Help with junior & senior year schedules

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi! I’m a Canadian student who will be starting junior year this coming September and I’ve been having some troubles organizing a suitable selection of courses for the next two years and I was hoping for some advice. Also, I’m aiming for the Ivies for my undergrad.

My school offers regular Physics 11 and 12, (meant to be taken over 2 years), but it also offers AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2, (also meant to be taken over two years), our school doesn’t offer AP Physics C. The issue for me, is that next year, our school is only running one AP Physics 1 class that takes place in the same time slot as an English elective I really wanted to take (one that most likely won’t be running after next year). I’ve yet to make any decisions on college majors, so that isn’t factoring in too much right now. I’m already self-studying AP Physics C: Mechanics on my own this summer and I’m planning on taking the AP Physics C: Mechanics exam junior year and the E&M exam either next year or the year after (both self-studied and outside my school schedule). I’m choosing to do C over 1&2 because I’ve already done Calculus AB and I’ve heard that it’s better to take C if you’re considering majoring in the sciences or engineering. So what I was planning was taking regular physics for the next two years and doing the English elective. However, what I was worried about was if I choose the regular physics courses when the AP options are available at my school, would that make it seem like I’m not challenging myself enough in my junior and senior years?

For reference, so far I’ve already completed AP Stats, Macro, Micro, Computer Science, and Calculus AB. And by the end of junior year, I plan to write AP Bio, Chem, Physics C: Mechanics, and English Lit. So, by senior year, I won’t have too many of my core academics left besides possibly taking AP French and E&M, both of which my school doesn’t provide, so I’ll have to self-study them and I’m assuming that when I’m applying to colleges in the beginning of senior year, there would be no indication that I’m studying these courses. I’m worried that my in-school schedule for senior year would look too light and be mostly composed of elective courses, especially with the addition of regular Physics 12 instead of AP Physics 2.

So… any advice? Do you guys think it would be better for me to go with the AP Physics 1 & 2? Also, it may be possible for me to find an online Calculus BC course in my school district for senior year, but since I already have the AB exam, do you guys think it would be worth it to do BC as well? Thanks!

Junior year:

  1. AP Chem
  2. AP Bio
  3. AP English Literature
  4. Law 12
  5. Photography 11
  6. Academic Reading & Writing 12 (the English elective I mentioned that conflict with AP Physics 1)
  7. Physics 11 (or AP Physics 1)
  8. an undecided elective

(self-studying AP Physics C: Mechanics and possibly E&M if time permits)

Senior year (very rough draft):

  1. AP Calc BC (online class)
  2. AP Euro History
  3. Physics 12 (or AP Physics 2)
  4. Writing 12
  5. AP Human Geography

The rest of my senior year schedule would probably be miscellaneous electives because that’s the extent of our school’s course offerings.

(self-studying AP Physics C: E&M and possibly AP French (our school only offers up to French 12 which I took in freshman year))

2
  1. Taking BC after AB calc will only give you more credit.
  2. It's really up to you whether to take physics 1&2 because your course load appears to be pretty rigorous. How's your GPA?
  3. Is there any possible way you could take classes at a local community college or university? Lots of kids in my school do this once they've taken all relevant courses in, let's say, calculus.
  4. Your schedule looks pretty solid and you don't need to stress about that. It's really important to focus on the SAT and subject tests as those will confirm your academic achievement. Also try to get as good of grades as possible.
  5. Make sure to do lots of EC's or if you're really talented, focus on that interest specifically. Best of luck
3

Thanks for the reply! As for GPA, my school in Canada doesn’t do GPAs, we only get percentages and a letter grade. For the last two years I’ve had straight A’s and an average percentage of 98% if you don’t count P.E… (do colleges count P.E.??) because I got like an 80% freshman year. When it comes to EC’s, I haven’t done many of them in high school. Mostly for the last two years I’ve only been doing debate, though I have been competing regionally, provincially, and nationally. I’ve planned on just focusing on debate for the rest of high school or would that be an inadvisable decision and I should spend more time volunteering or doing other activities as well? The problem for me right now is I don’t have a lot of extra time outside of school…

4

Volunteering is always good. Find something you enjoy and roll with it. For me, I have an interest in the environment, so I volunteered at my community water resource education center. It has definitely been one of the most fulfilling and rewarding things I’ve done over the summers. One thing I’ve found in my high school experience is that people say they don’t have time, when really, they have time hiding in plain sight. Personally, my ‘hiding time’ was all the time I spent on my phone. For you, it might be TV, or video games, or reading fan fiction (I don’t know your life). Once you start consciously thinking about how much time you spend on things like this, you’ll probably realize that you do have time, it will just require you to cut out something that you’ll probably be happier without anyways.