Hi All, My son is finalizing his course selections for his senior year of high school. He intends (as of now anyway) to apply ED to American for SIS. I have two specific questions:
Should he take dual enrollment English via a community college (Northern Virginia) or AP Language and Composition. We are getting conflicting advice on both.
His science options are Physics (AP or non-AP), Astronomy, Biology 2, Chemistry 2, and Oceanography. He wants to take Oceanography as he is isn't a big fan of science courses and is concerned that Physics and Chem 2 will be soul-crushing. :-). Will taking Oceanography versus a more advanced science course negatively impact his application chances?
His other courses are Spanish 5 (non-AP), AP History, AP Calculus, and AF JROTC. He has a 3.9 GPA (unweighted), we’re still waiting for SAT #1 results but he was averaging low 1300s in his PSATs. (~700 verbal / ~600 math)
If he takes the class through dual enrollment he can take one class each semester, and could thus take an IR intro class (it wouldn’t count for AU but it’d show his genuine interest).
I think he’ll be ok with oceanography.
@VaParent19 I think he’ll be completely ok. My brother had a 3.8 weighted gpa and almost a 1200 sat and still got accepted into AU. AU just accepted 1750 students out of a pool of 19000 for this year.
Since AU accepts dual credit, I would go with the DC class. This way your son will not have to take an AP test for that subject thus freeing up study time for the other AP tests.
I think Oceanography will be fine. His other classes are very rigorous so having one that is not as rigorous is fine. My DS was accepted ED to the CLEG program without a math course his senior year. His only options were AP Calc or AP Stats and he hates math. Math Analysis (pre-calc) nearly ended him and since he had 4 math credits, he didn't take a fifth math credit. He took AP Physics because he had the teacher for regular physics and liked him. He also had two non-DC/AP classes on his schedule when he applied Debate and forensic science (which he later subbed out for Women's Studies because he likes social studies a lot more than science.)
You really don’t want any soul-crushing going on during senior year because even the best students get senioritis and it would be better have a class he enjoys so he does the work.
If he is applying ED he will completely fine. If he applies RD, what really matters is his demonstrated interest in the school. That’s what they like to see. Interview, visit, email his counselor, listen to offered webinars. They keep track. Actually, if his scores and grades are too high, it may actually hurt him RD as they suspect they are being considered a safety school. Good luck!
I was told by a college counselor who used to be an admissions officer at an Ivy League school that as a general rule admissions would rather see a student take an AP class at their school instead of a dual enrollment class.
^ hm, while that might be true in very specific situations, that blanket statement applies to few real life cases - such as, not needing the possible acceleration, or most often the case against DE is when DE at your school is taught at the high school for HS students not on a college campus. Real DE/PSEO/Running Start is appreciated because those are college courses taught at a college pace with much less hand holding than in high school and they’re good predictors of college performance.
@Dcasas For AU you definitely don’t want to look like an Ivy applicant. Just look at all of the amazing students on the RD threads that were waitlisted or rejected. AU is huge on yield protection and they hate being seen as a back-up/safety school. DC is fine for AU - they wouldn’t take DC if it wasn’t. Ivy’s do not give credit for DC or AP classes. If OP’s son is going ED then taking an AP versus a DC will have no effect on his admission chances as ED1 was almost 90% acceptance rate.