Hi, I'm a sophomore looking at UCB. Want your opinion on something...

Applying to College
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<p>Hi, I'm a sophomore looking at UCB. Want your opinion on something...
I don't know whether to decide to take a varsity sport for 2 years (11-12th) or to take an extra AP class. I think the 5 APs Junior year (and 1 non AP class) and 6 APs Senior year would bring my GPA close to 4.5 and I'd probably be top 1%. On the other hand, I could take 4 APs Junior year and 5 APs Senior year and my GPA would be 4.4~ (maybe less if the sport takes up so much time my grades suffer) and I wouldn't be as high of a rank.</p>

<p>The thing is, I'm also doing extracurricular science research at JRI (<a href="http://www.jisan.org)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.jisan.org)&lt;/a>, so I might not have enough time for the sport.</p>

<p>Would it be worth it to take Varsity Track and Field over an extra AP Junior/Senior year?</p>

<p>My schedule would be like this:</p>

<p>Freshman year:
English Advanced
Spanish 1-2
PE
Introduction to World Affairs
Biology
Algebra 2 Honors</p>

<p>Sophomore year:
English Honors
Spanish 3-4
PE first semester, JV Track second
AP European History
AP Biology
Math Analysis Honors</p>

<p>Junior year:
AP English
Spanish 5-6
AP Computer Science or Varsity Track
AP US History
AP Physics
AP Calculus</p>

<p>Senior year:
AP English Lit
AP Spanish 7-8
AP Computer Science 2 or Varsity Track
AP Economy
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC</p>

<p>So 3 honors and 13/11 AP classes.</p>

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<p>the uc schools evaluate students by a formula that looks outside academics for "plus factors" in admissions. You need to answer which helps you more. </p>

<p>An article about UC admissions is at <a href="http://admissions.ucsd.edu/dev3/info/comreview.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.ucsd.edu/dev3/info/comreview.html&lt;/a> While this is specific to ucsd the general plan works at all uc's.</p>

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<p>I'd suggest taking track and field only if you really want to. It's not necessary for admission. Plus, it is a lot of work, as you say. </p>

<p>Also, if you're trying to do science at Cal, focus on the academics. In the long run, the academics end up being far more important (unless you absolutely excel at track and field). </p>

<p>~A Friendly Bear</p>

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<p>take the sport IFF you enjoy it. You don't need 5-6 ap's each year to be a competitive candidate. Heck, the average # of ap's for Stanford = 5, total. Also note, that senior grades don't count unless you are a borderline candidate, which does not seem the case. Both Berkeley and LA really read those essays....</p>

<p>Other comments: instead of Comp Sci, how about Chem? How does your school offer Calc Jr year and Senior year? Can you combine them, into Calc Jr year?</p>