8th:
Algebra I / Geometry Honors
Chinese I Honors
Biology I Honors
9th:
AP Human Geography
Algebra II Honors
Chinese II
English I Honors
Chemistry I Honors
PLTW IED
10th (Current):
AP Physics I
English II Honors
Chinese III Honors
PLTW POE
DE PreCalc/Trig
AP World
11th (Planned):
AP Lang
AP Physics C?
Chinese IV Honors?
PLTW Aerospace
AP Calc BC
APUSH
12th (Planned):
AP Lit
DE Calc
tbd
AP Macro/AP US Gov
AP Chinese?
tbd
My goal (in reality dream) colleges/career in the future is either engineering/tech or finance, and my dream (unlikely) colleges are MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Stanford, UPenn, and if those don’t work out, then a major public state school.
Questions:
If I plan to go into an engineering field, what sciences should I take junior and senior year? I plan on taking AP Physics C before I graduate, but don’t really have a desire or interest to take AP Chem/Bio/ES. Would it look bad if I didn’t take a science senior year and instead took AP Micro/Psychology or other similar class? Another alternative I was thinking of was AP Physics 2 junior year, and Physics C senior year, though I heard there is a large amount of overlap in material between the three AP Physics classes.
Does it look better for colleges if I progress all the way through Chinese and end senior year taking AP Chinese, or would it be better to drop it and take other rigorous classes?
Many engineering programs in college do require chemistry. Since you have had high school chemistry, that should be sufficient prerequisite for college chemistry, but some colleges do allow a high enough AP chemistry score to fulfill a chemistry requirement, which means avoiding often-large classes filled with competitive pre-meds.
You can check colleges’ AP credit listings on their web sites to see which ones are likely to be most useful.
You might look at the recommended course schedules for a couple majors at each of your desired schools, and see which classes would be helpful. MIT and CalTech require everyone take bio, chem, and physics. You might want an AP class under your belt to make for a smoother transition.
11th
Try taking AP chem Junior year and AP physics C senior year.
Honors US history is ok instead of Apush.
12th
Honors English is fine.
DE multivariate calculus and discrete math
One of your classes should be a fun class (culinary arts, theater tech, current events, shop…)
“Does it look better for colleges if I progress all the way through Chinese and end senior year taking AP Chinese, or would it be better to drop it and take other rigorous classes?”
Definitely stick with Chinese. Selective schools like to see four years, plus if you do well on the AP exam you can possibly eliminate the language requirement in college.
You need to add a science senior year. It’s pretty much non-negotiable for the caliber of tech-heavy schools to which you are applying.
I am a fan of the PLTW classes, but consider bumping the Aerospace to senior year and taking a study hall junior year. Junior year is a difficult and very important one in terms of maintaining GPA, and a study hall can help with that. PLTW classes usually don’t have a lot of homework in our school, which is useful senior year when you want a challenge but not a lot of busy work so that you have extra time for college applications.