Hello, I will be a junior for the 2020-2021 school year, and I would like to know what my college chances are. As a freshman, I took all cp classes, but I ended up with a 3.925 gpa. As a sophomore, I took 2 honors classes instead and received mostly As with a few A-'s . For my junior year, I will be taking 1 ap and 2 honors classes, which I hope will show colleges that I am still able to handle a rigorous course load. However, I am starting to wonder if my course load is rigorous enough for good architecture schools (Penn Sate, Temple, FAU, UCF). Saying that I get decent SAT and ACT scores (I have only taken the PSAT so far with a score of 1050) and improve my senior year course load, could someone please let me know if I can still make it to one of these universities based on these credentials? I am also involved in multiple extracurriculars (boy scouts, cross country, TSA club, CYO basketball).
Also, it has made me especially worried to hear that junior year is the most important because I don’t think I could handle a more difficult course load due to extracurriculars. Should I be worried about the whole “junior year is the most important” thing if I take on more honors and APs my senior year?
Yes. You have an excellent record and will land at a good college. The rigor of your transcript is on the low side for a Top 50 college, but there are plenty of excellent choices outside those highly competitive ones. You’re doing very well. Keep it up.
@MYOS1634 , I took honors english 10 and honors geometry this year as a sophomore and am taking honors alg. II and honors physics a next year, along with AP psych. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the importance of an art portfolio for architecture until recently, so I haven’t started working on one yet, however I’m also taking a found. of art elective next year to get started on it. Do you know how many pieces of artwork is needed for a portfolio?
Also, as a senior, I plan on taking APES, AP Spanish Lang, honors pre calc and honors intro to engineering design. Hopefully this will make up for the lack of rigor from the previous years…
Then you are making what may be a poor decision. Nobody is forcing you to take on all these ECs. College, it should come as no surprise, is an academic endeavor. They look for kids that have demonstrated a willingness and aptitude for academic work. Penn State, for example, makes this clear when they write "The most important piece of our review is your academic record, which represents your individual four years of academic development. Penn State’s holistic assessment of application materials includes the academic courses, grades, and levels of those courses and standardized test scores, plus additional factors that may include an audition, a portfolio review, the geographic and cultural background of the student, the personal statement, and the activities list. " If you choose not to focus on what they call the most important piece then it is your choice, and you also bear the consequences.
Unlikely. Colleges won’t see the grades in these classes before they’ve made a decision, furthermore these are just the classes listed when you apply. Students drop and change classes. Your junior year shows what you actually did, your senior year schedule is just aspirational for the most part.
Senior year choice count. But the whole sequence of classes matters.
English: Regular English → … → … ->…
Math: Algebra1 Regular → Geometry regular-> Algebra2H → Precalculus Honors
History/Social Science : …-> …->…-> …
Foreign Language : Spanish 2-> Spanish 3-> Spanish 4-> AP Spanish Lang
Science: …->…-> …-> APES
Electives : … ->…->…-> intro honors to engineering
Rather than APES, you should be taking AP Physics 1 if offered at your school.
Rather than Intro Honors to Engineering, it may be a good idea to strengthen your math background by taking AP Stats.
Have you taken Art electives? Especially 2D Drawing, Technical Drawing, Digital Art…?
They often want 5-10 pieces in different genres (NOT manga), including some technical drawings, some landscapes, faces, people… Photographs can also matter.
Do you go to museums regularly? If not, start going and make yourself a weekly schedule of exhibits to visit, either “in person” or virtually. Tons of museums have their collections online, so go ahead and visit, make sure to include folk museums (often include constructions or models of construction) and architecture museums as well as more typical art museums (national gallery, MOMA, Le Louvre, British Museum…)
Also “by junior year” isn’t how it works, fortunately!
Adcoms look at the sequences for all 4 years.
They’ll want to see Honors in English and Math, unless you have an AP class; you’re doing well with math and your first honors classes were in key subjects, so that’s good.
Architecture requires Math, Physics, and various forms of Art/Art History.
(Does your school offer AP Art? AP Art History? Any chance you could take that instead of AP Psych?)
If all goes well, how many honors, how many AP’s by graduation?
Can you complete the sequences above?
(I know I filled it out wrong and forgot Physics Honors :s)
Hello, I will be a junior for the 2020-2021 school year, and I would like to know what my college chances are. As a freshman, I took all cp classes, but I ended up with a 3.925 gpa. As a sophomore, I took 2 honors classes instead and received mostly As with a few A-'s . For my junior year, I will be taking 1 ap and 2 honors classes, which I hope will show colleges that I am still able to handle a rigorous course load. However, I am starting to wonder if my course load is rigorous enough for good architecture schools (Penn Sate, Temple, FAU, UCF). Saying that I get decent SAT and ACT scores (I have only taken the PSAT so far with a score of 1050) and improve my senior year course load, could someone please let me know if I can still make it to one of these universities based on these credentials? I am also involved in multiple extracurriculars (boy scouts, cross country, TSA club, CYO basketball).
Also, it has made me especially worried to hear that junior year is the most important because I don’t think I could handle a more difficult course load due to extracurriculars. Should I be worried about the whole “junior year is the most important” thing if I take on more honors and APs my senior year?