<p>I know that a lot of seniors take free periods during their senior year, because for many advanced students, most of the AP courses have been taken OR schedule conflicts prevent a 7th class.</p>
<p>That being said.. what do colleges think about seniors with free periods? Is it a cop-out because you're taking 5 or 6 classes over 7 classes? Or is it a perfectly acceptable thing? Does 7 classes give you the edge?</p>
<p>I'm having a huge debate with myself because I have 6 classes now, but I can add IB Music SL to my schedule to give myself 7.. I just don't know if it's worth it or not. If anyone is curious about my schedule, it is AP Chem, AP Bio, IB History of Americas, IB English, IB Math Studies and Theory of Knowledge...</p>
<p>I feel that I'm not in the top 5% of my school, so I sort of want to take another class (more than my other classmates) to hopefully get the edge that I'm working hard and filling up my curriculum.</p>
<p>If anybody could give me feedback, I'd appreciate it!</p>
<p>You’re already taking a lot of AP and IB classes, so its not like your schedule is lacking in quality in any way. It never hurts to take more AP classes, of course, but you have to figure in how maybe this will hurt your overall work. If you become too stressed, and your grades slip, then there is no point in taking an extra class. All in all, it never hurts to take more classes, and increase your workload. So if you think you can handle the extra coursework, I say go for it.</p>
<p>I hope OP doesn’t mind me thread jacking a bit, because I’m in a similar situation.</p>
<p>This year, if you look at my schedule, I’m worried that it looks like I’m slacking. I’m taking 4 AP classes, yes, but those are my only academic classes, and then I’m taking orchestra and a study hall/free bell, as they call it at some schools.
What I’m worried schools won’t get is that I cannot take anything else, that I have to take the study hall even though being stuck in that steaming lunchroom for an hour all year long sucks. Two of my APs are science classes, and at my school, on account of time needed for labs, science APs are 1.5 bells, so the two classes take up 3 bells. So that’s actually 5 bells of academic classes. Then, because I’m taking two college classes, Multivariable Calc and French (at AP level, there’s a schedule conflict, and the class isn’t challenging at school), I’m required to take a study hall by either the state or the district.
I’m self studying AP Psych too, because I have to take the study hall on account of the college classes, and there’s a schedule conflict anyway, the teacher isn’t very good, and the class is easy. I think I might be able to have it on my transcript, but I don’t know.</p>
<p>So does it look like I’m slacking off for senior year?</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about your class schedule, especially if you have 6 classes or even 4 or 5. My senior year, I had 18 “mods,” or periods during my day. I had four academic AP classes (Physics, Calc, Eng, and Euro) which took up 10 mods, barely half my day. I also had speech (easy class, but on the speech and debate team). Then I had 6 “mods” of free time or 1/3 of my day. Granted, I had many extracurriculars that I was deeply involved in.</p>
<p>O, and I got into Yale SCEA. So your course load is important, but it probably won’t have that much of an impact if you meet the requirements of your school and pursue a rigorous course load. Then again, each case is different.</p>
<p>Millancad, it won’t look at all like you are slacking off. You’re taking 6 academic classes (counting the college classes) and orchestra. While adcoms probably won’t really care about a study hall on your transcript with all those classes, you can ask your GC to explain that you are forced to take it.</p>