junior year. Relatively. Only an issue if you’re looking at HYPSM et al.
I would counsel against too many APs Senior year, and this is why.
In the fall, you are in college application season. You may be taking the SAT again. You may want to visit some more colleges. You have to write college- specific essays (hopefully you already wrote your common app essay over the summer.). You have to fill out your Common App and get recommendations.
Also you may be in marching band or Sports or be a leader of a club. College Apps is like another timesucking EC on top of that.
Then in the spring, you may have senioritis. You are been accepted to college and are looking toward the finish line. You have to study for the AP tests…it will be difficult to study for too many at once.
Stanford U says:
“We expect applicants to pursue a reasonably challenging curriculum, choosing courses from among the most demanding courses available at your school. We ask you to exercise good judgment and to consult with your counselor, teachers and parents as you construct a curriculum that is right for you. Our hope is that your curriculum will inspire you to develop your intellectual passions, not suffer from unnecessary stress. The students who thrive at Stanford are those who are genuinely excited about learning, not necessarily those who take every single AP or IB, Honors or Accelerated class just because it has that designation.”