Help! My son is going to be a high school junior next year and is having trouble picking the best courses for uc admissions. So far he has taken no AP’s just accelerated honors math, English honors , bio and chem honors. The school is making him take physics next year as a requirement for juniors but they only offer CP and AP. The current kids in AP are all seniors taking ap calculus and are still struggling with C’s. My son will be taking honors precalc next year and has had no AP classes to judge his ability by. ? Is it best to take CP physics or chance it with AP physics? Also he is conflicted whether or not he should go with English 3 honors or take AP Lang as a junior. His class schedule as it stands is honors precalc, APUSH, honors English 3, ap psych and cp physics. Any advice for what would put him in best light for UC’s would be helpful. Thanks!
- Does he like science generally?
- Which AP physics course?
If he keeps his current schedule, he will have 2 AP’s along with 2 UC approved Honors courses (Is Honors English 3 UC approved for his HS?) for Junior year. His HS course rigor is fine so taking CP Physics should not be an issue. If he likes English, then he could change Honors English 3 to AP Language. What about a Foreign language? Does he have at least 2 years although UC’s prefer 3 years?
Does he plan to go into a STEM related major?
It is more important to have good grades in his classes vs. taking many AP’s. He needs a good balance between the two.
The general rule with UCs is protect your gpa. I think he should try to have 3 APs junior year if he has a good chance of making A’s in them. Is he a strong student in English? If so, his APs could be AP Lang, APUSH, and AP Psych.
I would not have him take AP Physics if your guess is that he won’t do well.
For senior year, he should have AP Calc and two more APs. AP Govt and AP Econ can be thought of as two half APs if they are each a semester long. I don’t think AP Psych is that highly regarded, so he might consider substituting AP Chem for that next year if he did well in honors Chem and they allow him to take two sciences.
The answer to your question really depends on the high school he attends, and what university and school he is aiming for, and what major he is targeting for. For example, my kid attended a HS that sends a lot of kids to UC-Berkeley, and to go into CoE EECS, the expectation was 8+ AP classes and of course high test scores and high GPA.
However, aside from that, from what I’ve heard, generally speaking 6-8 AP classes is perfectly fine as well, although a lot depends on how many APs are offered at the high school. Has he handled his classes well so far (ie all As)?
Is the AP Physics class you are referring to 1/2? Or C (Mechanics and E&M)? If it’s Physics 1 he should be fine IMO. A typical “normal” AP schedule for 11th graders might be AP Lang, APUSH and AP Chem. Then senior year something like AP Lit, AP US Govt, some sort of AP Physics, and some sort of AP Calc, preferably BC.
If a student can get an A in AP Physics, then he should take it. If he is likely to get a C, then he shouldn’t. You can get accepted to UCLA and some of the other UCs without AP Physics.
@ ucalumnus @ProfessorPlum168 I think his top choices are UCLA, Berkeley but more realistically UCSB and Davis with UCSB being his number one choice. He will also probably apply to SLO and SDSU. I looked at the high school website and it looks like it’s AP physics1. The teaching may be the reason why kids are struggling with Cs as they are soon to be engineering students going to SLO and taking AP calculus. My s is good at math and science but not at all interested in STeM. He’s more interested in international business or maybe a major that encompasses hands on technology with business. Was looking at SLOs industrial technology and packaging major. His grades are mediocre right now with a 3.8 weighted 10th grade and around 4.0 9th and 10th. This is not a UC gpa that would probably be Lower as some of the honors level classes such as English 2h is not a uc honors approved class.He knows he needs to improve and is going to work hard next year and into finals this year to try to increase his GPA.
@gumbymom Yes, English 3h is a UC approved honors course at our high school. Also he is taking Latin 3 next year and possibly his senior year as well where it becomes honors level as long as the the program doesn’t get shelfed.
With a GPA that is probably below 3.8 for UC and CSU purposes, UCSB and UCD will probably be reaches. Recommend adding the less selective campuses like UCSC, UCR, and/or UCM to the list.
CPSLO is the most selective CSU, and SDSU is not far behind. Unfortunately, they are not the most transparent with admission thresholds like SJSU and CSUN are.
@ucbalumnus yes I agree. I think we will see where he stands after 11thgrade. He still has three semesters to pull up his grades and the SAT or ACT is still an unknown factor. Improvement in grades will probably have some weight as long as he can do it but I appreciate your input.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-general/2127392-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa-2018.html has links to how to calculate HS GPA for UC purposes and a table of 2018 frosh admission rates by HS GPA band for each UC campus (however, some majors may be significantly more selective than the campus).
CSUN and SJSU information on past admission thresholds:
https://www.csun.edu/admissions-records/impaction
http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/
SLO admits by MCA score and not eligibility index. This is the link and it also has an attached MCA point caculator:
Also the final status thread will have a posters listing their decision and subsequent MCA points for their major to give you an idea of target MCA’s. Just like the Eligibility index that the rest of the CSU’s use, MCA will fluctuate from year to year depending upon the strength of the incoming Freshmen class stats.
SLO also posts their major target projections so help gauge their possible acceptance rate by major:
https://content-calpoly-edu.s3.amazonaws.com/ir/1/images/2019-20%20Enrollment%20Projections%20for%20Continuing%20Students%20-%20no%20total%20error%20adj.pdf
For SDSU, they post their overall average CSU GPA and SAT/ACT scores for each Freshman class. Using this data you can determine an average EI which will help access your son’s chances during the application period.
For 2018 the average EI for SAT was 4408 and ACT was 1056. Average CSU capped weighted GPA: 3.93 Average SAT: 1264 and Average ACT: 27.
Well, I know it is hard to make decision, but I have three points for you to think about.
First, there are four different AP Physics. If he is going to take Physics C, he has to be in Calculus or AP Calculus, because AP Physics C is calculus-based. However, if he just wants to take AP Physics 1/2, his math level should be higher than Algebra II or trigonometry.
Secondly, if he did good or being confident in English class, he should get into the AP Language. AP language is a very GREAT class and makes a HUGE difference on his Transcript.
Last but not least, he has heavy workload in other AP classes, so you have to keep in mind that, being qualified for AP class does NOT means you have to take all APs.