My d16 will take honor’s Biology, AP Biology, College Chemistry, Physics and AP Physics C by the end of her junior year. The only science she has left is AP Environmental science. Will her senior year load looks too light for Caltech? She plans to take the rest of APs left, including AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics and the rest of non math or science related APs.
If she is taking every single AP available, I fail to see how taking environmental science as well will look bad.
She did not take every single AP. She did not take AP Chemistry since she took Chemistry at our local community college over the summer. She doesn’t want to take an AP Chemistry since the teacher is known to be a GPA killer.
Has she taken AP CS yet? My DS17 will have a similar issue. I don’t know about the rigor issue, but he is hoping to take astronomy and additional CS courses at the community college or the local UC as afternoon/evening courses during junior/senior years. Geology is also a possibility. He will also have AP Env Sci available at the high school, but isn’t interested, because he’s heard its mainly for kids who can’t handle AP Physics or Chem (and he’s not really a biology kid). What about the availability of any engineering courses at the HS or CC?
She took AP CS her sophomore year. And I just learned recently, that APCS is not a science. It is an elective. It is unfortunate, since her best recommender is her APCS teacher, and he cannot write LOR since he is not a math or science teacher. As far as taking classes at local CC, Caltech does not give any credits for those, so what is the point?
At least for my son, the point is that he really likes science. His eyes lit up when he saw that astronomy and the astronomy lab could be fit into his schedule. I think Caltech gives some admissions consideration for “really likes science.”
His plan is to just do stuff that interests him and see where he gets in. My job is to do the dumb stuff like asking CMU admissions if they really mean it when they say they want the SAT II scores to be from junior and senior year only (they don’t).
@seal16 Caltech gives no AP credit either, so your logic is kind of moot. Just let your son/daughter take whatever he/she is interested in because if GPA and/or credits are valued over all else, Caltech life is going to suck for her. Seeing as AP bio and physics are going to be on her bucket list of classes, there shouldn’t be much of a concern with letters of recommendation.
Also on a tangent, @Ynotgo, I took SAT II Chemistry my sophomore year and was admitted to CMU without a hitch. I envy your son–my parents made me do all the research and stuff on my own (though I am thankful that they paid for all of my applications).