<p>I am choosing classes for senior year and would like to be competitive for Illinois. I have taken Physics, Chemistry and Biology Honors freshman through junior years. I would like to take AP Econ instead of a 4th year of science (ie either an AP Chem or AP Anatomy which I am not at all interested) or even Oceanaography or Meteorology just to get the fourth year of Science in. </p>
<p>Doers Illinois require that you have four years of Science for admittance? Or does 4 years of Science "look good" or better than 3 years of Chem, Bio, and Physics and the last year no science but AP Econ instead?</p>
<p>My senior year schedule will be:</p>
<p>AP Stats
AP Gov Pol
AP Econ
Honors English
Spanish 4</p>
<p>I would be applying to the College of Business.</p>
<p>Ilinois requires only two years of lab sciences but it does recommend four. How much a difference it will make for applying to business is probably not much since you will have a good schedule anyway.</p>
<p>An AP lab course in Physics, Chemistry and Biology would better show that you have the rigor to handle quantitative material, which the College of Business has plenty of. Also, AP Calculus should be on your agenda.</p>
<p>Five classes senior year? Doesn’t look particularly challenging – even the APs you slected are considered to be among the easy ones. Will your counselor be able to check off the box that says you took your school’s “most rigorous” curriculum? THAT could make a huge difference in whether you get accepted.</p>
<p>You need to keep in mind that the College of Business has the lowest acceptance rate (although Engineering might have better stats – you don’t go into engineering unless you’re very comfortable with math and science!)</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. I have taken all honors classes so far. My junior schedule is
AP Calc
AP Accounting
AP US History
English Honors
Biology Honors
Spanish 3</p>
<p>I took Physics as a freshman and Advanced Algebra Honors 2 as a freshman. So I am on the highest Math/Science track our school offers. I will have taken 6 APs by the end of senior year. AP US History and AP Calc are two of the hardest APs our school offers (aside from AP Calc BC and possibly AP Chem) </p>
<p>I am hoping 5 classes senior year will suffice. I have some good ECs that I am hoping will round out my application. Have not taken ACT but planning to be in the 30’s range and will be top 10% of my class.</p>
<p>Hopefully that will be enough to get admitted. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>lol… same advice i gave on the michigan board: drop gov and take bc. or keep it. either way, take bc.
on a different note, get testing! you want to have time to retake if need be. i took ACT Feb or jr. year, SAT I March, SAT II’s in june. i ended up being happy with my scores so i didn’t need to retake any, but you want to leave yourself time to do so, especially if you plan on going ED somewhere.
i would give you a pretty decent shot if you keep up the good work!</p>
<p>well thanks for both!
Taking ACT in April, SAT ll in May. Will retake ACT in June most likely either way. Not taking SATs at all. Just sticking with one test. Crazy huh? Just think that I will do better on ACT and want to concentrate on one test.</p>
<p>Not likely that I will go ED anywhere… Early action, yes but not ED. </p>
<p>I only have three years of the sciences in high school (Biology, Chem I, and AP Physics B) but I was accepted EA, and I was one of the Engineering Premier Scholarship winners, so… it’s definitely okay to have only three years of science, but you are going to have to balance that out with your other courses and ECs. </p>
<p>Get involved in some leadership roles, I don’t think anyone can stress that enough! It made a huge difference for me and it would certainly balance out your science issue. I have to disagree with taking BC though. Our school offers calc as a two-year mandatory track for AB then BC, and I feel like I’m incredibly more prepared taking AB and BC separately than trying to cram everything into BC. I got a 5 on the AB test with no issues whatsoever, and I have aced every BC test so far, but talking with some people who skipped right to BC… they had issues with the class and suffered when they went to college just because they didn’t have a solid base. I couldn’t imagine cramming all that material into one year of a high school class to be honest.</p>
<p>i suggest taking both ACT and SAT. you never know, you could do a lot better on one. for example, i got a 2170 SAT I and a 35 ACT (both first try).</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I am taking AP Calculus AB as a junior right now. I just don’t plan on taking Calculus BC as a senior. Instead I am going to take AP Stats as a senior. I figure AP Calc AB would fulfill my Calculus/Math requirement and I would round our my 4 year math requirement with AP Stats. Besides I have not intention (even if I score a 3, 4, or 5) on the AP Calc exam to use the credit in college. I will gladly retake Calc 1 when in college and have the advantage of knowing the material rather than jumping to Calc 2 and being behind just for the credit.</p>
<p>Hopefully, taking AP Stats won’t be looked upon as “light”. If I wasn’t in the “high” math group I would be taking AP Calc as a senior and it would not be an issue. I don’t think/hope it should be held against me that I don’t want to take AP Calc BC since I am not going into Engineering. Business is my pursuit.</p>
<p>mmurthigal- with all due respect…thanks for the tip but I am trying to keep the testing to a minimum. Also, you sound like you are a fantastic test taker…don’t think I be likely to do THAT well. Congrats to you! Doesn’t sound like admissions is much of a problem for you…</p>
<p>Ohhh gotcha! Well I’m taking both AP Calculus BC and AP Stats at the moment, and I can guarantee that if you are taking AB this year, you will be bored out of your mind in AP Stats. You can teach yourself the entire curriculum on your own in about two weeks to give you an idea of the simplicity of the course. I would highly recommend taking BC over AP Stats - taking stats instead of continuing your high math track WILL look like your are slacking off your senior year, and even if you don’t use the AP credit of BC, it teaches you how to think outside the box. </p>
<p>Additionally, I have friends that took AB and retook Calc I… they don’t even attend the lectures anymore. Again, you would be bored out of your mind. Assuming you know the basics of differentiation and integration, there is no reason for you to retake Calc I period.</p>
<p>Gee, Mockingjay, you got off easy – maybe I need to have my son write the dean again and ask for more scholarship bucks beyond the Engineering Premier Scholarship. At the end of his sophomore year of high school, he got 5’s in six math and science APs: Calc BC, Stats, Chemistry, Physics B and both Physics Cs. Plus there’s his 36.0 ACT, his 240 PSAT and his #1 class rank.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, I am glad that your son has such wonderful stats. I am sure he will do wonderful things in his lifetime. My application was wildly different than a standard engineering application however. I took both band and jazz each of my four years in high school, leaving me VERY little room for any other electives. This year, I am the school’s drum major, I am the band president, I founded our math club, I organized a middle school math meet, and I tutored three non-English speakers in English and math. I honestly did not have the time to take any additional AP classes, as the rest of the spots were filled up by mandatory, tedious classes. I also have the only unweighted 4.0 in our entire school. I explained all of this in my “extenuating circumstances” essay, and it got through to them. I didn’t “get off easy.”</p>
<p>Sorry, mini-rant, but it’s a huge pet peeve of mine when people only look at test scores and numbers to “rate” intelligence.</p>
<p>(Basically chriscollege, don’t worry about it! As long as you balance it out in other areas, you will be golden.)</p>
<p>Mockingjay, I’m just having a little fun giving you a hard time; I’m sure you also have applications in at other more-elite schools and there your ECs will probably help a lot. Nevertheless, UIUC is almost purely stats-driven and your post makes me wonder if the school would be willing to “up the ante” for exceptionally “pretty” stats.</p>
<p>Of course my son also had some leadership roles and awards, plus charitable work, plus peer tutoring plus helping me with the family business. Very little of this counts at UIUC. Finishing high school in 3 years with 12 APs and 4 college classes, however, might be worth something.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my son has no experience (or interest) in either music or sports ECs, both of which burn huge numbers of mandatory hours, but also show a more “balanced” approach to life; this lack is likely to work against him at some of the more holistic elite colleges. You may well fare better at HYPSM than he will, if you applied. As you have noted, there are only so many hours in a day and no one student’s “package” is enough to satisfy all admissions committees. Good Luck!</p>