Right now I am a sophomore in high school taking 3 AP Classes: AP Calculus AB, World History AP, and AP Environmental Science. So far I have a 4.3 GPA, but that might change this semester. For junior year I am planning to take 2 AP Classes: AP Calculus BC and AP US History, because I feel like I need to study for the SAT, work on volunteering hours, look for scholarships, and devoting more time to math. My friend said it looks bad if I downgrade AP classes. Is this true? I know that junior is a very important year to colleges and I don’t want to screw myself over by exhausting myself or making it look like to colleges that I am not challenging myself enough. If I were to take 3 AP Classes junior year I would add in AP Chemistry. Would this also lower my chances for getting into UC Berkeley? (My dream school)
The #1 factor for getting into UCB is weighted GPA, so you have to take honors and AP classes in junior year to get close to their 4.4 average. Mathematically you probably have to take at least 3 APs in junior year to have a good shot, by averaging a 4.3 from 10th grade and a 4.5 from 11th grade (straight A’s in 3 APs and 3 non-AP). You don’t necessarily have to add AP Chem - why not an easier AP like Psychology, Stats, Human Geo, etc.?
At my school, we have a pretty limited range of AP Classes. The only AP Classes in the Laboratory Science category are AP Environmental Science (I am currently taking), AP Biology, and AP Chemistry. AP Biology is mostly reading and memorizing according to my friends. There’s also English AP Language, but essays are a weak point for me. AP Chemistry is my best shot because it is math based.
You’d probably do well in AP Chem since you took AP Calc AB as a sophomore, but it will definitely be more work than APES. On the other hand, Calc BC will probably be easier since you’ve already taken Calc AB, and APUSH should be about the same as WHAP. Worst case, if you get a B it would count the same as if you hadn’t taken the extra AP.