Hello, so I’m currently picking classes for junior year and was looking for advice on my schedule. I’m aiming for top schools so I’m looking to have a rigorous schedule. This is what I’m planning on taking next year:
IB English HL
IB Psychology HL
Honors Precalc
Honors Physics
AP Computer Science Principles
IB Spanish SL (every other day)
I think this schedule is definitely manageable for me, but I’m worried about senior year.
If I go with this schedule for junior year, this is what I’d have senior year:
IB English HL (every other day)
IB Psychology HL (every other day)
AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP Computer Science A
IB Spanish SL
Is this too much for senior year with a lot of ECs? The other options to make it less rigorous I have is to take honors Spanish or take AP Calc BC junior year & precalc this summer. What do you guys think?
I am not familiar with IB level classes and how rigorous they are, but they are often grouped together with AP classes so they must be challenging. Would you have a study hall or free period? It also depends on how many ECs you are going to be doing as well as how much effort you are willing to put into your schoolwork outside the classroom. I think those classes are certainly on par with top schools though.
I might have a study period depending on my guidance counselor. But I’ll talk to each of the teachers of these courses and try to get a feel of the courseload before signing up.
What majors are you thinking of? Have you taken US history and global/world/European History already?
Does each class automatically lead to the upper level?
Can you take a full IB diploma curriculum (this would be highest rigor automatically)?
Is Pre-Calculus to Cal BC normal in your school? Our school has a policy that if you take Pre Calc over the summer, you’re not allowed to skip AB, because summer courses typically don’t teach enough to be able to succeed in BC without AB. I’ve also heard that speeding through Pre-Calc isn’t a good idea in general, because it’s important to be really good at it for Calculus. Anyway, my point was that speeding to BC junior year might not be such a good idea either, because you’d be skipping two courses, including one important foundation course.
Also, I don’t know much about the IB courses, but I’ve heard that taking CSP helps in CSA and vice versa, and that Physics C is manageable if you’ve taken Physics before and Calc at least concurrently, so those might not be too bad (I haven’t yet taken those courses though, so it’s just what I’ve been told by upperclassmen.)
I was thinking about computer science as a major. I took honors world history freshman year and APUSH sophomore year. I could take IB History of Europe instead of Psychology if needed tho, but I thought Psychology might be more interesting. I could do full IB but that would mean I would have to take IB Bio (and have no physics experience since it’s the only science my school offers) and I couldn’t take AP Computer Science which would give me experience in my major. But, what do you think?
I don’t know about the school policy but I know someone did that before. But yeah, precalc to BC in my school is normal and I don’t think I’ll skip honors precalc junior year tbh, because I feel like I would feel heavily underprepared for BC and I would rather just get an A in precalc and take BC senior year.
CS is currently the most competitive major there is.
There are lots of majors related to it (information science, informatics, computing, UX, etc).
If the only IB science your school offers is biology then yes you’re right - you’d need to have bio, chem, physics; calc bc should be followed with discrete math (dual enrollment/PSEO/running start?) If possible.
If you had both world and us history then sure take Psychology, especially since it can include a lot of bio.
I know CS is competitive but I’m hoping being a URM and first-gen will help my chances with admissions. I’ve taken Biotechnology 1 and 2 for science so far which I think counts for biology? I’m also taking chemistry at a CC this summer so I think I’ll have all three sciences down. I think I’ll take Calc BC senior year so I wouldn’t be able to take discrete math. Also, would IB history look better than IB psychology for admissions, or is it looked at the same? Like does psychology count as a social science? Thank you in advance!
Yes psychology counts as a social science.
For CS, you really want the strongest possible math background. Some programming experience, or AP CS Principles, or AP CS A, would help.
I would check with your guidance counselor on biotech counting as biology for colleges but for my high school it would not replace biology as a class. While now might not be an ideal time to talk to college admissions if you have an email you can ask colleges your thinking of that question as well.
Hmm, I’d take off the psychology and replace it with history or something else. We visited an Ivy last year with my oldest. During the presentation they said, CS and Engineering classes were not looked at or considered at all. The reason given, they vary too much. Also, if you have a solid science and math background you can take whatever CS/Engineering you want as a Freshman. I’d stick to basics and take the outliers outside of school or during the Summer.
If you go into either CS or engineering, you will automatically take some basic courses. Basically, I think what I am saying is take high school classes at the highest level in high school and college level classes in college.
So is taking the AP CS classes a good idea? Also about history, I feel like psychology is more interesting to me and it counts as social science in my school & it would save more time to do psychology bc history is a lot of work.