This upcoming January, everyone in my school is required to pick their classes for next year. These are the classes I’m planning to take my senior year.
-AP English Lit
-AP Calculus BC
-AP Physics C
-Horticulture sem 1 / Astronomy sem 2
-Culinary Arts
-Video Production
I want to have a fun senior year with AP classes mixed in with electives, but I’m debating whether to replace video production with AP Statistics. But I’m worried that this will add another burden to my schedule. I would I like to know other people’s insights/experiences taking AP Stat along with the other AP’s I listed (I’m def taking them)
I’m trying to go for at least a top 50 school and I also want to know if colleges really do care about my senior year schedule or not.
Colleges aren’t expecting two math AP’s at once. What seems to be missing from this list is the social science class. Don’t you have to take some sort of gov/econ class senior year?
Our school only requires 3 years of history but AP Gov is optional and I’m not interested taking the class. (I hate APUSH so much)
I agree with aquapt. Drop the Stats and add a History/ Gov/
Econ/ Social Science class. Then there will be no question as to the rigor of your Senior year classes, which top 50 colleges DO care about.
I agree with that idea but idk if i want to do another year of a social science class bc APUSH is so tough this year. I’m trying to go into an engineering major so idk if a social science class will help with that
A lot of colleges recommend 4 years of history/social science for their high school curriculum (when they “recommend” it usually means this is what their most competitive applicants have). You may want to check what your target schools list as required/recommended for high school.
As for the schedule, yes they look at it, even beyond the top 50. There was a published “behind the scenes” for an adcom meeting at GWU a while ago, including this:
Whether the rest of your schedule with 3 rigorous APs might be seen as “coasting” is an open question (is your current planned schedule noticeably easier than your prior years?), but this is an illustration that yes, they look, so you may want to take that into account too.
Does your school have macro/micro econ as an option? That would round out your schedule while still being more math-adjacent than history/gov.
How many years of foreign language have you taken?
Admissions officers definitely pay attention to senior year course rigor. Three “fun” electives seems like a lot. Have you discussed this with your guidance counselor?
Agree with the above comments regarding taking social studies senior year even if it isn’t an AP.
Also have you completed 4 years of foreign language? Many top schools look for that as well.
I suggest you Google the common data set of some colleges you are interested in and look at Section C to see their required/recommended HS coursework. For very competitive colleges it would be wise to meet all recommendations.
Keep in mind that the top schools will want to see that you took the most challenging classes that were available to you. My son is a sophomore and also looking to pursue a career in engineering. He is currently taking AP Calculus AB and AP Statistics and is doing great on both.
There isn’t a macro/micro economics at my school. I’m completing/completed 4 years of Spanish (I’m taking Spanish IV right now)
AP Stats isn’t a high impact core course (BC covers it), so AP Gov would be much better. My D dropped APUSH as a Junior after a week but got an A and loved Gov Senior year.
Thanks to everyone for all your insights. I’ll consider taking either AP US Gov/Human Geography or see if there is any type of economics classes offered at my school.
My D20 is taking AP Human Geography right now (also a STEM kid who did not love APUSH). She really is enjoying the Human Geo class! She took a lighter schedule this year than her junior year and is hoping it doesn’t impact her negatively with some of her top college applications. I would recommend dropping one of your two pure electives (culinary arts or video production) for AP Human Geography. It will seem much easier than APUSH. Going a little easier senior year is fine as you’ll be working on applications and scholarships that will take time. The key is to cover core subjects in senior year (whether or not they are at the AP level). As long as you have taken 6-8 APs in total, you should be fine (although more is okay if it is in subjects you actually care about).