Hi I am a junior.
My junior year course load is as follows:
1.AP Psych
2.AP human geo
3.Honors Physics
4.Honors Gov/Econ
5.Honors IItalian
6.CP Lit
7.CP PRecalc
8. Calculus 1 at a Community college
I realized about half way thru junior year that I did not take as many AP classes as I probably should, and not in the areas that I was interested in majoring in. I then decided to take Calc 1 and 2(2 over the summer) at my local community college to strengthen my course rigor and prove I can do college level math to colleges before I apply. I am almost done with Calc 1.
My senior year courseload is:
- AP Bio
- AP Italian
- AP Micro
- AP Stat
5.AP Comp Sci
- Honors Lit
Is my course rigor a negative on my application for college? Did I not take enough AP classes my junior year? Does taking I want to major in finance/econ and my number 1 school is NYU Stern.
My other stats: (GPA: 3. 78/4 UW and 4.15 W, SAT: 1470/1600 and SAT 2 Math 2 800)
Ultimately, how much will my light course load junior year hinder me?
What does CP stand for?
How many APs have you not taken yet? If you took most of the AP’s your school offered then colleges won’t count that against you.
No AP Lit?
It is not a that bad actually, you’ve compensated nicely with the College calculus classes. Psych and Human Geo are known to be relatively easy AP classes but in the grand scheme of things your curriculum is not that weak. Your bigger issue is the 3.78 UW GPA. You have a great SAT I and II score. Where are you thinking of applying to college?
@LeviAckerman CP is college prep. I took 2 AP and 2 college level (Calc 1 and 2) classes before my senior year. I have not taken most of the AP’s offered, but my senior year I will be taking as many as I can.I have no AP lit, but I could add it.
@Wje9164be NYU stern is my #1. Is a 3.78 really that bad? I had all A’s freshmen year. 4 A’s and 1 B sophomore year and 2 B’s and 5 A’s junior year. I guess my GPA could be a bit better, but I can’t really change that now
@SternBusiness Does your school have Naviance? There you can see the average GPA of students admitted from your school.
If NYU is truly your number 1, then you must know of its stingy financial aid and expensive tuition at about 70k~ a year.
If you or your family can swallow that, then I strongly recommend applying ED. NYU actually looks down upon needing substantial amounts of financial aid and ED generally means you can afford the price tag of NYU and you will have significantly higher chances at admissions.
Your junior class courseload looks alright. Although your AP’s aren’t too hard, you have 3 honors classes under your belt and generally pre-calc is a pretty challenging course (usually only honors-pre calc is offered at most schools) Mainly I’m not sure on how difficult the honors classes are in comparison to some of the AP’s offered at your school. Is Honors Gov/H Econ harder than AP Gov and AP Macroecon? What’s the level of rigor of Honors Physics compared to AP Physics 1/2 etc. IF your school offers those aforementioned AP courses.
I don’t think the 3.78 is that bad, it’s just your weakest link. As noted above a lot will depend on what class rank you have and where you go to high school. When I made the comment I didn’t know NYU was where you are interested in going. If you can afford NYU you can probably get in with those stats. NYU is not as selective as many other top LACs or the Ivy League
@Wje9164be Thanks. I go to the number 1 or 2 public high school in my state. I think I would get into NYU Cas, but Im applying to Stern which is more selective.