This may be a bit early, but i want to major in neurobiology at a selective university at the future and i was wondering which ap i should take my senior year. i have to decide on this now because scheduling can affect my future scheduling. ap latin seems hard and it looks like colleges like it but CS is good for stem but it is viewed as easier so idk
sophomore yr:
ap chem
ap bio
ap world
latin4 honors
math analysis honors
English honors
junior:
ap lang
ap calc bc
ap psychology
ap us history
physics dual enrollment w Richard Bland
scientific research dual enrollment w GMU
either latin 5 honors or intro to comp sci
senior:
ap lit
ap econ
ap govt
ap physics c mechanics
ap latin or ap comp sci (where i need to decide)
multivariable calculus dual enrollment w NOVA CC
geospatial science dual enrollment w JMU
You remind me of a friend of mine who loves Latin and math and is also obsessed with attending MIT. How many years of foreign language will you have total? Selective colleges want to see at least 4.
I’m entering my fourth year
I’ll comment on your schedule for now:
sophomore yr:
ap chem
ap bio
===> CHOOSE ONE of them, do NOT take both. They’re both among the hardest and most time-consuming APs (with labs and lab reports) and taking both at the same time is madness, let alone as a sophomore. Replace one of them by a “fun” class, an art class, a class with a teacher that’s well-known and liked at your school…
ap world
latin4 honors
math analysis honors
English honors
junior:
ap lang
ap calc bc
ap psychology ===> maybe not necessary; if it’s to have an “easy” AP class, ok. Since you have 2 college classes and 3 APs, I’d completely remove that class to preserve your sanity.
ap us history
physics dual enrollment w Richard Bland ==> have you had physics before? A basic physics (=preferably honors or AP physics 1 or 2) class is expected for a 1st year general physics college class.
scientific research dual enrollment w GMU
either latin 5 honors or intro to comp sci ==> either one is fine but you could take intro to comp sci to have a taste before college
senior:
ap lit => considering rest of schedule, take Honors English or an English seminar with a cool title, unless you really love literature
ap econ/ap govt => I assume these are semester classes you take in the same period?
ap physics c mechanics
ap latin or ap comp sci (where i need to decide) ==> since your schedule leans heavily toward stem and indicates a wish to apply to top schools, my suggestion to you is to take Latin 5 honors senior year to counterbalance the stem-heavy schedule and signify your ability to do work and show advanced knowledge in a non-stem field. No need to have either AP since the effects are the same for college admissions. Now, if you really love Latin or if CS junior year rocks your world, then you can adapt when planning for senior year.
multivariable calculus dual enrollment w NOVA CC
geospatial science dual enrollment w JMU ==> good pick, not too common, shows personal interest
Note that for Dual Enrollment, it’s better to take all your year’s classes (or semester’s) at the same college. Otherwise you end up wasting a lot of time. GMU, Richard Bland, JMU, all are fine, but they’re not close and wasting time in transportation is a BAD idea with a schedule as ambitious as yours. I’m especially concerned about the Richard Bland/GMU combo, which sounds like an impossible commute.
http://www.i-am-the-one.com/downloads/va-college-university-map/IAmTheOne_VACollegeUniversityMap.pdf
For those DE classes, you don’t have to go to the college to take them. Also, I’m not jumping into AP Chem without prior chem experience. I’m taking summer school right now. I do get that is a lot of work with AP bio, but it should be easier cause we are getting a presumably inexperienced chem teacher. For junior year, dual enrollment physics isn’t that hard, it’s pretty much as rigorous as an honors course. As for AP Psych, I’ll take it to boost my GPA plus I’m interested in it. I decided I’m going to take intro to comp sci, thank you for your insights. As for senior year, I don’t think it would look that great if I took Lang and then dropped to honors. I’m going to take AP Comp Sci as well. I would assume 4 years of Latin would be fine as that’s 4 years of high school. Also, I thought it would be bad to just drop intro to comp sci after taking it junior year. I also believe taking easy APs will show my interest and abilities in non stem.
Actually it’s perfectly fine to take ap lang but not ap lit, and vice versa, since they’re not the same part of the discipline (and colleges only count one anyway). Of course if you like literature take AP lit but don’t take it for colleges.
Be aware that if your DE class is not a college class (taken with college students and a college professor, on a college campus, wirhva collegebpace, but rather a class offered at tour high school) colleges won’t count it as DE.
A new teacher typically means more work, not less, because rheyvsont remember how less skilled high school students qre to college students.
We do get college credit for our DE classes even though they were taught by HS teachers. I don’t know how it works but we do somehow
Your high school wouldn’t know, since each individual college would decide in August, well after you graduated. Some colleges are very clear that “DE” that’s essentially an honors HS class (not a college class) will not receive credit, others vary in their policies, and some public universities (such as Florida’s) accept them.