Deciding classes for junior and senior year

Applying to College
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Hi. I am currently a sophomore in Texas and am trying to decide my classes for my junior and senior years of high school. As a note, I am a prospective CS major.

First of all, I am deciding between IB or AP. Could y’all give some opinions on this? I am currently leaning towards AP but would love to hear your opinions on this.

Since I’m leaning towards AP, these are the classes I plan to do next year: AP Lang, APUSH, AP Physics C, Multivariable Calculus, AP Spanish Lang, and APCSA. In senior year, my school allows us to have up to two less classes but I’m conflicted. Should I do AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Art History, and APES or should I do AP Lit, AP Stats, and AP Bio? I’ve heard some schools like students who take a foreign language up to an AP level which is why I’m taking Spanish next year. Is this true or would taking AP Spanish Lang be useless? Also, I’ve heard colleges require you to take an art class which is why I want to take AP Art history to get rid of the credit early. Is this true as well? One last note is that I am most interested in attending UT Austin and UTD.

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That’s A LOT of AP classes. In addition, dropping in rigor during 12th grade is a bad idea. Your course progression doesn’t make sense, especially for a CS major.

Are you top 6%? Top 10%?

Does your school offer Math HL, CS HL, and Physics HL, Spanish SL, English SL, and History SL? (That would be preferable to the schedule you’re proposing).

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Since the OP could do multivariable calculus and physics C as a junior, it is likely that they are too advanced for IB math and physics, even HL, so the IB program may not be a good academic fit.

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The pb is the senior year schedule.

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So my school is a little weird. Math HL would be bad for me because I’m currently taking BC Calc and taking Math HL would just be redundant for me (what @ucbalumnus is saying). Also, I don’t want to take Physics HL because my school weighs the first year of it on a lower GPA scale than Physics C. Finally, my school only offers the HL versions of history and English which is really unfortunate for me.

What do you mean by course progression? Also, what do you mean by “The pb is the senior year schedule”

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That’s a lot of AP classes for junior year. Can you explain your reasoning for taking all these classes?

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I mean everybody at my school does this many and I want to have a good rank.

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Since the OP is in Texas, they are under pressure to take whatever maximizes high school class rank, which is the most important factor in Texas public university admissions.

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I understand the pressure, but just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean that you should too. At our local high school this many APs would mean you would have time for little else in your junior year (including sleep). The workload is that high. Maybe your school is different. Whatever you decide, I wish you luck!

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Because high school class rank is a zero sum competition, and admission to Texas public universities is highly dependent on high school class rank, a student in a competitive Texas high school who wants to get into more selective Texas public universities may need to join the rank competition game.

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Isn’t this true only if you’re shooting for automatic admission? It is possible to gain admission to a highly selective Texas public school if you submit a “competitive” (for lack of better word) application, even if you are not an auto-admit?

I guess if UT Austin and equivalents are the student’s only goal, overloading on APs and doing well is the way to go but I still think it’s an insane workload based on local standards.

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Yes, non-automatic admit applicants can be admitted. However, class rank is definitely an important part of the non-automatic admission process. An applicant to UT Austin in the top 7% stands a better chance than an otherwise-similar one in the top 20%, even though both missed the top 6% automatic cutoff (but note that both are also competing against out-of-state applicants in the top 1% to 6%, since they are not included in the automatic admission). Remember also that UT Austin sets its automatic admission threshold to fill about 3/4 of its frosh class that way, so there are not that many admission spots for non-automatic admits.

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I have a sophomore taking AP Art History and it’s a LOT of memorization- if you are comfortable with that it’s not too horrible (she is enjoying it). Not all schools need an art credit - check where you want to apply. You won’t struggle with Stat given the math you are already planning.

I absolutely understand needing to take that many AP classes - my senior took 5 her junior year and my sophomore is planning 6 next year.

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What do you think your current class rank is? Have you taken the PSAT and what is your percentile? Are you aiming for auto admit? Do you think you’re in that bucket?

6 APs will keep you very busy. Are you taking any now? I didn’t see AP chem on the list. S20 took 6 APs junior year. It was a lot. He took 4 senior year to free up time for EC’s, work, visiting schools and writing essays. It worked out.

For CS, not sure physics is a must. Stats is helpful but one of the easier APs. Some schools don’t give credit for it (Georgia Tech). Lots of opinions but I’ve seen several posts on CC that basically say after 8 AP classes a few more won’t move the needle for admissions. Essays and ECs become very important. If you’re looking for the challenge or find honors classes boring that’s a different discussion.

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Is being top 6% possible - do you know your class rank?
What AP’s are you currently taking?
Are you SURE juniors are taking that many AP’s?

Is there a way for you to combine AP and IB? ie., taking Calc BC now then MCV jr year then Math HL2 sr year? Because IB math HL does not cover exactly the same thing as BC-MVC, although there’s significant overlap, and it’s certainly more challenging than AP Stats.

topics such as Binomial Theorem, Partial Fractions, De Moivre’s Theorem, L’hospital rule, etc.

Or is there a way for you to take calculus-based statistics and/or discrete math at a local college?
In short, you need to change your senior schedule because it doesn’t match that of a competitive senior nor that of a future CS major at UT.

In the same vein, could you hold off on either Physics C or CS-A, taking it senior year? If need be, replace it with APES…
Thus, you’d have:
Junior year: AP Lang, APUSH, AP Physics C, MVC, AP Spanish Lang, APES
Senior year: Discrete math and/or calc-based stats (Dual enrollment), AP lit or English Honors, CS-A, AP Chem or AP Bio, AP Art History.
(AP Chem would be better if you’ve not taken it)

“course progression” means that your HS program is supposed to make sense and show increasing rigor in the subjects you want to pursue in college. I understand you have to load up on AP’s junior year to boost your rank and be top 6%, but you need to consider the possibility you might not get into UT OR that you may get into UT but your senior course choices may impact admission to your chosen major.
Outside of Texas publics, your course choices will be the key criterion used to determine how serious you are. You need to show you’re going strong in math/tech/science.
AP Stats is not a rigorous math course (it’s designed for strong students who can’t/won’t take AP Calc AB) and sure, you took a very rigorous courseload in math and you probably maxed out, but going from MVC to AP Stats means a huge decrease in course rigor. To top it off, you go from CS-A+Physics C to AP Bio or APES. AP Bio is rigorous, for sure, but it’s not really related to anything you’ll study, so AP Chem would be better. And APES is one of the easiest APs.