Courses for Junior and Senior Year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hey guys. My sister is a rising junior and wants to pick her classes. Right now she is leaning towards:

Junior
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics 1
AP Chemistry
AP Literature
AP European History
Honors French IV
Study Hall

Senior:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C
AP Biology
AP Lang and Composition
AP Economics
AP French (perhaps)

  1. She decided to spread out Calculus between junior and senior year, although most kids just do BC junior year, so she could double up on her strength - science. Moreover, this would allow her to build a solid foundation in AB topics. Would this eventually hurt her during admission for v selective universities?

  2. Also, her high school does offer advanced diplomas such as Capstone and IB, however she found the programs too restricting and decided to build her cuirculum, and take the classes she wanted to take. Note the schedule is still very rigorous despite the lack of an advanced diploma. Would this hurt her during admission?

  3. She is currently taking Honors Chem, and finds it too easy. She says she loves chemistry. Would doing AP physics and Chem simultaneously, be a viable option?

  4. Is AP calculus AB a hard class? She meant to spread out her math so she could double up on science. Is it much slower than BC and relatively light? She has an easy A in honors pre calc rn.

  5. Finally is this schedule simply too rigorous?

Thank you!

2

What does she want to major in?
Does she need to take 4 AP Sciences?

If you said she wanted premed, I would do AP Bio, CHem and Physics 1
If you said STEM, I would drop Biology (assuming she took some other form of it earlier)

It will not hurt her at all taking this curriculum. She is challenging herself and I assume will do well.
I always think it is funny that “only” getting through Calc 2 in HS would ever hurt anyone.

She seems very well rounded and into science…so this seems great to me.
If you told me she wanted to go to CalTech for Math, I would say that she should take Calc BC.

3

@bopper
She just enjoys the science. Is AP physics C seen as desirable by selective colleges? She could just take Chem junior year, and AP physics 1 senior year, and simply not do physics C. Is that a good idea?

She isn’t doing an advanced diploma problem, but is still doing all the rigorous classes. Is that gonna hurt her during application admission time?

Is AP calculus ab hard?

4

It shouldn’t be, it spaces out calc 1 in one year basically. Much more time to review.

5

How did she do in pre-calc? If she did well she should do well in AP Calc AB
Good colleges don’t expect you to take all of the AP sciences…what other sciences has she taken so far?

6

@bopper next year will be her first experience with an ap science, however she has taken ap ush this year

7

has she taken CP or Honors Bio, Chem or Physics?

8

@bopper She did honors bio, honors chem, and got high As. AP Physics 1 is the introductory physics class at our high school

9

That is a boatload of AP classes. 11 AP courses in 2 years. As a parent, I’d ask, will she be able to have a social life?

Also, in CA, students must take a year of an arts elective, like ceramics.

10

If she didn’t take Physics at all I would definitely at least take Physics 1 at least. You can also see how things are going senior year…To be practical, you need to take enough courses to:

  1. Prepare you for college
  2. Look rigourous
  3. But not overload yourself in the fall during the application process or in the spring during the Senioritis phase
11

Bumpp

12

Bump

13

I would recommend finishing AP Calc BC before doing Physics C because your calc foundation and skills need to be SOLID in physics. It’s no longer: calculate the derivative of x^2. It’s going to require a lot of manipulation of integrals and stuff, but nothing that won’t be covered in Calc. Also, most people at my school take AP Lang first, then lit, but I guess it’s up to you. PM me if you want more info/my personal schedule