<p>My son is looking at schools like Rice and CMU. He just came to me with his senior year schedule. He already has senioritis and I am unsure how to advise him. Originally, he signed up for Gov AP, Bio AP, Stats AP (took Calc BC last year), Literature, Art. He did not want to take 6 courses because he wants to get out early like the rest of the seniors at his high school. I thought this was an acceptable schedule, given that he was taking 3 APs. Now, however, the school has decided not to offer Stats AP and he will have to take it at community college. However, community college courses are only one semester long whereas AP courses at the high school are two semesters. He wants to take the college course second semester. I am wondering how it will look in January when he sends in his applications and his high school transcript shows only 4 courses. Is this going to be a problem? Has anyone else done this, or do most students load up their senior year? It will be his decision what to do, but I want him to know the effects of the decision. He seems to think it won't matter because he can explain that he will be taking the college course. His argument for taking Stats second semester is that he will be taking regular Econ instead of Gov AP so the workload will be more balanced across the year.</p>
<p>I assume colleges want to continue seeing a rigorous schedule, and if his courses are rigorous relative to his school's offerings, it'll probably be okay.</p>
<p>Your son actually seems pretty smart. What he says makes sense, and if he wants to chill out a bit, I don't think it's a bad thing. Remember, colleges will see all the classes he has taken, not just his senior year. Less rigor the fall semester will give him the chance to work more on his college applications, too.</p>
<p>If it helps, my friend got into 6/8 schools she applied to with two free periods during her senior year. She actually had a pretty light schedule as well, with a university course and two APs. She's now a freshman at Stanford, soon to move onto her sophomore year.</p>
<p>It should show up on your son's schedule that he will be taking AP Stat.</p>
<p>But the fact that he's only taking 3 ACADEMIC classes first semester isn't great. Why isn't he taking a foreign language? Most schools have a minimum number of courses, at my school its 4 academic classes. Check and with his guidance counselor.</p>
<p>If she says it's OK, then it's not something to worry about too much.</p>
<p>ses: I wish I could check with his guidance counselor but school is out for the year. I will try to call on Monday. He isn't taking a foreign language because he finished Spanish III and didn't want to take any more. He is more of a math/comp sci kid.</p>
<p>I see. He could always double up on sciences, which colleges would like more. When he visits schools this summer ask about how many years of each subject they want to see and how many classes per semester, etc. That will also help you out.</p>
<p>I heard 5 solid academic subjects, even speech/debate counts as one. I know once my D has all the 4-year on Math, English, Science, Language, Social Science, and the 1 year Visual Performing Arts(UC requirement), she gets to take one fun class. So D will only have 5 solid classes and one fun class. Yeah for senior year, not as bad as junior year I hope.</p>
<p>Has he taken any science AP's? Are there any left that he hasn't taken? I agree that 3 academic classes Sr year is way too few if he is trying for Rice or CMU, unless he has exhausted all the science AP's his school offers.</p>
<p>menloparkmom: He could take AP Chem, but the AP science courses at his school each have 3 hours of homework per night. Some kids take two, but they really love science and they do nothing but study all the time. He claims a kid from his school got into MIT this year and only took 3 courses senior year. I don't know what to think. Of course, he's not really taking only 3 academic courses; he's taking 4. It's just that whereas AP Stats in high school takes a year, it only takes a semester in college. His total high school transcript looks good because he doesn't have any nonacademic courses on it except 2 years of PE. He put off taking his fine arts requirement until senior year because each year there was always something else he wanted to take instead. Oh well, I discussed it with him again yesterday and he is pretty set on not changing anything. He claims I don't know what I'm talking about, and maybe he's right. I'm not an admissions officer. If it were me I wouldn't take the risk, but he seems to be comfortable with it, and comfortable ending up at a lower prestige school, too, if that is the outcome. Thanks for all the opinions.</p>