Can I have two free periods my senior year of high school if I want to get into a good college?

Hey everyone! I am currently a rising senior and I’m trying to figure out my schedule for next year. These are the classes which I have so far:

1st period: Gym
2nd period: AP Computer Science
3rd period: SUPA Writing (SUPA is a series of classes available at my high school provided by Syracuse University which gives college credit and counts as much as an AP class)
4th period: AP Bio
5th period: AP Bio
6th period: Lunch
7th period: AP Calculus

And my 8th and 9th periods would be free.

I haven’t taken the SAT yet because of the pandemic, but I’m really confident I’ll score at least a 1400 based on my practice tests scores. In the last three years of high school, my schedule has been nothing but honors classes (and 1 AP class because only APUSH is available to underclassmen). There has not been a single year where my core classes (Math, Science, English, and History) weren’t honors or AP. Anyway, my question is: would college admissions officers care that I have early dismissal during my senior year? Would it look lazy on my end? There aren’t any honors or AP classes which are available during those periods, so I figured I should use that time to do homework or side projects for the STEAM Academy at my school. I’m planning on applying to schools like Boston U, UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and Columbia.

Short answer, yes.
Long answer, you have an estimated SAT score that lands you in the bottom 25% for most of your schools (you need to have at least a 1500+ to even be considered everywhere but BU and possibly UCB). That, coupled with the fact that taking a free period when you don’t need to looks like laziness, it’ll certainly hurt you. Colleges want to see that you’re going above and beyond what’s “expected” of you, especially at such competitive schools. Schools like the ones you’re applying to get so competitive that it basically becomes a lottery between equally qualified applicants. And someone who is skipping opportunities to take more classes wouldn’t be considered a “qualified” applicant, especially when many other applicants are taking a full course load and extra classes outside of school.
You also aren’t taking the 5 core classes. Where’s your social studies and foreign language? Also, does SUPA count as english?

What do you have for History/Social Science and Foreign Language in your previous years?

During my freshman year I took World History Honors. During my sophomore year I took US History 1 Honors, and during my junior year I took AP US History. I took three years of Italian: Italian 1 (freshman year), Italian 2 (sophomore year), and Italian 3 Honors (junior year). I am also fluent in Spanish.

I understand. There is an option to take AP Government and Politics my third period and AP Literature my eighth period, do you think I should do this instead and fill my 9th period with a class outside of my school?

Also, SUPA does counts as an English class. AP Italian (6th period) doesn’t fit into my schedule, because my school district has a requirement of at least one period of lunch during 6th, 7th, and 8th periods.

So you’re missing the 4 years of social studies that most schools recommend, as well as 4 years of foreign language. Also, schools won’t care about your fluency in Spanish since you didn’t take any classes in it.
Take a social studies and Italian (if you can) instead of free periods. Replace SUPA with an english class if it doesn’t count as english since you’ll need 4 years to get into pretty much any school.

Having 3 years of both SS and FL is going to put you at a disadvantage to the standard applicant IMO.

So I’ll switch my schedule to having AP Gov 3rd rather than SUPA Writing and AP Lit 8th rather than a free period. Thanks a lot for all of your help! I wasn’t aware of the standard of 4 years of language and social studies. My school district only requires 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 3 years of social studies, 3 years of science, and 2 years of a foreign language.

@acrdn2003, high schools typically have lower graduation requirements than that expected of applicants to highly selective colleges and universities because most high school students in the US apply to colleges that aren’t as competitive as those you mentioned and many students do not go to college at all.

Google the common data set, section C for any schools you’d like to apply to. the Common Data Set gives information about the middle-50% of admitted students’s test scores, GPA, etc. It will also list the array of classes any given college requires and recommends the student to have taken in high school. for best admissions chances, assume that the school requires the classes that they list as recommended. If you absolutely cannot take all the recommended classes because your school does not provide them you will not be penalized If the school wants you badly enough, but if the lack is due to your own choice you will need something VERY unique or strong on your application that the school wants (and can’t get in another student). The competition is fierce for the schools you mentioned.

How important or necessary is the AP computer Science Class or gym class to you? If you can somehow shuffle your classes around so that somehow you can take the recommended classes discussed above AND AP Italian, your schedule would be stronger.

If your grades are good there ARE lots of very good schools that would love to accept you with three years of Italian and around a 1400 If you will expand your range. Everyone needs an array of match and safety schools as well as the “reaches-for-everyone schools.” There may be great-fit, well-regarded schools that you would enjoy that you don’t even know about…experienced posters here could give suggestions if you let us know about your goals, possible majors, financial constraints, and other things you are looking for in a school/campus.

It depends. Are you taking two free periods because you have an internship or a job or something else? Or are you taking two free periods because you want to go home earlier? If you have an internship, etc, then IMO taking two free periods is ok, as long as you have fulfilled all the requirements for graduation and all the requirements for the schools you’re applying for.

One of several criteria in UCB’s application review includes ** Quality of a student’s senior-year program, as measured by the type and number of academic courses in progress or planned.**

One free period maybe if you have a rigorous Senior schedule. 2 free periods makes you a less competitive applicant for many schools.

I’m planning on pursuing Computer Science, Statistics, or Electrical engineering as a possible major (anything with plenty of math). My family isn’t particularly rich or particularly poor (I know they were willing to help pay for half of my brother’s tuition when he was going to school), but neither of my parents are working and they still have to pay for mortgage and our car, so I’m really hoping for a full scholarship (our savings are being burnt through right now). In terms of campuses, I’m okay with pretty much anything. I would prefer if the campus wasn’t a complete labyrinth, but as long as I’m getting good, affordable education.

My grades are pretty good. My GPA is pretty irrelevant since the grading system at my school is very strange (I have a 4.79, but I’m not sure if it’s out of 5 or 5.2), but I have received straight A’s for every class 3 years in a row. I’m second in my graduating class. I was planning on working on other ECs during those free periods because I usually don’t have time to pursue anything other than the track team which is from 3 to around 4:30 every day after school. I was thinking that I could use the extra time to do other things I’m usually not able to do like STEAM related activities.

I forgot to mention that 4 years of PE is also a graduation requirement for my school.

If you get into those schools above, you won’t get aid from most of them. Columbia (and the other ivies) only give need-based aid. They do, however, meet 100% of demonstrated aid (as does BU and UChicago).
The UCs typically only give aid to California residents. UChicago gives a maximum of $10k per year in merit.
BU has the best merit of all your listed schools, but it doesn’t look like you’d qualify. Typical recipients have a 1500 on the SAT (although you can apply test optional). BU looks like the only school you’d get anything from in terms of merit. You won’t get a full scholarship though.

You need to do a complete reconsideration of your list. You need more matches and safeties. Right now, you’d need to apply test optional to even have a chance at most of your schools.

Regardless of graduation requirements, Gym and three academic classes would be a significant red flag to an admissions officer at a competitive school, IMHO.

I think you’ll be fine with this approach. As others said, make sure you’ve had consistently challenging curriculum. I presume that you’ve taken the highest level math courses available at your school given your future interests. I do think that you’ll want to push your SAT target score up a bit given the schools you’re interested in.

I wouldn’t stress about having a 4th year of a foreign language if your high school transcript shows that you’ve taken a full schedule of the most advanced classes your school has to offer. My eldest son did only 2 years of a foreign language, is a US born ORM, and had a decent SAT score (1530). He got into Duke, Georgetown (SFS), Johns Hopkins, and some other selective schools/programs. He is waitlisted at a number of T10 schools. I think one of the strengths of his application was he maxed out on challenging coursework, which he did well in.