I’m a rising freshman and will be attending a very competitive public magnet school in the IB program. My freshman course load will have Algebra 2 Honors Gifted, AP World History, Chemistry Pre-IB (Gifted I think), Chemistry Pre-IB (Gifted I think) and then I am still unsure about the rest. My school offers AP Human Geography as an elective and many people including myself signed up for it as a first choice. I have just finished Spanish 3 Honors in 8th grade and a friend of mine who is going to another school will be taking AP Spanish Language and AP World History although we have had the same Spanish classes throughout middle school (next course in the sequence is supposed to be Spanish 4 Honors, we are both nonspeakers). Another girl in my school, attending the same high school as I, is going to take all the three AP’s listed above in freshman year. Should I take 3 as well? I am currently in Student Council and have received Best Delegation for General Assembly for the middle school Model United Nations tournament in my county (a very, very big county) and know that debate is generic but want to pursue in throughout high school. I also intend on running for SGA in high school, along with joining a multitude of clubs. I also want to have time to devote to my extracurriculars and build a portfolio in the subjects I am interested in by volunteering at a hospital once I turn 15 and perhaps an internship at a local university. I want to go into pre-med (definitely subject to change considering I am not even in high school yet) and if I manage to fluently learn my mother tongue of Arabic, a minor in diplomacy or something like that (I don’t know the correct term). Regardless of my major, my ultimate goal is to get into Columbia College or perhaps Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Also, Psychology is an elective offered and I know someone who is taking that instead of AP Human Geo in order to do better in AP Psych, a class I am more interested in. I am known by both faculty and the student body to be very studious, hard-working, and goal-oriented; getting to the point… should I take the 3 APs or just stick to 1 or 2 (I could personally handle 2 but might take psychology in order to prepare for AP)? Should I take AP Human Geography or regular Psychology to prepare for AP? Also, any advice as far as it comes to conditioning to be a viable candidate for Columbia although I know it’s early? Also, would sticking to debate be a wise move or should I just stay focused in Bio/Chem/STEM since colleges don’t necessarily like well-rounded candidates as they prefer those who succeed greatly in just one field? Any advice at all would be great. A little (a lot) obsessed with this stuff so sorry if I happened to change the subject abruptly.
Thank you!