I just got my course options for next year, but I unfortunately am not able to take all the classes I wanted. Right now I am able to take:
AP English lit
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics 2
AP Psychology
and I am only able to take 2/3 of the next courses due to scheduling conflicts:
AP French, AP Biology and AP Macroeconomics
What do you all think would be the most competitive choices in terms of college admissions? I want to go into STEM, and I am not very good at French(although, 4 years of language looks best). This year, I am taking:
APUSH
AP Physics 1
AP Chemistry
AP English lang
Honors Precalculus
Honors French 4
French and Macro would be my choices since you already have a science. (Assuming you took H bio at some point in HS).
What kind of STEM are you most interested in?
@ucbalumnus I have a particular interest in chemistry, and I want to go into the medical field, although I have enjoyed pretty much all my math and science courses. The only one I didn’t enjoy so much was honors biology, which I took as a freshman, but I was at a different school then that was very weak in maths/sciences. I would want to take biology to be more competitive, but I am also not 100% sure that I’m prepared–we only covered about 3/4 of the honors curriculum.
For your situation (chemistry major and pre-med), you want to have at least high school level courses in each of biology, chemistry, and physics; AP level in one or more would be a bonus, since you will need to take college courses in those subjects. So consider overall course load (since two AP sciences could be rather time consuming, and if you apply to colleges that want lots of essays, that is significant additional work) in selecting whether to take two AP sciences.
Considering what you want to major in, I’d recommend AP Bio for sure.
Taking AP French would likely get you out of the college language requirement and would allow you to take Creole at a community Education center (French isn’t a common language among patients, but Creole, which is based on French and sounds like it, is very useful.)
On the other hand your schedule is very rigorous and macroeconomics taken over one year would likely be less work.
Take Bio and Macro if you are trying to look good for colleges. Otherwise, choose the courses in the field you would most likely pursue in college.
^ Macro is a semester EC and a non core class; AP foreign language is year long, a core class, and considered one of the most rigorous APs. So, if the sole goal is to “impress colleges”, AP Bio and AP French would both be the best choice.
However colleges would not “be impressed”. Those may be advanced HS classes but remember that they are just basic, first-semester classes for colleges (except AP French which is sophomore level).
What will matter is curriculum balance (do you have one from each of the core classes: English, Math, Science, Social Science, Foreign Language) and whether your schedule reflects your purported academic interests (double up in one academic area you want to major in.)
I would recommend AP Bio sonce you want to do pre-med/ chem major since there will be biochem classes in college. Many chem processes can also be seen in bio which might be interesting for you.