Here is a bit of context: I am a freshman and when it came time to decide which classes to take for tenth grade, I could’ve taken AP Biology and AP World History but chose to wait until junior year. The reason why I did this is that I believe that it’ll be better for me to take them during junior year. Next year, I’ll be taking Physics Honors, Geometry Honors, English 2 Honors, and Japanese at my local community college. Will this look bad to the college admissions officers? How much of a negative impact would it have on me getting into a good college?
2 classes wont make or break your application. Chances are your admissions officer wont know exactly what classes you could take. That being said try to load a decent amount of AP classes on your junior year or else it will look like you are avoiding them. Classes and grades are very important to college apps, but there are many more factors to the decision.
Remember: Take classes that fit YOU. You want to challenge yourself, but to the point where you can still do well.
You need to find a college that fits you, and not make yourself fit a particular college.
You are doing fine and there will be many colleges out there for you.
It won’t make you look “bad”. It says this is who @dinoguy17 is.
I made the mistake of taking AP Euro my sophomore year (along with all honors classes) while knowing I didn’t have the time to do well in it. The teacher even told me I should drop it because my sport would take up too much of my time. I got a C both semesters and only a 2 on the AP exam. I think this closed some doors on colleges. Really good grades while also some rigorous classes is all you need, but doesn’t have to be all AP (you should for sure take some AP Junior and senior year). You are taking honors and a hard language which will be looked at very positively. I don’t think you have anything to worry about at all. Good luck!
Taking Japanese at the community college “counts” as classes as rigorous as AP, especially since Japanese is notorious for being a very difficult language (unless it’s a heritage language you speak&write, in which case it wouldn’t be a foreign language).
So, for college adcoms, you’re taking one AP level class in a super difficult subject already.
Physics Honors, Geometry Honors, English 2H, Japanese = you’re missing a social science/history.
Are you taking any elective?
College admission officers won’t worry about your not taking AP Bio sophomore year. They want to see that you took one each of bio, chem, and physics, plus one AP science. Assuming you’ve taken Bio and Chem already, will be taking Physics in 10th, taking AP Bio as a junior then AP Chem (if you’re going for STEM) or APES (if going for humanities/social science/business) will be “most rigorous”.
As for social science history, you need to take one class next year, either at your HS or at the CC. You’ll need World History, US History, and two other units (either at the HS or at the CC).
Your schedule, as planned and provided you take a history course too, will have zero negative impact and in fact is likely to have a positive impact because it’s quite rigorous.
Hi, sorry for the late reply. My school doesn’t offer any history honors classes so I’m just taking regular world history. For electives, do they really matter or are they important like the other classes?
Electives only matter in that they show what you’re interested in, which can matter to colleges.
You DO need 5 academic courses each year (English, Math, Science, Social Science/History, Foreign Language) plus one more.
For science you need bio/chem/physics+1 preferably at the AP Level (one of the 3 if you’re going into STEM, APES if you’re not). For Foreign language, you can stop before senior year if you reached Level 4 (Level 3 for selective-but-not-super-selective 4-year universities) which would typically free one period.
You can take Late Arrival or Early Departure as a senior as long as you have 5 academic courses (+1 elective reflectint what you’re interested in: if you like writing, journalism would be a good pick; if you want to go into STEM, CS would be a good pick. But for senior year you can just take something fun for you, like Culinary Arts or Theater Tech etc.)
Well, at my school, the sophomore year students take physics and then do chemistry in their junior year.
That’s fine, as long as you have all three from bio/chem/physics - some schools start with Physics for instance, but then the students take the other two.
Then senior year you need a science of your choice, with the level matching your goals after HS.
Update: I talked with my counselor and I will be put in AP World History for the sophomore year. Should I add AP biology as well or should I wait until junior year when I take chemistry?
what would your new schedule look like?
Sorry for the late reply!
So here is my classes I will be taking for next year
Geometry (was going to take geometry honors but it was not offered)
English 2 honors
Physics honors
Japanese (at a community college)
Ap World History
Photography 2 (it’s a visual and performing arts class)
Study Hall
For AP Biology, my counselor said that it will not be offered next year due to low student enrollment
Would not taking AP Bio and geometry honors affect my chances of getting into university? I’m worried because I’m hoping to go into STEM and if my school does not offer these classes then I’ll be doomed.
No. You cannot take what is not offered. Every college knows that.