Please define what you think are “good colleges”. There are many many many many good colleges out there!
OP is a freshman - IMO it is too early to be thinking about any specific colleges.
I’d recommend the OP stop worrying about college and focus on being the best HS student, person, and friend possible. HS should be a meaningful experience in and of itself - a time of learning and growth - it is not just 4 years of college prep.
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Exactly…and I don’t think worrying about “good colleges” is worth their time…right now…or maybe ever. As there are tons of good colleges.
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Let’s also go back to what @eyemgh said many posts ago:
There are LOTS of great engineering programs, and medical schools literally do not care where you do your undergrad. They will care about your GPA, MCATs and a host of other things.
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AP Bio in 9th grade is not “this golden opportunity.” AP Bio in any grade in not 'this golden opportunity." There are a grand total of zero colleges that will look at your transcript and question why you didn’t take AP Bio in 9th grade.
Regardless, spending time on woulda/coulda/shoulda is folly. Focus on the future, not the past.
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OP- our HS does not allow AP classes until junior year, however when my daughter began 9th grade she was permitted to take AP US History. This was because of her middle school schedule. When she entered 10th grade her HS stopped allowing this AP course as a freshman. Her class was the last class that was permitted to take it in 9th grade. Moving forward everybody had to wait until junior year.
Many of her friends took this AP class, but she didn’t want to because it was not something she was particularly interested in. I did not push her. She took honors instead despite being recommended for AP.
Guess what? Nothing happened. She had a fabulous HS experience and went on to college.
Please try not to think about this. Put it behind you and enjoy your HS years. Get involved, make new friends.
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I think OP is right to think about how to be ready for college since their parents haven’t attended college here and can’t help him/her. Being proactive is better than being shuffled along.
However I also do think OP is drawing the wrong conclusions from info gleaned who knows where, and overall is putting the cart before the horse (or the oxen before the plough 
).
- it’s good you want to go to college and it’s good to plan and think ahead. However, HS is a goal in itself: do things because they’re good for you NOW, not because of a maybe future you.
- you do not need AP Bio; if you want to take it, schedule it sophomore year INSTEAD OF AP chem
- my recommendation would be to take AP Bio as a Soph, Ap physics1 or 2 as a Junior, and AP Chem as a Senior (potentially AP chem+ Ap physics 2 senior year).
- NO college expects freshmen to take AP classes (or before jr year)
- you do need 1 of each of the 5 core subjects every year. You could potentially double up as a jr and sr as long as it doesn’t prevent you from taking core classes.
- talk with your parents wrt Medical Terminology so they make an appt with your GC and you can drop it. No one needs Medical Terminology. Replace is with an unweighted, culture-expanding semester-long elective for spring semester.
-BTW at your age you should be getting 9 hours of sleep a night in order to protect your efficiency, brain development, and mental health. (A 15yo going to class on 6h of sleep has the same brain reactions and learning potential as a 15yo who consumed two whole bottles of wine.)
IMHO your priority should be that GC/parent appt to drop Medical Terminology.
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This is a good point.
This is also a good point. A lot of us here do have this experience and can help to provide the perspective from someone who has already done it.
High school students mean well. Your peers in high school mean well. However, there is something to be said for having had the experience of having already gone through university applications, acceptances, four years of university, another round of university applications, graduate school, gotten a job, and had children go through the same thing. High school students just do not have this experience yet.
“I am ahead of you because I already took AP Biology” is something that one daughter heard as soon as she started “biology for biology majors” as a freshman in university (my younger daughter’s high school did not offer any AP classes). The few students who were saying this stopped as soon as they saw my daughter’s test result on the first mid-term exam. You really do not need AP classes at all, although taking them when you are ready can be helpful to some strong students.
Keep ahead in your class work. Take things one day at a time, but understanding that this is a very long marathon and not a sprint. There is no reason to rush things.
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