I’m a current sophomore selecting my courses for Junior Year, and would like to, by Senior Year, be able to apply to the best (of course, fit will be a major factor but that is something I can’t control right now) schools possible for a STEM-related field, especially math/computer science.
I am definitely taking Physics H (to get AP Phys senior year) and AP Chem, and have completed 2 years of German H and AP Computer Science, so will taking AP Comp Sci Principles and scrapping German for the next two years hurt my chances at a competitive college?
I understand that you want to focus on courses in hs you plan on majoring in, but also that it’s important to take well-rounded courses, so what are the pros/cons of each?
Thanks!
Depends on the college and what their suggested HS preparation is. For those colleges at the Ivy tier that suggest 4 years of a FL, 2 will be uncompetitive. These colleges are not looking for specialists in HS.
Additionally, most of these colleges have FL graduation requirements, so in theory, the more FL you take in HS, the less you need to take in college, which frees up your college schedule for real CS courses, as opposed to APCSP.
Plus taking APCSP after having completed APCSA is like taking Algebra I after precalc.
If only German 2, then note that many of the more selective colleges prefer to see a higher level than that. As noted above, a higher level in high school may also help you progress to completing a college’s foreign language graduation requirement.
If you eventually go on to PhD study in math, reading knowledge of German sufficient to read math research papers written in German is helpful.
If you completed German to the year 5 course, then that may be “enough” for most colleges. (As an aside, saying that you took two years without mentioning the level gives everyone the impression that you completed only up to the year 2 course.)
However, AP CS principles is not a particularly high value course to take if you have already taken AP CS A. Some of the overview knowledge may be helpful, but you can get that by just reading the course materials of https://cs10.org
which is one of the courses that AP CS principles was modeled on. You may want to consider other academic electives of interest if you do not want to take German 6.
Discrete math or another programming or algorithm course would likely serve you better than APCSP.
When you say German 5, do you mean in the sense that 1 year =1 level, or 1 semester=1 level(ie, German 1-2 would be 1 year).
German I in 6th grade, II in 7th and honors starting 8th grade. My school doesn’t offer any kind of other math or compsci course unless I double Calc and Stats, which is my issue.
The issue is that AP Stats is a general stats class, not the type of stats you’d take for data science, which would be calculus-based. So it doesn’t add much.
Is there any way you can dual enroll or take an online class?
Discrete Math would be the most useful class for you to take after calculus.
In our school district, the three years of foreign language in middle school (which goes at a ridiculously slow pace, totally wastes the kids’ last years of ‘natural’ ability to absorb foreign language) count as foreign language 1+2. They all start foreign language year 3 in 9th grade, and are expected to take at least 3,4,and 5 in high school. That’s the standard needed for the best colleges. Then most do take AP foreign language in senior year, but it’s not mandatory, even for the best colleges. For example, MIT requires 2 years, Stanford 3 years, and Harvard recommends 4 years (all in high school).
So, if you want an engineering school that only requires two years of foreign language, you’re fine to drop the German. If you think you will want a liberal arts school that requires three years of high school foreign language, you’d best continue the German for one more year. Is the next year of German AP German for you?
No, AP is only offered Senior Year. I will most likely try to go to a liberal-arts school, but the issue is that if I keep going with German I’m not even going to get AP credit unless I take it all 4 years of high school.
There isn’t any Discrete Math offered at my high school, and every time I look for advancement or a math class “beyond” the curriculum the counselor says that there is no way.
AP level in German is year 7 (seven) in your high school?
Which probably means that year 5 in your high school may be more equivalent to year 3 or 4 in other high schools where AP level is year 4 or 5.
In any case, even in the absence of AP scores, colleges generally have their own foreign language placement procedures so that students who have some high school foreign language can start in the appropriate level course.
That is correct, yeah it’s weird because AP Spanish and French are both year 6. By “credit”, I meant more along the lines of “finishing” the course, which I thought unfair because again the other courses in my school can take another AP course in senior year. But at the same time our German program is supposed to be the best in the state so I have no clue what they are thinking.
Do you have any colleges nearby that offer the math you need? Most colleges will allow a high school student who has run out of offerings to take the course for free.