I’d go with option 1. It shows you increase the proportion of Engineering as you rise in grade and thus potentially shows your increasing interest for it.
Thanks @MYOS1634 I never thought of it that way.
@MYOS1634 So today, I decided to call Virginia Tech to answer some questions I had. Here were the answers:
Question: Should I take a high number of AP classes?
Answer: It really depends on how many AP classes your school offers. For example, if your school offers 20, mine offers 25(26), then you should likely take 5 or more.
I plan to take 4, but they told me AP Economics would count as both AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics together. So technically, it would be 5
Question: Would it be good to self study AP’s over the summer and then take the test the following May? Also, if I get a good score on those AP tests, would they factor into my admission?
Answer: We don’t look at AP test scores.
Which means self-studying AP’s wouldn’t be the best thing for me to do. Unless I wanted to get the certificate, which costs $49.
Question: Should I plan to take two Engineering class junior, or one?
Answer: We look at PLTW Engineering classes, but look at your AP Science, English, and Math classes more. But will definitely look at those if your grade was high.
Honestly, it felt great to talk to someone from Tech.
Thank you for the recap, I’m sure it’ll be very useful to other applicants!
Now you understand why I didn’t understand your plan to self study Bio over the summer. (However if you take the class as a dual enrollment class, it counts… and DE or AP both “count” the same, so if you took one dual-enrolled science credit over the summer, regardless of the science subject, it’d add to your count and profile.)
What that last answer tells you is that you should do your utmost to take AP English Language, AP Calculus (AB or BC), and at least one AP science (AP Chem for you + possibly a DE science).
Congratulations on taking the step of making that phone call - did they ask you your name?
BTW, have you filled out the “request info” form? They need you to do that so that they can open a file for you. Every time you express interest (call, email, visit), they’ll annotate your file. Showing interest is always a plus (and can be a decisive factor depending on universities.)
No, @MYOS1634 How do you get the request information form?
You type “request info” + [name of college]
You can do that for every college you’re interested in. 
Here:
http://www.inventyourfuture.vt.edu/request-information/
(Note that you may receive brochures in the mail, but those are subcontracted by VTech to a third party (business that sends brochures for them to every student who reached a certain level on the PSAT). VTech wouldn’t know you got those brochures and so it wouldn’t “count as interest”. What would count as “interest” is receiving one of those brochures and emailing to ask a question based on what you read… or filling out the “request info” form due to the automatic mailing.
OK, @MYOS1634 That’s a wonderful idea. I’ll look into it. Thanks!
^it’s very “normal” if you’re a competitive applicant. 
There’s also a “VTech Daily News” newsletter, to which you can subscribe for free, and would give you all kinds of good info to feed your stem curiosity, and it’d be fodder to ask questions. Some questions can go to admissions (“I saw in the Daily Newsletter dated … that Pr. X conducts research on …, do you know if s/he takes on undergraduate assistants?” “DO you have a summer science program for high school students and if so, does it cover … that I saw in the newsletter/on your website?)
You can email professors, too, as long as your email is polite, to the point, and meaningful (ie., Dear Pr.W, My name is ZX and I’m a sophomore from Farmville, VA. I saw in the Vtech Daily Newsletter that you were working on … and I had a few questions: …? …? I would be most grateful if you could answer, or if a graduate student working for you could answer. Thank you. Sincerely, ZX.” You can, of course, keep the correspondence if need be. When admission time comes, you can report all this, and it’ll make for a memorable “Why Vtech essay”.
(Note that “Why VTech” is NOT supposed to be why VTech is the greatest college ever. This, they already know, or see you as an applicant would think. The essay isn’t about them - it’s about you. What about you makes VTech a perfect match for each other? What have you done that correlates with what they offer and thus would allow you take your work to the next level? What interests you in science, what have you done to prove it, and how does it relate to what is going on at Vtech’s labs?.. etc.)
Thank you for this insightful and helpful response @MYOS1634 I will definitely subscribe to the newsletter. I didn’t even know some professors even looked at E-mail from non-college students and colleagues.
@MYOS1634 has given lots of great info. When you get into late junior year and early senior year, you may be able to find local opportunities to visit colleges, or even trips arranged by your school or district. These are often not extremely publicized and arranged through guidance counseling, but once you reach a certain level, both in high school and college, you’ll be able to find out a lot more information.
I was also in a similar situation as you when it came to visiting college - my parents only took me to one school that I was already accepted to. I visited Tech my senior year unexpectedly by having connections to friends who were going - these were people I didn’t necessarily know or were good friends with in high school, but lots of things change by senior year.
Also, if you have social media and are interested, you can follow Virginia Tech’s MANY accounts on twitter, instagram, facebook, reddit, snapchat maybe? It doesn’t help you in terms of admission, but it does help give you an idea of the campus. This applies to other universities as well.
On the note about emails, I work at another university and we get MANY emails from anyone you can think of. Our faculty try to answer when they can, or forward the email to someone else in the department. It happens even at the best schools, but it’s not really an instant thing, usually take a few days or weeks depending on the nature of your email and who you are emailing.
From my experience in at Tech’s admissions office and another university’s office, this is unfortunately not true. You don’t have a file until you apply, and your inquiries are not recorded unless there is a substantial update.
^It depends whether you worked at a university that tracked interest or not.
Note that Vtech indicates on its CDS that it does factor “interest” in.
@financiallylost @MYOS1634 Thank you both for your inputs.
@financiallylost @MYOS1634 So after a few sit-downs with my counselor as well as talking to some of the AP teachers about their homework load, I have decided to take 5 AP’s. The AP’s will be challenging, but will give me a somewhat balanced workload of STEM and humanities classes. I’m pretty confident about them. Here is my tentative schedule as of now:
Junior Year
Engineering Explorations I/Robotics
AP Psychology
AP Chemistry
U.S. and Virginia History
Functions/Trigonometry
Spanish II
English 11
Senior Year
Principles of Engineering or Engineering Design and Development
AP Statistics
Physics I
U.S. and Virginia Government
AP Calculus AB
AP Economics
English 12
I actually have a great interest into Psychology and Economics, so I’ll definitely like those. I think Statistics would be interesting.
Sorry wrong post.
My OOS son will have 18 AP/IB classes under his belt, along with completion of Project Lead the Way Engineering Academy during his fresh/soph year. He declared for Engineering. Saw he was accepted yesterday, 2/22/16 on the Application portal page. Also applied for HC and some competitive scholarships, so more waiting.
@WeSayWarEagle Thanks for your input. While I know for a fact that I would not be able to handle 18 AP/IB classes, let alone more than 7, I know that VT is becoming much more competitive each year. I am instate and I also plan to take the PLTW Engineering Design and Development class senior year.Hopefully, I can be as lucky as your son.
@ak2018 Taking the most rigorous schedule possible, within reason, is best. I can tell you that my son has stated in an essay that his workload has seemed unbearable at times, but he doesn’t regret it. The benefit, according to various Honors College representatives at multiple schools, is that your child will thrive after the “conditioning” that the challenging AP/IB track provides. As others emphasize, a demonstrated and sustained history of volunteerism/service, leadership, and some meaningful ECs matter. After applying to 12 universities, I also think working a part time job in the summer, earns some points… as many applications asked about this. There is absolutely no way my S could work during the school year with his load, but he did during the summer. I’m so glad he did. Even way back in my college days when I was a senior, I was asked by every campus employment interviewer if I worked while in college. It says something about a person. I don’t think spoiling little Johnny or Suzie with no expectation of work is viewed favorably. Some folks that are wealthy (we aren’t) actually hurt their kids by not requiring them to work at some kind of job. I think all this rolls into the so called “Holistic” app review process.
@WeSayWarEagle I agree with you. However, I feel like taking anymore than three AP classes a year would cause me so much anxiety and stress. I tried to use this year to figure out my limits and see how much I could handle. I’ve definitely pushed myself this year. I’m working harder than I ever did in middle school. I’m taking 3 Honors classes and no AP’s and I currently have a 3.51 UW Semester GPA. I will also not be working a part-time job during the summer, as my parents want to focus on my studies, bit I am planning on doing some great things. I’m taking a summer Health and PE 2 course this summer as a graduation requirement, as well as volunteering at my local library (which is the closest my parents will let me get to a job right now) and going in college visits to VT and GMU, the closest university to me. My parents will not let me get a job as they feel it is their responsibility to care of college expenses for their kids. Both of my parents’ grandparents had done this for them, so it is a kind of a family tradition. My parents, however, would allow me to work part-time in college to test if I can handle a job and school at the same time. But, I’ve been able to supplement me not having a summer job by volunteering opportunities. I’ve been volunteering over the summer at my local library for 4 years now. Once I get a job, they’ll be the first references I’ll list. I love volunteering there and I made some new friends as well. I actually ended up met one girl who was in the same grade as I was, but didn’t go to the school I attended, and another who was a rising senior at my school. The rising senior gave me so many tips about college and the SAT and I actually introduced her to this website. Ironically, I never noticed, but she actually attended the same middle school I did as well.
I actually agree with you about not having an expectation about work. I didn’t do that much last summer and I was bored out if my mind. I was literally in my house all day. The only thing I looked forward to every week was volunteering at the library. I actually complained to my parents about how I felt I had nothing to do. I guess that a few days, or weeks, without school causes me to feel unproductive. That will definitely not be the case this summer.