-Freshman Year-
English 1
World History
Chemistry
Honors Geometry
Spanish 2
Computer Programming 1
Health
Physical Education
-Sophomore Year-
English 2 Honors
Advanced Algebra 2
U.S. Government/Economics
IB Spanish B SL 1
IB Physics HL 1
-Junior Year-
IB Biology HL 1
IB English A1 Language and Lit SL 1
IB Chemistry SL
IB History HL 1
IB Spanish B SL 2
IB Math SL 1 (Pre Calculus)
-Senior Year (Forecasted)-
IB Math SL 2 (AP Calculus AB)
IB Biology HL 2
IB Physics HL 2
IB English A1 Language and Literature SL 2
IB Psychology SL (or IB History HL 2)
As of now my GPA is about at 3.50
How would this look when I apply to college assuming I might take a real college science course in senior year?
The person to ask is your guidance counselor, not any one of us. Rigor is relative to what is offered in your HS.
Course rigor is important, as is GPA. The top tier colleges will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the recommendation saying you have taken the most rigorous course-load available at your HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If the guidance counselor says that your prior and current HS schedules are sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked then you are fine.
But top tier colleges are not target schools with 3.5 GPA. Unless you are at a few prep schools known for grade deflation and have very high test scores, you are far more likely to have a better result by focusing on GPA and SAT prep, instead of taking rigorous and even a real college science course.
no need to mention 8th grade classes, When one has calculus, no one care if he/she had pre-calculus before.
Spanish 1 and Algebra 1 in 8th grade is quite common as selective school applicant.
As STEM students, AP Calculus AB at senior is not too rigorous. (it is not bad though) Most students with course rigor have AP cal AB by sophomore. And senior taking state flagship college math credit such as Number Theory, Linear Algebra, Cal 3.
Unless your definition of “most students” is the 1% of the 1%, then no, most students do not have calc as a sophomore.
Back to the OP. As I said the last time you asked the same question, an IB Diploma schedule is almost always rated as “most demanding.” It’s your GPA that’s problematic, although congrats for bringing it up
I specifically referred to STEM students who applied to Elite schools. I can easily find 4 to 5 students in AP class are underclassmen. How many high school in US? 10,000 of out 40,000 HS can supply 50,000 applicants who took AP cal AB by sophomore. Be fair, doesn’t mean those applicants who took college number theory/Cal 3 credit always get the edge in admission. I was saying what is rigor and nor vigor to STEM program in elite school.If one applies to U of Wyoming or UC Merced (no offense) these courses are rigorous
Actually, you made no mention of elite schools. But for the OP with a 3.5 GPA, that’s probably not a conversation we need to have right now.
Alternatively, instead of making errors by extrapolating erroneously, I can give you the real number. of students who last year took the AP AB exam as a sophomore or younger It’s 9K, not 50K, which represents 2.9% of the students taking the exam. And as a percentage of the 2.5M that enter college every year, well, let’s just say it’s much less than “most.” Nor would 9K be “most” of the 19K applicants to MIT, one of many “elite” schools. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2017/Program-Summary-Report-2017.pdf
thanks for the helpful doc. I am sure I see more than 10 underclassmen in same year took Cal AB but didn’t know the rest of the country do not hold this pace.
perhaps 1000, not 10K out of 40K HS have this