<p>Tomorrow's the day when all the juniors go talk to their counselors to set next year's class schedules. I want your opinion on some of my issues. Obviously, I'm a junior right now, so of course I'm talking about planning my senior year schedule. I want to go to a pretty competitive school. Well, it's not like I want to go to Harvard/Yale or any of those super top schools...it's more like I'm pressured/forced to go to a good school (I'm Asian, whole family is relatively smart, two sisters who go to Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. The Stanford one graduated and got a job at Google...kinda jealous how I have to wait so long to be where she is...if I ever get there...but that's a topic for another day).
I'm taking 6 AP tests this year (Comp Gov, Human Geo, English Lang, APUSH, Calc BC, Chinese-self study (not native, but have been learning for a long time)). I only have 5 classes this year. I was going to take Spanish 4 AP, but I dropped because I thought my workload was going to be too much, and I kinda dislike Spanish...good at it, just don't like it.
My senior schedule looks like:
English Lit AP (I don't know about this one. I don't read too much, and even my Stanford sister dropped it...so I may take regular)</p>
<p>Stat AP (This one is for sure)</p>
<p>Physics C (Extremely hard class in my school, but I'm up for the challenge)</p>
<p>Econ AP/ Government Regular (semester classes, we're only allowed to choose AP for one of them, and I like Econ more)</p>
<p>Computer Science A AP (Basically everyone in my family knows comp sci, I want to try it out. There is a 90% chance that the class won't open because not many people will sign up. So my Stanford sister told me about the online courses for comp sci provided by Stanford. I might do that, and if possible take the AP test)</p>
<p>And finally the one I'm the most confused about...SPANISH 4. Now this requires a whole paragraph to explain. I live in Cali, so the UCs are definitely good choices for me to go to, namely Berkeley. The UC A-G Requirement recommends 3 years of a foreign language (2 are required). Keep in mind that I will be applying to other competitive schools as well. In 8th grade I took Spanish 1. 9th I took Spanish 2. 10th I took Spanish 3 H. Like I said, I was gonna take Spanish 4 AP, but you know. My counselor told me to take Spanish 4 Regular this year and said that the 3 years recommended thing (which applies for most competitive schools) is really important. Apparently, my school district doesn't count the 8th grade year as high school credit, so I only have 2 years of foreign language. This is where I'm confused. I've searched these forums, and some people say that the 3 years of a foreign language are 3 years experience/level (so I would have 3 years since I stopped at Spanish 3 H). Others say that it's 3 years of foreign language taken in high school. I've gotten all A's in my Spanish classes. I'm not exactly sure what I want to major in, but I'm leaning towards business-related stuff.
One of my sisters and my dad told me that Spanish isn't important and that I'm not going to use it that much, so they told me to take something more useful or try something new (comp sci for example). I was thinking that I would take some business related course at a local community college (which I need to get a special diploma my school offers).
My mom still stresses that I should take Spanish 4 Regular since so many people got rejected from UCs this year that she thought should have gotten in. So she just wants be to have a better chance.
My counselor will probably push me to do Spanish 4 Regular as well. Even though I've stopped Spanish for a year, I think if I try hard I could get an A if I took it. I've looked for Spanish 4 classes online (which I would prefer), but I couldn't find any.
Keep in mind that I am somewhat fluent in Chinese already, and I have gotten 790 in the Chinese SAT 2 and I think I'm gonna get 4/5 in the Chinese AP.
Please advise...and sorry for the really long post. I just wanted to give most of the story to you guys.
THANKS!</p>