High School Classes to Take Senior Year

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello everyone,
I am currently a junior in high school and just got our course selection sheets for next year. I really need help in deciding what classes I should take next year for senior year. My top school is Boston University, and I plan on majoring in Political Science with hopes on getting my JD. At the school I attend, there are minimal AP courses available so I do try to take as many as I can. We only had AP courses starting Junior year, which is why I only had honors options before. The classes I have taken include
Freshman year:
Honors Physical Science
Honors English 9
Honors Modern World History
Honors Algebra II
Honors Spanish I
Beginning Choral

Sophomore year:
Honors Biology
Honors English 10
Honors American History
Honors Geometry
Honors Spanish II
Concert Choir

Junior year: (Current year) (The first time I had opportunity to take AP courses)
Honors Chemistry
AP English Language and Composition
AP United States Government and Politics
Honors Pre-Calculus
Honors Spanish III
Symphonic Choir
(President of Mock Trial club)
(President of Junior Class)

For senior year the classes I am taking for sure include:
AP English Literature and Composition
Criminology and Sociology (No honors or AP senior classes available)
Symphonic Choir
Mock Trial (At an honors weight, so honors class) (First year class that I initiated through Mock Trial’s increasing interest in my school)

With the major I intend on going into (Political Science) and the school I want to attend (Boston University) what courses do you feel I must take?
AP Physics or Honors Anatomy/Physiology?
and
AP Statistics or AP Calculus AB?
The Physics class is considered to be boring and tedious and the teacher kind of makes students teach it to themselves, while the Anatomy teacher is fantastic and I feel as if I would learn more if I took her class as she actually teaches the class. But, does Physics look better?
I also feel as if Political Science involves Statistics which is why it would be great if I took the AP class for it, but don’t schools love to see a senior year Calculus class?
Thank you all in advance for your help!

2

AP Calc AB will help prepare you if you study calculus-based statistics in college, but AP Stats is also fine for a political science major, if that is what you prefer.

In general, physics is probably a safer bet than A&P. Does your school offer AP Environmental Science? That class studies pollution and global warming, which are very relevant to the political science realm.

3

I would love to take AP Enviormental Science, but my school doesn’t offer it! With the math courses, do you think taking AP calculus would help me more than the statistics class? Also, would taking stats look bad if i had the calculus option to Top 40 schools?
For science, I think I will settle with Physics, I do love the topics discussed in Anatomy but I guess it’s just not worth going through a class of information that is not relevant to the major I intend on taking, especially since there is no AP for Anatomy (which College Board should do in the future) and there is for Physics.

4

Are you allowed to dual-enroll?
An issue is that your senior schedule should be heavy on Humanities/Social science classes.
Ideally you’d take Honors Spanish 4 or AP, AP Economics or AP Euro or AP World, AP Lit, AP Stats, A&P (go for the good teacher,you should be ok not taking Physics), Choir, Mock Trial.
If your school doesn’t offer any history or economics class for seniors, dual enrollment would be extremely useful.