Dual enrollment schedule- rigorous enough?

Applying to College
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I’m a rising senior looking into a dual enrollment program at a moderately respected public university. I’m aiming for top schools, and this year I’m taking 5 APs (plus online AP Calc) so I’m trying to avoid appearances of taking a ‘step back’ from that level of rigor. My school offers tons of APs (like 30), it’s just that for me this year they all happen to coincide in the same time slot, so I can’t fit most of them in my schedule (if I don’t do DE, I’ll likely have no science, social science or foreign language, and I’d have like 3 APs, including 1 I already self studied and got a 5 on, and several joke classes, so that obviously wouldn’t be good). This might be problematic though, I’m concerned colleges might look at my college classes and wonder why I didn’t just take them as APs in high school.

With that in mind, how does this potential schedule (I’m approximating the 2nd semester college classes from current catalogs since they obviously aren’t released yet) look in terms of both rigour and feasibility?

HS classes (all full year):
•AP Lit
•AP Stat (might be able to replace with a different light AP)
•Calc II honors (multivariable calc)
•APUSH

College classes- 1st semester:
•Classical Physics II (it sounded like this is basically calc based E&M, which I was originally going to take at HS but didn’t fit)
•Intro to German Literature (I might just replace this with the equivalent Intermediate German class if that would be better)

College classes- 2nd semester:
•International Politics (probable major)
•Foundations of Cognitive Psychology (I’ve taken through AP psych, and I’m doing hardcore research in this area right now)

I’m open to switching around the semesters of the college classes if it would help, or maybe taking politics classes in each semester or something if that would make the schedule look more focused and motivated.

For context my schedule this year is:
•AP Lang
•AP Physics C Mechanics
•AP Euro
•AP Macroeconomics
•German IV Honors (this is actually the same class as AP German but for juniors, and I took the AP test)
•AP Calc AB/C (online, took BC test)

2

College classes are actually seen as more indicative of your potential as a college student because they require the same autonomy as you’ll find in college and are much more fast-paced compared to AP classes. Instead of 5 periods a week for 10 months, you’ll have 3 periods a week for 4 months to cover the same amount of material.
Since you’ve already taken AP English, take English at the college (level 2+ a Literature seminar = will show you can handle 1s year/AP level, but also a sophomore level class), See if you can take Intro to Poli Sci at the college first semester. If necessary, cut out AP Stats: it relates to your major and will pair well with International POlitics or International relations Spring Semester.German = make sure you’re in the right level. If you completed AP, you should be in German 4 (202); ask to take a placement test in case you can take a higher level German class but German 202 (4th semester) should be fine.

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@MYOS1634 thanks for the advice!
I’m pretty sure I have to take English (along with USH and a math) at HS to fulfill graduation requirements. Plus, we apparently spend the first few months of ap lit basically writing college essays, so that’s always convenient.

One concern is that my school does offer AP Comparative Gov (I think it’s the same period as AP Lit, but it’s only a minor); should I see if I can switch those, and take college English and AP Gov (and get rid of the politics college classes)? I’m trying to take at least a few HS courses so I can raise my GPA a bit (college classes get credit but are counted as pass/fail by the highschool so they don’t count in GPA, and I’m riiight on the edge of top 5%) and because I’m trying not to ask too much of my frustratingly bureaucratic high school where this whole proposal would be rather, shall we say, ‘pioneering’ in the first place.

Also, assuming I take all these college classes, which ones would be best (both most impressive and/or least risky) to take 1st semester when I can show the grades to colleges?

Finally, if I have to take Lit and not Gov, and I don’t want to cut anything else, would it be feasible to add the college poli sci in addition to the 2 other college classes and 4 hs classes? I would think that 3 college classes plus 4 hs classes in a semester would be a ridiculous workload (more than 1/2 a regular college schedule plus more 1/2 a regular hs schedule), but I have no experience with college classes so I wouldn’t really know. Would it be worth it to add this poli sci and switch APUSH (which I’m not really interested in and is by far the biggest workload, but I can see how it would look very relevant) to honours USH?

4

Possibilities

Fall
AP gov
Calculus 2H
Honors us history
AP lit or college English
German 202
International politics

Spring
AP gov
Calculus 2H
Honors us history
AP lit or college political science
College /classical Physics 1or 2
Foundation of cognitive psychology (why not psychology 101 or sociology 101)

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@MYOS1634

  1. There doesn’t seem to be a “political science” class- it’s a department but the equivalent of poli sci 101 is just like the American political system which seems redundant. What about “Intro to Political Philosophy”?
  1. Lit and Gov overlap so I probably have to choose one. Would it be worth it to take Gov and college politics classes at the same time?
  2. Wouldn't psych 101 be redundant with ap psych? Also, I have fairly specific interests within psych (mostly in experimental cognitive/social psych, not at all in clinical/abnormal/developmental psych or anything) so I thought a higher level, more specific class would help demonstrate the extent of that interest.
  3. Since I only have through German IV technically on my transcript, if I happen to do badly on the AP test and don't want to send it to colleges, would it then look bad to go take a college German course without having taken AP German? (I have to decide this schedule long before I get scores back) AP is basically the exact same class as IV- like we're literally in the same room- so I obviously don't want to just do the same thing again, and I don't think it can fit into my schedule anyway, but I just want to make sure this wouldn't raise a red flag.
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  1. Intro to Political Philosophy would likely be a good 2nd semester class. Adjust CC schedule accordingly.
  2. It's entirely up to you. There may be some overlap but Intro to Politics should be broader. But overall both choices are totally valid.
  3. True. Then your choice of Cognitive Psychology makes perfect sense.
  4. Taking the sequence AP German-> College German 4 is actually normal (College German 3 = HS German 4 to AP depending on the college).
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  1. No but I'm saying I haven't technically taken AP German, I've taken HS German 4 (which is actually the same class but colleges probably don't know that) and took the AP test, but if it turns out I choked on the test, colleges wouldn't have any proof of it, so it would look like I just took through 4. If that happens, would colleges be concerned that I didn't take the AP German class when it was offered (although it doesn't fit in my schedule), or would the college class fully make up for that?
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@MYOS1634 For that matter, do I even need to take another German if I do well on the AP? I’m good at it but I honestly don’t expect to use it for anything, and I’d prefer to start learning Arabic at some point since it pertains more to my potential major and future work opportunities (and, if I started now, would help me play up my intense interest in and connection to the Middle East peace process, which I’ll probably be seriously emphasizing in my app anyway).

9

Yes, you’re done with German, but does the college offer Arabic 1&2?
You should self study a bit because it’s going to he insanely fast but it’ll give you a leg up in admissions because the US badly needs Arabic speakers.

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I think it offers 1 and 2, but they haven’t published spring schedules for 2 yet so I’m not sure it would work. Would it be good enough to take just Arabic 1 in spring semester and self study it in the fall?

Arabic I is at the same time as Intl. Politics in the fall, so I could either do
Fall: Arabic I, Political Philosophy, Cognitive Psych
Spring: Arabic II (?), Physics II, International Politics

Or
Fall: International Politics, Cognitive Psych
Spring: Arabic I, Physics II, Political Philosophy

Int’l. Politics is POLS 1301, Polit. Philosophy is POLS 2496. Neither appears to have prerequisites though. How important is it that I take them in that order?

11

Typically, less commonly taught languages are taught as Level1 in the Fall Level 2 in the Spring, rarely both levels both semesters, so check with the department.
POLS2496 is likely harder, so email the professor, present your background, see if s/he thinks you have sufficient background to handle the class or if it’s too advanced for you.