<p>I'm currently a junior at a fairly large public school in western NC taking one AP, AP US History. I wanted to take more but my schedule didn't allow for it (I'm in band and newspaper). My plan for next year was to do something like this:
(A)AP Statistics/(B)AP Physics 1
(A)Honors Newspaper/(B) AP US Govt. and Politics
(A)AP English Lit/(B)AP English Lang (basically self study, daily class is newspaper)
Spanish 3 Honors </p>
<p>2nd semester
A/B
A/B
A/B
Honors Band </p>
<p>Do you think this plan is feasible considering the fact that I'm involved in sports and extracurriculars (swim team, marching band mock trial, church youth, part time job) I'm planning on applying to some pretty competitive schools (Yale Early Decision) and I'm unsure if I should overload myself especially if I do poorly in one or more of these classes. Right now I'm really struggling in pre-cal because of my extracurricular stuff. Up to this point I have made only one B in Geometry freshman year and that's because they rolled out a New state test that year (there was a 40 point curve and I still made an 88). Can you guys comment on these classes and on What you think I should do?</p>
<p>IMO, they (except AP English Lit) are not the most rugged AP’s, so I think that it is very doable.</p>
<p>A few things:
1/ Yale does not have ED, only SCEA.
2/ Yale only gives credit for English Lit or Lang, not both. Many top tier schools are similar. So I would not waste my time self studying AP English Language.
3/ College apps are time-consuming; consider it to be a hidden course for the amount of work they will take.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. When you say that the AP’s aren’t rugged do you think I should do harder ones? I could swap physics for AP Chem or swap statistics for AP Calculus (don’t really want to though because I have heard horror stories about the teacher and stat will be more useful for what I’m planning on majoring in). </p>
<p>About the Lang class, it’s not really self study. The teacher is the newspaper advisor and she gives you a notebook with assignments for every week, with class meetings once a month before school. In the class I would do regular newspaper stuff and if I had extra time then I would work on AP Lang. So I would have a teacher she just wouldn’t be teaching AP Lang every day. </p>
<p>Also what do you think my chances are at Yale? Does applying early help at all since it’s non-binding? I read on the website it doesn’t really help much but I’m not really sure I believe that. </p>
<p>Take AP classes that follow your interests, not to impress college admissions (who aren’t impressed anyway). Statistics and Physics are fine classes. It’s not like your option were AP Human Geo (a waste of time IMO).</p>
<p>SCEA may have a slight boost in acceptances; I’m not as well-versed on the EA acceptance stats at Yale since I did not apply there SCEA, but someone more knowledgeable can weigh in.</p>
<p>I have 5 this year (I’m a senior, taking Physics C Mech., Psych, Euro. History, Eng. Lit., Calc BC) and it’s not too bad. If you think you can do it, by all means, go for it. Do make sure (as noted above) you take enough time for applications, because they DO take hours and hours to do.</p>
<p>I mean, junior year I’ll be doing 3 APs (Physics 1, Calc BC, and Chemistry) and 1 Honors (English, since we don’t have AP Lang) class (I’m thinking of doing 4 APs, but that all depends on which class I’m taking as my elective), and senior year I’ll have 3 APs (Lit, Physics 2, Environmental Science OR Bio) and 2 one-semester college classes (Multivariable Calc/Linear Algebra); although I might decide to do Stats senior year and make it 4 APs.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll be overloading yourself, but I don’t see the point in taking both Lit and Lang. I’d substitute something else for Lang.</p>
<p>I am in 5 AP classes right now(Calc BC, Physics, Lit, Gov, and Psych) and it is totally doable. I just am in hell occasionally and contemplate suicide only a couple times a week. Haha. The homework load is sometimes impossible so I just don’t do it or procrastinate till the night before to study or do assignments. I have all A’s. Gov and physics are easy. Lit is only terrible because you have to read terribly boring stuff and write essays a lot. Go for it! In all honesty it’s not that bad.</p>