Help! Senior Year Scheduling.

  Hello CC, I am fairly new to this website so hopefully I am asking my question in the right board. Anyway, I am currently a junior in high school. I am trying to decide what courses to take next year. My school runs an 8 period schedule. I am required to take gym and health which takes one period. I plan on taking band, the new AP computer course (computer science principles I believe is the name), AP lit, AP Econ, and AP calc BC. Those classes, including gym, take up 6 periods, which brings us to my question what should I take in the remaining 2 periods?

  Currently, I have told my guidance counselor to put down AP Stat and AP Physics C as the last two classes. The problem is my mom seems to think this schedule is too overloaded and I should drop a class and take a lunch/study hall period. My friends who are seniors then told me that Physics C is rather difficult, and that it might be better to take an easy class. Is Physics C actually difficult? I am currently in AP Physics 1, comparatively how much more difficult is C? Anyway, my main question is should I take Stat and Physics C, Stat and another AP science (probably envi sci), drop one and take lunch (if that one which class should I drop?), or take completely different classes (AP French?)? 

 I plan on majoring in computer science, if that affects what classes I should take. I currently have 4.0 uw, 4.6 w. I haven't had a lunch period so far in high school so would it look bad if I took one senior year? All my courses have been honors so I think I can handle the work load. Yet at the same time I do not want to be spending my senior year doing homework and studying the whole time. I would really appreciate your input on what I should do, I am stressing out that a wrong class decision will mess up my chances, what is the best thing to do?

Depends how Physics C works in your school. Do they cover E/M and Mechanics in one course, or do you have an option of taking either or? I’m taking Physics C Mechanics this year as a junior, and it is very easy. I didn’t do any outside studying this year and I keep getting 5’s on all of the past AP Exams my teacher gives us. The way my school does it, Mech and E/M are two different classes. In order to take E/M, you either need to have previously taken Mech or be taking it concurrently. I’ll be taking E/M next year and from what I’ve heard, it gets rough.

If you are thinking of taking AP Physics C: Mechanics, its just AP Physics 1 with basic derivatives and integrals.

mohchan360, our school covers both mechanics and E/M in the same course.

Does bumping work on this site, if so, BUMP

I have no idea, never understood the concept of bumping.

So, if Physics C is both Mech and E/M, its going to be like Physics 1 and Physics 2 combined with derivation and integration. I don’t know how difficult that seems to you.

A lighter option might be to take Physics 2 instead if your school has it.

I was considering physics 2, but I thought it may make my application seem weaker then someone who had the same stats but a harder physics course. Do you think a college would care if I took physics 2 instead of C?

AP Physics C mechanics will have a significant overlap with what you had in AP Physics 1. The only difference is the calculus used to derive equations in AP Physics C that you used without derivation in AP Physics 1. The problem solving usually does not require calculus in either. If you take AP Physics 2, you will cover topics not covered in the AP Physics C curriculum such as thermodynamics, fluids, geometrical optics, and modern physics.