Would this 4-year schedule be suitable for moderately competitive schools? (acceptance rate less than 30) What about places like MIT and Stanford? (assuming I get good SAT/ACT scores)
Freshman year: Precalculus honors, English 9 honors, AP biology, AP human geography, Spanish 1 honors, health
Sophomore year: AP microeconomics, AP chemistry, AP world, English 10 honors, Spanish 2 honors, Calculus A honors
Junior year (at a different school with less honors/AP offerings): AP english lang, AP calc BC, AP physics C, American history, Spanish 3, Statistics(the school doesn’t offer AP stats but I am self studying for the AP)
Senior year: Multivariable and differential calculus, analytical chemistry (all at a local uni), AP government, AP english lit, comp sci fundamentals, advanced research methods
If I get straight As(which I am succeeding at so far) my GPA will be a 4.6
bump
Are u serious
Any response would be a wild guess. Top schools select students who all have strong class work but whose other activities are outstanding. Straight A’s in tough classes won’t be enough to get you admitted to top schools. You need those other achievements on top of the outstanding grades in rigorous classes. It’s not all about how many APs you collect even if you get 5’s in each.
On the other hand, there are tons of good schools in the US that would jump at the chance to accept a student with A’s in the courses listed and without stellar ECs or scores.
The OP needs to read this, and then read it again and again.
What in the world is Spanish 1 honors? Is that even a legit class?
Of course it is. Some schools offer it, others don’t.
Okay yeah I get that. I was just asking if the classes part would cut it. If you really want to know what else I do besides grades, I’ll tell you, but I’m not asking for chances. I was just wondering whether I should try to take more difficult classes.
I do 3 clubs as well as piano and volunteering, and I have leadership roles and awards in a lot of my activities. I’m not interested in doing different/ more ECs just to impress colleges, so if that’s not good enough for a top tier school I’ll just go somewhere else.
@annana Well you’re certainly interested in taking classes to impress colleges… my school got 4 people into MIT and Stanford each this year. And trust me, trading APUSH for RUSH or Calc BC for AB did not hurt them. At all.
@thisisfine2020 I don’t see why you think that at all. I’m taking BC because my honors calc course covered most of the AB curriculum. I’m not even taking APUSH. I took AP bio because I was interested in it, and all the other APs I took in my lowerclass years were required by my school. My main priority is taking classes that I won’t absolutely hate, but if there are two that I’m interested in I will probably pick the harder one just because colleges specifically say they want you to take as challenging of a curriculum as you can handle. I posted this looking for advice, not snarky, condescending comments from bored kids.
@annana Well, I did give you advice based on what I saw at my school’s admission cycle this year… and those classes were just examples mainly because they’re the most debated class choices at my school.
But, let’s get you back to reality. Do you know what happened at Stanford this year? For any hypercompetitive institution, their acceptance rate dropped below 5%. For the first time. Ever. I’m guessing you’re at least HS class of 2018, right? Well, the acceptance rate in following years won’t fare well to what’s been going on at places like Stanford and MIT. Honestly, take what you want. If you feel like you can’t handle it (I mean really, two math classes in one year and two types of Calc?), then there’s absolutely no shame in dropping to a lower level or dropping entirely. But for the time being, let’s just say you do what you have planned, and everything goes as planned and you get straight A’s, yadda yadda yadda. By the time you apply for college, there’s around a 4-7% that your current dreams will come true, but it’ll probably be less, considering 2018 is the year of the dragon, which leads to a larger applicant pool, which leads to a deflation in acceptance rates.
My final verdict (which you don’t even have to consider), as a I stated before, is take whatever you want, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. Sit down with your counselor, your parents, even yourself and discuss if this is the right path for you. As other posters stated above, no matter how many AP classes or 5’s you get, it won’t make you stand out in a sea of equally competitive and possibly just as or more qualified than you. I’ve lived at Stanford for various summer programs, and have stayed on their campus for the combined total of over a month. Whenever I meet kids from Stanford, or have my friends visit from the Ivies or equivalents, they all have a “spark” to them. Hell, maybe they didn’t take that one Honors or AP course that was offered at one time, but they still have something special to them. It doesn’t matter if a person takes all 37 or so APs offered by the CollegeBoard, even then they won’t have that spark. Take all the classes you want, and manage your time wisely, but at the meantime, remember what I told you about this “spark.” If you get the grades, the test scores, the only thing that’s left is to find what makes you special. Everyone there has a spark, so what’s yours?
Regardless, I do wish good luck in HS and in College App season, whenever that comes around for you.
@thisisfine2020 I think I’ll be fine in terms of handling the work because I took 3 AP classes this year and I was just fine. The extra math class probably isn’t an issue since stats is an easy branch. I know my senior schedule sounds like a lot but the chem and math classes are one semester each so I’ll have a free period each semester. Honestly, I don’t really have a “dream school” but Stanford is the best school in the field I’m looking into, so I’m going to at least apply. There are other very good schools that are less competitive(and way less expensive) that I like. But thank you
I would not take AP Micro as a sophomore if you can take APUSH or AP Euro. It seems strange to take two AP social studies classes as a sophomore and one regular as a junior. You seem very smart and will probably do fine though. Best of luck!
Are you a junior currently? Why did you switch schools in the middle of high school (move?)
Senior year, since you’re dual-enrolled for math and chem (I suppose 1 math class per semester + chem one semester), you should take Freshman English too. It’ll be less busy work than AP Lit and you can probably choose your section or topic better than with AP lit. In fact, you could be mostly dual-enrolled for all your classes, and only take one fun class at your high school. Note that for top schools, reaching level 4 or AP in a foreign language is very important. Finally, consider taking Art (or music or?)
Finally, remember that top colleges hate the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to AP’s. AP stats brings nothing much and is certainly a lot of work on top of what you’re doing.
@kimclan1 haha I already finished my sophomore year… the thing is my school required a semester of econ to graduate and they wouldn’t let me in regular econ for some stupid reason. APUSH with 3 other APs would be a lot of work so I’m just gonna stick with regular USH for next year as I’m not super interested in humanities
@MYOS1634 my major in college will most likely require statistics so I want to get the credit out of the way. Unfortunately, my school only offers up to spanish 3, but I don’t think that will be a huge problem because all the schools I’m interested in have 2 or 3 years recommended. Also, we don’t have a huge fine arts selection, but I am in an advanced piano program outside of school. Would that be sufficient?
AP Stats is NOT the equivalent of college statistics. You’ll take the “serious” intro to stats class in college and if you plan on using stats or minoring in it, it’ll be calculus-based stats. Ap stats is an “AP lite”, for kids who are strong in humanities or social science but can’t/won’t take calculus. You can take stats in HS but you’ll have to take it in college if you need to take intro to stats for your major.
Yes the piano would be okay.
Regular USH is fine, don’t worry. You do NOT have to take all AP’s under the sun. In fact college distinctly frown on that approach and prefer the targeted approach.
@MYOS1634 thanks, I had no idea. I assumed that it would be similar since a lot of colleges give credit for it.
One thing you may not realize is that you are going to be spending a huge portion of your first senester of your senior year writing college essays, Stanford is the worst, with a huge number that take a lot of thought. My son said that senior year was much harder than Jr year, and his now classes are a bit easier, I think. But Senior first semester can be a nightmare because while they have this thing called the Common App, it isn’t so common once you look at the different essays required by each school. I wouldn’t take an overly heavy load, because writing those essays will be the equivalent of taking a full semester class, if you want to do it right.
@LKnomad yeah I have a free period worked in