<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am very interested in attending UVA. I took a tour over spring break and know that UVA stresses academic rigor in high school. I have done pretty well in a pretty competitive school district in VA (4.25 weighted GPA, 33 on the ACT, 1380 on the SAT, Merit Scholar commendation, A's in all three APs last year (US History, English, Psych), four next year (Government, Literature, Environmental Science, Computer Science). I have taken pretty much all honors classes, including Pre-Calc, Geometry, Algebra I and II, Geosystems and Chem. I will also be taking my fourth year of Japanese next year. I thought I was pretty well set, but when I visited UVA I started to get concerned. Is AP Computer Science not a strong enough math course for my senior year (when that just interests me a whole lot more than Calc)? Is AP environmental science not strong enough (even though I want to major in that)? Are non-AP classes OK if they fit my interests (like taking Creative Writing and Film Studies when I am an artsy-type)? Here is my planned course load if that helps:</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science
AP Government
AP Lit
AP Computer Science
Japanese 4
Creative Writing
Film Studies</p>
<p>Outside of that, I am active on our literary/arts magazine, an arts club, involved in several honor societies. </p>
<p>I definitely want to make my application competitive, but I also thought UVA wanted to see who I am and what my interests really are. I can take another math or science course, but I've done pretty well in all of them so far. How much do I sacrifice my interests for the sake of my application?</p>
<p>Everything seems ok, and you sound like you can make a coherent application that says who you are and the choices you made. </p>
<p>What’s your GPA and class rank? If you are at the top of your class, you obviously have a better chance of admission and should be less concerned about taking the very hardest classes instead of a balanced schedule that mixes in what you enjoy.</p>
<p>Don’t sacrifice yourself or your senior year for a college. You will get in where you can best learn for yourself. With that said, not taking CS as an elective in addition to math, and envi had a rep of being the easiest science ap at my school, your schedule is definitely not going to be as rigorous as other UVA students. I still think you should take what you want your senior year, as long as you are aware of how that puts you in competition to other UVA students and you accept that as a definite year of happiness over misery with AP Calc, AP Chem, etc, is worth being less competitive in the long run. FWIW your scores on the tests mean just as much as your final grade in an AP class. Also keep in mind that doing well in non-calculus and non-AP sciences is not being in competition with people who took AP math and science both junior and senior years of high school, which is the competition in applying for UVA, and the SAT scores are in the 14 and 1500s, though your ACT is significantly better. And even though Japanese is REALLY hard, you are again at a disadvantage because other people can boast another AP in their language and you can’t. Basically you are already at a disadvantage from your non-ap junior year math/science courses, so you can choose to be happy in your courses but know you are continuing your disadvantage, or you can attempt to catch up and be probably significantly less happy as well as maybe still not being able to compete in the end. I still think you’ll be happier in creative writing and film studies than some class you do not care about. I was taking AP German for UVA/other admissions, and I hated it so much when I got my deferral I actually dropped it. I did much better in my other classes and my quality of life was sooo much better that I wish I had never taken it in the first place, and I got study hall every day and an hour and a half lunch on Fridays, talk about senior slack. I made it up by taking classes at Villanova at night, volunteering somewhere every day after school, and my SAT was in the 1500s. I think it is all a balance but you cannot give up who you are and your senior year for the possibility of going to some school who might just reject you after all of it anyways. That is my 2cents hope it helps you with your decision.</p>
<p>You have to throw on AP Calc. It doesn’t have to be BC, AB is fine, but BC is highly recommended. If you want to major in envi sci at UVA you need to have atleast calc I and II, calc III and linear are recommended for the BS. I’ll be the first one to tell you it is probably easier to get a 4 or 5 on BC calc than slug through Math 1310 and 1320 at UVA trying to get the A’s. Do yourself a favor from an admissions standpoit and future workload standpoint and take calc now while it is more doable. Also, the more APs the better. I’m a typical UVA student and I had 10 APs in hs and 30 credits walking in. Some of my friends had 40+, so just keep that in mind when considering your competition. Alot of them also had advanced math classes done, but we won’t get into that here…</p>
<p>Think about how much harder your course load could be. I went to a less “prestigious” high school in rural VA that didn’t offer AP anything. UVA looks at what you did with the opportunities you were presented with, otherwise, kids from my part of the state would never get in.</p>