<p>Greetings!
I am a rising junior at Troy High School, California. This summer, I was informed that I was granted rare opportunity to double science, or to take two sciences within the course of a year. This opportunity was really attractive to me, until I learned that in order to do this, I must drop out of Marching Band.
At my high school, 2 years of PE credit are required to graduate. Originally, because Marching Band only counts as a half year of PE credit at my high school, I planned on staying with the Marching Band program for all 4 years. However, right now I am short one year of PE credit if I decided to double science.
I am now faced with a problem where my class schedule cannot accommodate all of my classes. Out of the following choices, which one would be more desirable to your school?
1. Option 1
a. Junior Year: AP Physics B, AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Calculus BC, Computer Science IB, Spanish IB, English IB
b. Senior Year: AP Physics C, AP Biology, AP Governments/Economics, AP Calculus 2, PE, AP Spanish, AP Literature
2. Option 2
a. Junior Year: AP Physics B, AP US History, AP Calculus BC, Computer Science IB, Spanish IB, English IB, Marching Band
b. Senior Year: AP Physics C, AP Governments/Economics, AP Calculus 2, PE, AP Spanish, AP Literature, Marching Band
Essentially, I have to decide between double science and Marching Band. If I double science, I will still be able to participate in the band program, except it will not be counted for any PE credit. If I stay with the Marching Band, I miss out on this opportunity.
Thanks for reading this!
Yuting Chen</p>
<p>Here are some schools I'm interested in applying to:</p>
<p>Considering the caliber of the schools your trying to get into I would suggest going with option one because it looks like a more challenging option that will make you look very good when applying to colleges. Your goal in high school should be to challenge yourself as much as possible and hopefully get pretty decent grades while doing so, but the harder the classes you take the less the colleges will expect straight A’s in your transcripts because they will see your challenging yourself. This is something you might want to consider. Hope I helped</p>
<p>Here’s some risky advice – but consider it. If you’re a realistic candidate for that list of schoools, let me ask you this: why is the HS diploma so important? The colleges that admit you won’t care that you missed 1 PE credit. Heck, I’d take it in summer school. But frankly if the dbl science is better for you, I’d go that route and if you were my kid, I’d support it too. Heck you can be a Cal Tech Freshman in two Septembers w/o a HS diploma. No one will care.</p>
<p>^assuming you get admitted, which is more than about course choices. If you drop band in jr year, would you pick up regular PE, to meet the full requirement? Have you asked about alternate ways to fulfill PE? (Surprised no one looked at this snafu when advising you.) And, would you be able to get band back into your senior shedule? And, you have the rest of the picture those colleges want to see?</p>
<p>we are stanford students so we have some perspective.</p>
<p>at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that much. as long as you are taking most of the harder classes and workload. if you think you can manage double science go for it but make sure your grades stay solid, nearly or all a’s for those kinds of schools.</p>
<p>@PrepRmblr: Thanks for your advice. I’ll probably take your advice and double science. @T26E4: We need to take PE to graduate at Troy -_____- @lookingforward: Alternate ways, none. Talked with counselor already, but I’m maxed out on classes already. Otherwise, I think I might meet MIT @stan1989e: STANFORD BUDDIES I VISITED YOU GUYS THIS SUMMER
I’ve only gotten 1 B+ at high school(Spanish, stupid 89.5 no rounding). These are the hardest classes at Troy(especially Calc 2, AP Physics C, and AP Chem)</p>
<p>Brief Summary
Math Competitions: AMC(121.5) AIME Finalist(4)
Volunteer: St Jude Medical Center
Chess Club: 3rd ranked, placed in national event in Vegas
Marching Band: 1st flutist (though not first chair, and yes I’m a guy)
Orchestra: 3rd chair flutist
Internship: Dr Tao, researched cancer cell inhibition by nitrosamines
Robotics Team: designed robot, made it to State.
Science Olympiad: Circuit Lab, Chem Lab, Experimental Design, Fermi(this year)
Awarded American Legion Medal.</p>