Apologies if I’m over-posting threads on this website, but I wanted to get some feedback on my current plan for junior year. My main concern at the moment is that I may be unable to handle the rigor of the schedule, but I’m honestly not sure. Do you have suggestions for which classes I should swap or should I keep them all as is?
Sophomore Year (Current):
ChemistryH (~100%)
APUSH (~99%)
Spanish 7/8H(~96%)
Health (~104%)
PrecalculusH (~101%)
English H(~97%)
AP Compsci. Principles (~100%)
Sophomore SAT Subject: Math II, US History
Standardized Testing: PSAT 10
Junior Year (Planned):
AP Physics 1
AP US Government
AP Environmental Science [ Originally supposed to be AP Spanish, but decided against it ]
AP Calculus AB
AP English Lang. & Comp.
AP Compsci. Applications
Free period semesters 1 & 2 ( saving gym for senior year )
Junior SAT Subject: Physics
Standardized Testing: PSAT NMSQT, SAT
6 AP classes is too many. Based on your sophomore year schedule, AP calculus, AP English language, AP Physics 1 and AP CS make the most sense.
APES is clearly there to “pad” your schedule since you’re also taking physics, so, drop it. Remember, as Stanford famously put it, " it’s not a fame of who has the most APs, wins". Colleges want to see if you’re able make judicious choices in class selection.
Is there a social science honors you could take, and save AP gov for senior year?
I haven’t added APES to pad my schedule, not sure where you’re drawing that conclusion from. I’m genuinely interested in the content of the course. If you insist I switch it, what alternative class should I choose?
With regards to AP Government, social studies is my strongest subject, so to me it doesn’t seem to make sense to take regular (1 semester) gov. Also, it should be mentioned that there are no more honors history courses left to offer at my school.
Ok then, your choice of AP gov makes sense. But it’s a really really tough schedule even without APES.
If you really are interested in the content of APES, save it for senior year.
(I assumed it was to pad your schedule because it’s an easier science class and since you are in AP physics, you don’t need it to have a science and you’re clearly able to handle AP science work.)
Doesn’t your school offer a second semester AP social science (Comp gov or Econ?)
As for another class: does your school offer culinary arts (knowing how to cook is a very useful skill)?
I understand you’re just voicing your opinion, so apologies if I take on a bit of an argumentative tone.
Although 6 APs in any case is bound to be difficult to handle, I’m not sure that’s over-board. Here is a bit more detail on each class being taken.
AP Physics 1
I have very storng math skills and given that this course only teaches to Algebra II/Precalculus concepts, I certainly think I can handle the rigor.
AP US Government
While at face value, the course is quite difficult, I am currently taking AP US History. There should be a decent amount of overlap between the courses, and while the rigor is still high, my strength in social studies should help to balance it out.
AP Environmental Science
I’ve known some friends who have self-studied the course within the period of a few weeks. As you stated before, it can generally be thought of as a “pad” course and so I don’t expect too much rigor out of it. In the case that I decide against APES in favor of AP Spanish, I’m currently taking AP Spanish anyway. It may sound a bit confusing, but Spanish 7/8 and AP Spanish are the same course. The teacher does, however, allow students to continue on and repeat the course, as we’re all at different skill levels coming in.
AP Calculus AB
I was originally planning on (and am still considering) taking BC. I’m also very strong in Precalculus, so I don’t expect the rigor to be that substantial at all.
AP English Lang. & Comp.
I imagine that there will be quite a bit of reading and writing involved. This may be among the hardest classes on my schedule; however, I am a strong English student, so I don’t think honors would be the right choice.
AP Compsci. Applications
I’m already quite proficient in java, so I imagine I’ll be working on other class work for a majority of the course. That’s not to say that I won’t have to study at all, but I’m generally not very concerned.
There is AP Econ, but I was going to save that for my senior year. I suppose I could always try moving it to my 11th grade schedule. What would be the advantage in doing so?
I’m trying to rank highly in my class, so taking non-honors courses would hurt me in that regard. I’m not against the idea, per say, but I want to try to increase my GPA as much as possible.
I am currently a senior and took the most rigorous courses I possibly could. Let me tell you, my stats were worse than yours,but I could handle it. If you want it bad enough, you can handle the course load. I say go for it and if anything, you can tone it down at the semester or for senior year. You may miss out on “regular” high school things (like skipping school, hanging out every weekend), but let me tell you after 2 full rides and 4 half scholarships, it is all worth it. I believe in you, you will do great!!!
Also, just a tip from my experiences, take both the SAT and ACT, and STUDY. With hard classes it gets overwhelming, and it is the easiest thing to push off, but the most important thing to do well on. Good luck!!
Scholarships typically derive from test scores - especially, being in the top 2% or even 1% of scorers. You need to practice a lot to get there and since there’s no difference from the colleges’ standpoint between ACT and SAT, taking both and figuring out which one suits you best is the best move.
AP English Lang, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus AB can’t be
Individually, all these classes make sense. Together, they don’t. They add up to too many hours of homework. The result will be that either you can’t push yourself on EC’s or cut on your sleep.
If the former, considering that highly selective colleges’adcoms consider that the value is in having 6-8 carefully chosen AP’s but distinguish students based on what they achieved in EC’s, it’d be misguided.
If the latter, you’d hurt your brain and growth, and it’d be dangerous. In order to protect your physical and mental health, you need at age 16 about 8 to 9 hours of sleep a night. if you have about 7 1/2 you can catch up on weekends but anything less is very dangerous.
From a college’s point of you, the combination Calc AB/11th, Calc BC/12th makes more sense than jumping into BC in 11th only to downgrade to stats without following the sequence or taking high-order math in 12th.
AP US Gov is only a one-semester class. Since top colleges will want 4 units of social science, if your school doesn’t offer the second half of the class (Comparative Gov), you need to find another semester-long social science.
APES is an elective; it’s thus the easiest to cut.
As long as you’re top 10%, your rank won’t matter, unless you attend a lower-performing school (urban or rural) where you need to rank in the top 5 or 10. Considering the number of Ap’s offered, I’d wager you attend a competitive school and thus all you need is stay within 10%.
Senior year:
You want to make sure you have at least 1hour to 1h30 free each day to work on college applications (and any test you need to retake). Applying to college is like having an extra class that’s especially writing-intensive.
Taking APES then would make more sense. Yes, it’s easy and it’s an elective.
That is certainly an area of concern, thanks for pointing it out!
My plan is to study for PSAT & SAT standardized testing the summer prior to my Junior year. It is standard at my school to take the SAT, as opposed to the ACT.
I usually do all my math homework in other classes. I assume I could do the same with physics, lowering the load to a certain extent.
I’ve been finding it to be a challenge to distinguish myself in terms of extracurriculars, so at least so far, I’ve been using academics to counterbalance that. I do value your advice though and perhaps that’s a strategy I should instead choose to follow. I acknowledge that you’re a frequent user here, so you have lots of experience with college guidance. If you’re interested, feel free to send me a PM and I can send you specific details regarding my current ECs. It would be helpful to hear if you have any suggestions relating to them.
That is definitely a noteworthy concern, thanks for bringing it up.
I’ve been able to handle as a sophomore 3 APs + 3 honors courses. The APs are generally considered to be quite rigorous (us history, computer science, spanish). I’ve found that I really don’t have to do study all that much to keep up with the class rigor.
I’m not sure what you mean by that.
If I manage to keep up my grades, I am leaning towards AB anyway.
I guess the point that I want to stress is that while 6 AP’s is surely rigorous, I am a well-qualified student. I haven’t really found a necessity in studying too much and have scored well on standardized testing + kept up high grades in the past.
No, that is inaccurate. My public, low-income school is ranked in the bottom quartile for my state. Both the valedictorian and salutatorian of last year’s senior class (size of 500) attended lowly ranked in-state, public universities (far from our state flagships in Colorado).
I understand that class rank isn’t very influential on college applications, though it’s something that I personally value as a testament to hard work. And also, the fact that my school is unprestigious seems to me to suggest that rank will play a bit more of a factor in admissions.
Keeping up with the coursework of my schedule is not a challenge. With spending around 3-4 hours of homework each night, I think I can keep my marks higher than 90%. The challenge more comes into play with standardized testing, as what is lacking in the classroom must be made up for through self-study.
I’m not intending on shotgunning to 15+ schools and my original intention was to write all essays during the summer prior to senior year. Would you advise against this?
@lolsnow what are the benefits of taking both the ACT and SAT? I’ve never heard of people doing that before. I’m currently a sophomore and am trying to decide on which test to take. Do you have any advice?
Students can be better with one test rather than the other. Prepping for both during sophomore and junior year is good. Take practice tests after prepping, you’ll find that a test may feel more comfortable.
If your family can’t pay their EFC or if you have a low EFC it’s crucial to have the highest possible test scores since the amount of financial aid/scholarships you receive may well depend on that.
Over the summer, you’ll prepare your applications and your general common app essay, you’ll write your state flagship’s honors college essays, if you’re competing for flybons you’ll wrote those essays, and MAYBE you’ll have time to come up with a sort of template for the “why us” essay. I don’t know a single student who applied to selective 4-year colleges and was done over the summer despite their best intentions.
If your school is lower performing then yes your rank will matter more.
Your activities outside of class will also matter - working to earn money and help the family “counts” even if it’s an unglamorous job, taking care of siblings or elderly relatives also “counts.” Sports matter only inasmuch as being recruitable but can help. MUN is a good one, as is debate or chess. All the national academic championships, music/singing.
You need to divide your time well - see if you can perform as well without spending as much on HW (cut by 1/4) and spend that time on an activity you’ll push to the max.
ACT has a science section, and it’s more fast-paced than the SAT. The different test formats and contents mean that you might do quite a bit better on one than on the other.
Definitely take the PSAT seriously and study for it. If you qualify as a National Merit Scholar, this can mean good money at some schools.
Extracurriculars: The standard recommendation now is to focus on a couple things that mean a lot to you, where you can demonstrate continued commitment, rather than to collect a bunch of feathers for your cap. Working a real job counts for a lot these days (which is apparently a change from a few years ago, rightly so I think), even more so if you can tie it to your academic/career goals.
Overall, you seem to be way ahead of the game with respect to college planning. And you write well, which is very important for college success (and life).
)