Though the number of classes may seem odd I am 100% sure all of these will work. I am going into my sophomore year and this is my plan. Thoughts? And what else should I do as extracurricular’s, volunteer work, etc? Sorry for the bad format. Also my plan is to major in politics, economics, or law.
English Language Arts:
English Language Arts 1
English Language Arts 2
AP English Language and Compos
AP English Literature and Comp
Social Studies
HS World History AP Human Geography
Sociology AP European History AP Psychology
AP United States History
AP Macroeconomics AP United States Government
Science
Biology I
Accelerated Chemistry
AP Physics 1 AP Physics 2
AP Environmental Science
Mathematics
Algebra I B Geometry
Accelerated Algebra II
Math Analysis Accelerated Trigonometry
AP Calculus AB AP Calculus BC AP Statistics
Physical Education
HS Foundations of Fitness
Fine Arts
Music Appreciation
Practical Arts
Introduction to Engineering
Health/Personal Finance
Health (Virtual)Personal Finance (Virtual)
Electives
HS German I HS German II
HS German III HS German IV
AP German Language
Also what can I do this summer to improve my chances of being accepted?
That seems like a lot of classes…how are you taking so many credits each year? For example, it seems unrealistic to be taking five years of German, two AP Physics classes, and eight separate social studies classes in four years, although of course it depends on your high school.
Also, it doesn’t make much sense to take both Calc AB and Calc BC; the BC class is really more like ABC so it’ll just be a repetition of what you’ve already done. Again, I’m also a little skeptical that someone who starts in Algebra I as a freshman can finish AP Calc BC as a senior.
I would also maybe consider swapping out one of the AP Physics or AP Environment classes with either AP Bio or AP Chem, just for additional balance.
Have you spoken to your counselor about this plan? I’m not trying to be rude here, but it seems like it probably won’t be feasible at most schools, and it won’t be very fun for you either. Are these classes honors or regular? If you could, I would take honors English to better prepare for college/law.
Lastly…as a freshman, I wouldn’t put this much attention on being accepted to Harvard. It’s too early; law school, for instance, is literally seven years away for you. Join some clubs that you like, find someplace you care about to volunteer, get a part time job when you’re old enough, get good grades, and enjoy your life.
You’ll probably change your mind about what you want to major in anyway, so just go for being well-rounded unless there’s a subject you really hate or can’t do. Don’t base your whole high school life on one major or one university.
We take a total of 4 classes each semester, 8 total a year. Everything that I plan to do would work with scheduling, prerequisites, etc. My counselor helped me with this plan I was just wanting second opinions.
That’s a lot of social studies and a lot of math. Hopefully you really enjoy both.
Does your school require Calc AB before Calc BC?
You’re taking the right classes, although it seems you’ve got more math classes than years to take them.
Do ECs you enjoy. Personally I think it is nice to do a mix of some things related to your major and some unrelated. Colleges don’t prefer one activity over another; they want to see how you challenged yourself and grew as a person. It doesn’t hurt to show some accomplishments, which could mean anything from a certificate/medal/trophy to a promotion, increased responsibilities at a volunteer gig, or the simple successful completion of projects that improved the environment or efficiency of the workplace.
For politics or law, you might want to look into a Junior Stateman program for one of your summers, volunteering for a campaign or to benefit your community. “For fun” summer classes in forensics, criminal justice, or psychology might be both helpful and interesting to you as well.
The service academies expect involvement in sports. Agree that too many classes might be listed here.
Forgot to mention a few are summer school, gym, health, and personal finance.
As of now, no.Though I have been doing after school weights in preparation for playing football this season. I’m also thinking of doing debate.
If you are seriously considering a service academy, understand that the overwhelming majority of appointees are varsity (lettered) athletes and team captains, and the most important leadership EC you can have on your application is Eagle Scout. If being a lawyer is a major goal, the academies are not the way to go. The federal service academies exist to product officers for our armed forces. If being an officer is not your primary objective, again, the academies are not for you. They confer undergraduate degrees but that is about all they have in common with civilian colleges. They are not peers of Ivy league or any other civilian colleges and don’t pretend to be – entirely different missions. What is your primary interest in the service academies? Which one(s) interest you and why?
I know the difference between Service Academy’s and Ivy Leagues. I just could go both routes and be happy with each. If I went into a service academy I would probably pick the Naval or Army. And even though you don’t directly pick your position, I would aim to being in combat, aviation, or intelligence.
Would you go (N)ROTC in college, then? Most appointees are only happy going “both routes” as long as both routes lead to being an officer. For most appointees, the Ivy League (or any other college) is plan B. I’m making this point to you because, if you plan to apply to USMA or USNA, getting a congressional nomination is the first gate, and the congressional panels are expert at ferreting out motives and determining how badly the applicant wants a commission. So, if becoming an officer is your main goal, you will want to spend time reading thoroughly on the serviceacademyforums boards to help you understand the path to an academy; there are many more moving parts to this process than applying to civilian colleges. You are starting early and asking what you can do to improve, which is great. As for what you can do in the summer (and going forward) — RUN! The more running and rucking stamina you build up, the easier basic training (the summer before the academic year starts at USM/NA) will be on you. Not kidding. And if you’re running in a very hot and humid climate, all the better. If you end up at USMA, running and rucking will just become a part of your life. Our son is a senior at West Point. He’s still running.
Good luck to you!
There were interestingly two minority kids (one black and the other Asian) who went to West Point from my kid’s high school several years ago. Both were involved in sports, although not outstanding athletes in any particular sport, and both were around top 30% GPA wise academically. And both were mentally and physically tough kids who would be proud to wear the uniform.
There was another Asian girl (cheerleader and student body leader) who surprisingly — I say surprisingly because she was physically small and not that strong) went to Air Force, but she had very good leadership qualities and was pretty good academically, and had a decent chance to get into top 15 ranked schools.
Few examples but I got the impression that each Service Academy attracts different types of kids. I also knew a Colonel who went to West Point, and he told me the hardest part about military was following orders even when he disagreed with the superiors. I asked him once out of curiosity (he immigrated from Korea) what if there was a war between Korea and USA, would he be willing to kill Korean soldiers, and he promptly replied Yes without hesitation. The fact that he could reply without hesitation surprised me. He definitely was not sympathetic to West Point cadets who were conscientious objectors to certain wars and refused the orders. He told me those kids should not have signed up for West Point because every West Point cadet has to be ready to lay down his life and follow orders.
It was a LOT easier to get into the academies back in the day. During the Vietnam era, for example, West Point had a hard time filling classes. Since the late 70s, the academies have become very different institutions, especially academically but, as I’ve posted before, only about 1/3 of any incoming class is selected for academic chops as the academies value brains and brawn somewhat equally. Their missions require and reflect this.
During our son’s application round, he was asked by each congressional panel about both his willingness to take a life as well as to lay down his own, and they dug deeply on both of those questions as anyone who genuinely can’t say “yes” to both is not a good investment for schools whose mission is to train officers to lead enlisted. Last November, the Army branched 81% of the West Point class of 2019 into combat arms. The world is not getting any safer. From my years reading on the serviceacademyforums boards (CC for military applicants), candidates don’t get to slide by those two questions anymore. Once at the academies, they have two years to think harder about their answer to those and other questions before making that final commitment prior to the start of junior year. And cadets who have trouble following orders generally don’t make it that far (only so many insubordinations before separation).
I came into this process with a lot of preconceptions about the military, almost none of which remain today. To kids who are considering this path, like the OP, I encourage them to spend time on serviceacademyforums.com and start early as there is a lot to do to complete a service academy application. We did not support or help our son at all when he was going through this process, mostly due to those preconceptions, so I try to make up for that on CC whenever I’m made aware of anyone looking into this path.
Thank you all. This helped me quite a bit on planning things out.