<p>So I know UC schools look at senior class strength. I planned on taking physics honors this year and have an unscheduled 6th period so iI can juggle school, sports, and a job to help pay for college. However, it conflicted with my art history class and so I dropped to regular physics. I’ve heard though that the honors physics teacher at my school is frankly incapable of teaching and that regular will teach you more.
So my classes go as follows::</p>
<p>0 period- Health (Mandatory Class)
Rhetoric and Writing-Acc
AP Gov
AP Calculus AB
Physics
AP Art History
unscheduled.</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in some field of biology, and I’ve taken Biology Acc my freshman year, AP bio my sophomore year (I got a 5) and Chemistry Honors last year. Our school requires a regular course taken before we can take AP, otherwise I would have taken AP Chem. I didn’t take AP lit because I feel that rhetoric will help me more with college materials and I’m not very interested in english. I’ve always taken hard classes, my junior year consisted of 3 AP, 2 honors, and only one unweighted (which was a required foreign language). I just wanted to know if this schedule would hurt my chances of getting into a top tier UC if my other stats were good enough. </p>
<p>I could also do this, but a 6th period might be really hard to balance when I’m missing 2 days a week with tennis matches and want to get a job::</p>
<p>Rhetoric and Writing-Acc.
AP Gov
AP Calculus AB
Health
Physics Honors
AP Art History</p>
<p>I’m looking at getting into UCSB with a 4.55 GPA, but am also interested in UCLA. I would just like some insight, thanks :)!</p>
<p>okay thanks, my councelor just psyched me out about it because I want to major in a science and she didn’t think it was wise of me to drop physics honors and yeah…4.55 weighted, 4.2 UC. I guess it’s well maintained with what I can get this year !</p>
<p>My high school counselor(s) was an absolute idiot. They went to community colleges when they were our age, their sons and daughters did the same. And, they geared everyone into going that route. So, they had no idea besides the basic requirements for UC admission what would look good or bad on applications. Honestly, no university is going to reject you because you did not take physics honors and chose to take regular physics instead.</p>
<p>Haha thanks. That helped me out quite a bit. My last councelor left because her husbands being deployed- I loved her. But now I’m bouncing around other councelors who are trying to tell me what I want I want to do with my life, and not letting me have my own feelings. I’m just kind of concerned that it doesnt look very strong, idk All my friends have crazier schedules, so I guess I’m comparing myself to them too much as well xD.</p>
<p>I have discovered from friends’ experiences that it is far worse to take a class in the senior year that may become a problem than not take it. The UCs do not care so much about how many classes with special titles you cram in or that you took ten thousand classes from one particular subject. For the most part (engineering perhaps excluded), they just want to see solid, consistent performance in the whole of your coursework. There is really no use in taking a ridiculously difficult load in senior year because if you do and you aren’t so successful, you’ll risk losing your admission.</p>
<p>The first one looks fine… the APs will keep you motivated to actually go to school (the most difficult part of senior year) and having a period off will keep you sane. </p>
<p>Regardless of your decision, just keep your grades up (3.0 UW is the minimum for UCLA, it might be 3.0 W for UCSB but I’m not sure… either way that shouldn’t be a problem given your previous grades; you obviously have a great work ethic!) and you’ll be fine.
I politely disagree with the notion that your senior courses don’t matter though… taking a regular course load is like giving admissions a reason to reject you. Maybe 3 APs won’t put you ahead of a similar candidate (again, your GPA does not leave you with a lot ‘similar’ candidates) but 0 APs will put you behind one.</p>
<p>The worry over doing poorly in a class is mostly a worry for the seniors who decide to stop working second semester without reading the admissions contract and then get upset when a D- costs them admission; Senioritis is a powerful force.</p>
<p>You ought to do fine though.
Best of luck, hope you enjoy senior year!</p>
<p>Thanks sooo much for replying. Everyone’s answers made great points and assured me my schedule was good, I’m keeping it the way it is.
Second day of school, I’ve decided I love rhetoric and writing and am delighted I didn’t take AP lit :)</p>
and yeah…4.55 weighted, 4.2 UC. I guess it’s well maintained with what I can get this year !</p>