Help on SENIOR YEAR CLASSES

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello!

So it’s almost that time of year for my school to think about our classes next year. And for senior year . . . I want to take a breather.

Yes, I know, working hard all four years is essential to make a good impression on colleges. The thing is, I’ve been suffering from major depression causes by school and anxiety since the beginning of high school. I just want to be able to BREATHE for once, and I feel like senior year would be the year to be a little less hard on myself for school.

That said, I was wondering if I could get some opinions of the classes I want to take for Senior year.

Classes I am for sure taking:

AP Psychology
AP AB Calc
AP Economics
Newspaper

Classes I am ehhhh on:

AP Literature
AP Government
Honors Physics

I need opinions on my ehhh classes. For AP Lit, I’m seriously dreading that class. I have taken advanced English all 3 years of high school, this year I am taking AP Lang (I got an A last semester). AP Lang is time consuming, hard, and while I can do well on it, it is definitely a class that gives me a ton of stress whenever an assignment is due (mostly because the teacher is so harsh on grading). T I want to be able to experience an easy English class for once, especially because I already am taking AP Lang, and most colleges/universities only accept credit for either AP Lit or AP Lang.

But everybody in my school keeps recommending me to take AP Lit just to have that AP on my schedule. Do you recommend it?

For AP Government, I love history, but government bores the hell out of me, especially the American government. I don’t think it would be a class I would enjoy, even though it’s known for being an Easy A class at my school. If I take regular government, that’s only half a semester, and I have a whole semester free to myself (to take another class)

Honors Physics – So, it’s either I take Honors Physics or I don’t. No way am I taking regular physics. Though out of all the three main sciences, I hate physics the most (which is so odd because I love Chemistry with a passion). I am okay at math, but the subject just bores me, and the teacher who teaches it does not teach it well, so it won’t be enjoyable. Regardless, however, they say not taking all three main sciences is bad. So should I just take it?

Just so you guys can get an idea on the classes I took, and if people are just thinking I’m being lazy for senior year . . .

SAT score: 2280 (raised from 2100, MIGHT take a third time to bump it to 2300, but might not)
AP Euro: A+ both semesters, 5 on AP exam
AP Chem: A in first semester, currently taking now
AP Lang: A in first semester, currently taking now
APUSH: A in first semester, almost guarantee a 5 on APUSH exam
Honors Precalc: A- in first semester
AP Stats: A in first semester

On top of running a side online business with my mother, a very rare medical internship at John Muir hospital, studying economics and psychology abroad at a university, balancing a job, and officers of two clubs. Do you think this is almost enough to maybe balance out one or two joke classes in senior year? Or even have Bs in senior year?

Thanks!

2

What’s your intended major? Physics may be a good idea if you’re interested in sciences/engineering.
Otherwise, I’d say do what you want. It sounds like you can ace all those classes if you wanted to.

Why do you want to take so many AP classes? If it’s for college, imo, the number of APs really don’t matter that much (but course rigor does!)
You might also want to think about if you’ll have to write good college essays. They really do take a long time to polish.

3

3 AP clases seems fine.
Apparently AP Lit is harder than AP Lang, so if you don’t think you can handle that, keep that in mind.
As for AP Gov, it’d wrong to sign up for a class you don’t find interesting because that would just make the work for it more of a chore.
For Honors Physics, well it wouldn’t be as bad AP but you might not get anything out of it if you genuinely hate the subject. Although I’m sure colleges do like to see people taking some sort of science class in all their years of highschool. What’s wrong with regular Physics?

4

I would take physics Honors or another science because colege like to see 4 years of ever core class. Also, BE SURE TO TAKE AN ENGLISH course next year because basically most colleges require 4 years of English and most state require 4 years as well. The English course does not necessarily have to be AP, but make sure that you take one!
Good luck!

5

@Bizziee My intended major is psychology, though I plan to go to medical school to pursue psychiatry. I’m not sure why so many APs . . . I just thought it might look a little bad if I suddenly took a low amount of APs compared to my junior year.

@bl00beary Yeah, I did hear that, so I am wary about it. Regular physics is basically the same rigor of Honors with the same teacher, just without the weighted grade, so it wouldn’t make sense to take regular if I plan to take physics. Thanks for your advice!

@kimclan1 I was thinking I would have to take physics anyway . . . I CAN take APES as my 4th year science, but it’s kind of a joke class. Oh, of course I would take an English, but I’m not sure about AP Lit. Thank you!