help with senior year schedule?? prospective engineer??

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi guys so I really need advice on what to take next year. I’m currently a junior with these current classes:

AP Lang
AP Bio
Precal Honors
Chemistry Honors
US History Honors
Art III Honors
French IV Honors

and next year I’m thinking

AP Calc AB
AP French
AP Physics C - I have already spoken with my precal teacher and the physics teacher who are both okay with me taking this course even though I haven’t taken a physics course before. My precal teacher really wants me to take it because of how well I do in her class and because I want to be an engineer.
Civics Honors
Art IV Honors
english - cant decide between Honors English IV and AP Lit. I don’t like english that much but I’m good at it so I’m not sure if it would be a waste not to take it or putting too much on my plate if I do? Any thoughts on adding that class given my hefty schedule? (And I know some people who take like 7 AP Classes think 3/4 AP classes is not that much at all but I am involved in a bunch of extracurriculars which take up a lot of my time and I have leadership roles in a lot of them so I also need to dedicate my time to those. In addition senior year will likely be very busy for me with applying for college and doing tennis in the fall.)

Any advice would be appreciated! Also have hopes of NC State or Duke so I would also appreciate thoughts on my chances for those schools. I have 96+ in all my classes and 1400 SAT currently, but I am planning on retaking it.

2

Considering your schedule, I’d take Honors English. It will NOT decrease rigor wrt college and taking Physics C without any previous physics class AND concurrently with calculus is going to be a lot of work. If you want to be an engineer you need to have A’s in both calc and physics, that’s more important than taking AP Lit.

3

@MYOS1634 Thank you for your reply, it gave me peace of mind to take Honors English :slight_smile: You’re right, my schedule will be a lot of work!!

4

Is physics C just mechanics, or both mechanics and E&M?

If just mechanics, it may be doable without previous physics and with calculus AB concurrently. If both, the pace of the course and math intensity may be a stretch if you are taking calculus AB concurrently.

Many college calculus-based physics courses for engineering majors list calculus 1 (calculus AB) as a prerequisite, with calculus 2 (rest of calculus BC) as a corequisite for the physics 1 course that includes mechanics, and high school physics is commonly a recommended prerequisite. College calculus-based physics 2 with E&M commonly lists calculus 3 as at least a corequisite.

5

Its also okay to take Physics 1