I’m a junior and today we chose classes for next year. I’m currently taking
AP Lang
APUSH
AP Physics 1
AP Chem
Honors Precal
Spanish 3 Dual credit
Rotations (go to the hospital for two class periods)
I’m managing pretty well with 6-7 hours of sleep most nights, but, since teachers love to pile tests on the same day, some nights end in 3-4
Today we chose our classes for next year, and, with the pressure of my counselor, I might have chosen a bad schedule.
AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP Lit
AP Gov/Econ
AP Spanish
AP Compsci
Aerospace Engineering
Mentor (basically tutor others in your school)
I was completely fine with the first 5, but the counselor encouraged me to do AP compsci since I took honors compsci in sophomore year (don’t remember anything from it though). Since I want to be an aerospace engineer in the future, the aero class seemed perfect for me. I have some friends in the engineering program at my high school though, and they told me it’s gonna be a cutthroat elective and similar to an actual aero class in college. That obviously sounds great for my career, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to manage that with 6 AP classes.
At a pretty competitive school like mine and with a difficult elective, do y’all think this schedule will be okay? I mean, compsci, gov/econ, and spanish shouldn’t be too bad. The others though…
I agree with @theofrelord. See how you fair during the first few weeks of school and drop one of your classes if you feel like it isn’t worth the extra work anymore. If you already took a computer science class, you should be fine in AP Computer Science because it’s only prerequisite from CB is Algebra 1. It might end up being one of your easier classes. It would be more useful to you than gov/econ if you want to be an Aerospace Engineer. There’s no doubt in my mind that you would be required to take a computer science course in college.
I totally agree with @Hamlon and @theofrelord . If you’re able to handle a concurrent APUSH and AP Chem well, though, AP Compsci seems like something that shouldn’t be much trouble at all.
The Aerospace class may be very difficult- assuming you’ll be covering aeronautics topics, which have strong connections with calculus- especially with the stated extra competition.
Engineering classes tend towards both difficulty and competition in general, though, which is sad.
If you don’t find yourself enjoying it, you might want to drop that class in particular.
@theofrelord@Hamlon@OMPursuit Thank you all for your responses! And yes, hopefully since my current schedule is kinda hard, it’ll prepare me for next year.
If you’re really concerned about it, still, AP CompSci covers the Java programming language. You should be able to get a headstart on it early, online, and figure out just how hard the class will be for you.
If you’re really interested, Khan Academy has CompSci video lectures created in cooperation with Dartmouth. These are of high quality, and cover many theory topics that should also be covered in the AP class.
First, 6-7 hours of sleep for a teenager is too little - it actually affects your brain. Your recommended amount of sleep is 9 hours a night, anything below 7-8 is damaging to your body and mental health.
Second, the law of diminishing returns applies after 8 APs TOTAL. In other words, if you’ve managed A’s in dual enrollment or AP classes, colleges consider you “can do the work”. So, it’s totally un-necessary for the purpose of admissions to pile on APs - in fact, colleges dislike the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to Aps and would rather have you target the APs you like or need.
Keep in mind that next year you’ll have a hidden writing-intensive class called College Applications, and this schedule is a recipe for disaster.
There are actually two levels of AP CS: Is yours AP CS Principles or AP CS A?
With this in mind:
AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP Lit= > Honors English
AP Gov/Econ => Social Science elective or Honors Gov/Econ (taking a “fun” social science elective will NOT penalize you since you’ve taken APUSH and have a very rigorous schedule. however, it’ll provide you with some breathing room… not to mention it’ll help you stand out compared to other students. I recommend “Current Events” if your school offers it and counts it toward graduation. You’ll be in class with students you may not know and it’ll provide you with a different experience, not to mention it’ll apply to the world out there.)
AP Spanish
AP Compsci => only if it’s CS Principles (broad introduction to CS as a field)
Aerospace Engineering
Mentor (basically tutor others in your school)
@MYOS1634 Thank you so much for the advice! What I’m concerned about is what if the counselor says that my schedule is not rigorous enough when doing her counselor recommendation? Practically everyone I know is gonna take AP Lit and AP Gov/Econ, so I feel like her opinion of me would be ruined…
And yes, she did sign me up for AP CS A, not CS principles.
There’s an easy solution for that - ask her before you finalize your schedule.
@MYOS1634 is absolutely correct (although I’ll quibble with his/her specific recommendations; the law of diminishing returns kicks in after 6-8 AP’s. There is no college where the admissions strategy is whoever has the most AP’s wins. You need to find a balance between academics and sleep.
Depending upon which colleges you are targeting, the school may not offer credit for both AP Lang and AP Lit. If your only other English option is Honors English 12, then AP Lit might be the way to go. However if your school offers thematic electives like Creative Writing and Modern Drama, that is a strong alternative option.
Many states have gov/econ as a graduation requirement, so the social science elective might not be an option, but dropping down from AP is a valid option IMO.
Ask to meet her and see what she thinks, ask for cs principles because it’s a broader introduction, and would she still give you the most rigorous chexk, especially considering top schools are really pulling away from the ap race and frowning on piling up AP 's but would rather see a thoughtful selection, so such a list of courses would likely be detrimental for admission purpose along with severely depriving you of sleep (point out 45mn to 1hour hw for each AP is really a bare minimum, meaning 5to7 hours of hw a day which is not reasonable in addition to college apps and extracurricular activities.) A report’s been published along those lines by a coalition of top colleges.
