<p>Well first off I might as well show you my schedule so far</p>
<p>Freshmen
Geometry H
English III
Physics H
French II H
Modern World History<br>
Chorale</p>
<p>Sophomore
Algebra II H
AP English IV
Chemistry H
French III H
AP European History
Engineering and Design</p>
<p>So that is my schedule so far and I am hoping to get into a good college like Duke or Cornell or Stanford and I have gotten really good grades so far in those classes but I need to know if that changes in my schedule that I plan on making will hurt me a lot or if they are really insignificant</p>
<p>Junior
Pre-Calc/ Calc H
AP English V
AP Biology<br>
French IV H
AP US History or regular
AP Chemistry</p>
<p>So for Junior year I want to go to regular US history because this year I am stressing out so much over AP Euro and I hate history.</p>
<p>Senior
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP English VI
AP Physics C
Human Anatomy and Physiology
AP Psychology</p>
<p>That is my ideal schedule for senior year but the only problem is that if I do this then I will not be in AP French, which is fine with my because I really don't like French either but I just don't know how prestigious colleges feel about not taking 4 years of language. </p>
<p>So,
1. Will not being in APUSH hurt me a lot?
2. Will it matter if I don't take AP French (I'll be taking hard classes still, just ones that I like better)</p>
<p>My advice, having gone through this with my son, is that it’s better to stick to the Honors level of your weaker or less favorite subjects, and get As, than it is to kill yourself doing solid APs and get Bs. My S started taking APs in his sophomore year, and his junior and senior year were nothing but 6-7 APs/dual enrollment classes each year. He had to drop some cherished ECs in order to do the work, and he got some Bs, dropping him into the 2nd 10% of his class. Even though he got 5s on all his many AP exams, he still didn’t get into MIT or Cornell, I assume because of his less-than-stellar GPA. He did get a ton of advanced standing at the university he is now attending, however, and doesn’t have any distribution requirements to fulfill, which gives him a lot of freedom. </p>
<p>A common premed strategy is to take AP chemistry, AP biology, AP calculus, and AP physics in high school, and then repeat those courses in college for A grades. That gives you the high GPA medical schools want to see. But AP US history and AP French are not going to help you with the premed curriculum, and they’re a ton of drudgery unless you really like those subjects.</p>
<p>Thanks that really nice to hear because that would also make my junior and senior years a lot more bearable. I am thinking that is probably what I’ll do.</p>
<p>@figureskater for Senior year I am still doing an AP just switching so it isn’t french and for junior year I would do APUSH but I am weary about that because my AP Euro class was literally the hardest class i’ve ever taken, I spent around 5 hours on every essay and get either an 80 or 85 and I study literally 10 hours total for the tests and can only get an 83 average. I have good study skills but it is just how ridiculously hard the class is. There is only 1/20 in his class with an A and our grades valedictorian dropped the class because he was getting an 81. I just don’t want to have the same experience in APUSH and I was thinking about it and if I was a college admissions person I don’t think it would be that noticeable if for my entire transcript I don’t take the hardest class once. Also I want to add that I go to a private school and only the smartest kids in my grade are in AP Euro.</p>
<p>if you hate history, it doesn’t make any sense to do the AP; you’re going to be really unhappy and it will probably hurt your performance (never mind the fact that admission to a particular college isn’t worth a year of misery). if you take regular history it will allow you to spend more time to excel in the classes that you’re actually interested in, which is a lot more important.</p>
<p>I don’t think skipping APUSH will hurt you. Especially since you are planning to take 2 AP science classes that year. However, I would recommend taking AP French your senior year if it won’t make you totally miserable. Top college like to see you continue with a language senior year. But it’s not a deal breaker, so if you think it will make you very unhappy, skip it. I think you should see how the french goes for you over the next couple of years then decide. You are only a sophomore, correct? If so, you have plenty of time to work this out.</p>