Course Rigor

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi everyone! I was just looking for people’s opinions on how rigorous my course load is in terms of applying to Ivy League schools. I have listed out my courses from each year. Obviously, other components factor into the application, but specifically I wanted to know if the courses I have taken are rigorous enough for some of the top schools in the country.

9th:
English 1 Accelerated
Algebra 2/Trig Honors
Biology Honors
Spanish 1 Accelerated
PE (Semester Only)
Dance 1 (Semester Only)
Speech and Debate (Class Period During the School Day)
Religion Elective

10th:
American Literature Honors
AP Calculus AB
Chemistry Honors
Spanish 2 Honors
AP US History
Speech and Debate (Class Period During the School Day)
Religion Elective

11th:
AP English Literature
AP Calculus BC
AP Biology
Physics Honors
Spanish 3 Honors
AP World History
French 1
Religion Elective

12th:
AP English Language
AP Statistics
AP Chemistry
AP Spanish Language
Dance 2 (Semester Only)
AP Economics (Micro and Macro)
American Government (Semester Only)
French 2
Religion Elective

2

No lunch or break?

3

why are you changing languages in Junior year? colleges would rather see you do 1 language for 4 rather 2 languages 4 years

4

In junior year, I added on a second language, French, while continuing Spanish simply because I love language learning. I am currently in both AP Spanish and French 2.

5

Yes, absolutely - especially if you indicate you hope to major in a foreign language.

6

It looks good to me – but the person to ask is your guidance counselor, not any one of us. Rigor is relative to what is offered in your HS.
The top tier colleges will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the recommendation saying you have taken the most rigorous course-load available at your HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If the guidance counselor says that your prior and current HS schedules are sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked then you are fine.