<p>I'm interested in colleges such as Cornell, Stanford, NYU, and UC Berkeley.
Although so far I have straight A's (sophomore) and am ranked in the top 5% of my class, I feel like I haven't been taking enough honors. How does this rank with other people who have the same prospective colleges?</p>
<p>I really really want to get into Cornell, but I'm not sure that my courseload is "rigorous enough", at least not freshman and sophomore years.</p>
<p>I feel like I messed up freshman and sophomore year with only 2 & 3 respectively...And even though I will bulk it up junior year, I feel like colleges will think I have been slacking so far.</p>
<p>How many honors courses could you have taken freshman and sophomore year? (and how many AP courses does your school offer?)</p>
<p>If you could have only taken like 4 honors classes, it won't look that bad, but if you could have stacked your schedule with honors//AP courses...and chose not to, it will probably look bad if you are really shooting for those top schools</p>
<p>Freshman year I could have taken 1 additional honors class.
Sophomore year I could have taken 1 additional honors class and 1 additional AP class.
Next year, I'm taking the most rigorous courseload available.</p>
<p>So, I'm not sure...Although I can tell you that my school only offers 1 AP class for freshmen and sophomores.</p>
<p>Then that sounds fine. My school is just like that (there was only 1 AP available for sophomores, all the others were specifically for jrs and seniors) and one of my friends got into Stanford this year :] Just work hard to keep getting As</p>
<p>admission depends on not just classes you've taken but the grades you get, your test scores, ECs, essays, and letters of rec. Your schedule does not sound too weak, so as long as you do well in all the other areas you should be a competitive candidate.</p>
<p>It all depends on the school. At mine, there are no honors for freshmen (unless you're already in precalc, which is rare), and two for sophomores (again, precalc, and chem). And if you know comp sci, then you can take AP CS sophomore year, but that's it. So it really depends on what math you're in and if you know java. -<em>-' I'm glad, actually. Makes life less stressful when there's less to choose from. ^</em>^</p>
<p>It all depends on the context -- have you taken the most rigorous course possible? You seem close, so I don't think it'll matter a whole lot. =)</p>
<p>You definitely don't have to take the most rigorous courseload possible to be admitted to a selective university. Now, there's a difference between a courseload of regular classes and a courseload of honors and a couple APs. It's not going to hurt you if you're not in the highest math or something, though. What matters is, are you good at what you do - philosophy, English, music? And do you challenge yourself in that context? Not, can you kill yourself by taking the maximum number of hardest classes possible.</p>
<p>I found this out far too late. I killed myself in impossible science and math classes while aspiring to be a writer, and I looked left and right at my engineer aspiring friends getting Cs in "merely" honors English and getting into really hefty schools.</p>
<p>Your freshmen and sophmore year schedules were very close to most demanding, and most importantly your Junior schedule will be most demanding. As long as you keep up the good grades next year, your previous schedule will only hurt you maybe the tiniest little bit--and by good grades, I don't mean that you can't get a B or two. Really, don't worry about it--focus on getting top grades now and in the future and getting top-notch test scores later on.</p>
<p>are you still a sophomore? you still have time...
just request the most rigorous classes your school offers...
I came to the US soph and they gave me Honors Intermediate Algebra, Chemistry Honors, PE 10, Regular English 10, AP Spanish Language, Regular World History. My junior year really bumped my academic record up : 5 AP (calculus, bio, chem, psycholohgy, US history= and 1 Honors English.
Anyhow, it was a 5.0 and it raised my GPA to 4.63 so far</p>
<p>So basically, you have to show you took the best opportunities offered by your High School though taking rigorous classes. Hope it was helpful :D</p>