hoping someone can help me out here since I’ve exhausted my peer resources and I’m stressed as hell doing QuestBridge.
so my dilemma is that I need another course for my senior year. technically i could take English and history only next year and still be able to graduate but school doesn’t let me do that. i need 6 classes during the school day. i originally was going to do a class/club that essentially allowed me to help tutor a class during the day, and this would be a year-long commitment. however i am going to participating in a lot of extracurriculars and i have 4 APs next year and i realized that this class would be too time consuming.
the classes i am for sure taking are:
AP Gov
AP Lit
AP Stats
Journalism
AP Spanish
my extracurriculars are speech & debate, AP Ambassadors, Red Cross, Key, volunteering at food drives with a local club, the school newspaper (journalism class) and link crew. I’m going for leadership positions in the first three and i already hold a leadership position in my volunteering club, so you can probably see why i don’t want another time-consuming class.
I’ve looked through the options and I’ve narrowed it down to these. preferably i want a “free period” class to do homework but the only reliable option for that is a class i already took sophomore year.
dramapros: interesting class i guess. cons: I’m not going into acting ceramicspros: the teacher is interesting, I’ve heard its a chill class cons: probably ?? not a free period but not much cons foodspros: food. cons: very popular class, might prevent me from getting other classes. photographypros: chill class cons: another very popular class psychpros: slightly contributes to my interest in social sciences? cons: I’m not sure i like the teacher, another VERY popular class yearbookpros: may contribute to journalism career goal cons: essentially another extracurricular, unclear about time commitment
i have a dilemma on my hands here… I’m leaning towards ceramics or psych but i really want to get a second opinion. any comments are appreciated, lmk if you need more context / info.
Looking at your list I think most of them are great options but there are a few that should be easy to just completely avoid. Yearbook is essentially a club like you said it’s a great class for someone with no that many extracurriculars but in your case you’re fine without it. Foods can also go, you can learn it all from the internet and I feel like if you were gonna take it, it’s smarter to take as a freshman or sophomore. Drama if you’re not into acting you’ll hate it. Photography I feel would be a good option if you’re interested in journalism. It’s basically yearbook w/o the time commitment. Psych is a great class to take just in general in my opinion but I’m biased. Ceramics I think could be fun but if you’re wanting a period to do work it wouldn’t be the best option. If i was you I would just go with photography, you’re taking difficult classes so I think the easy photography class could be a breathe of fresh air and show colleges you’re not an AP bot.
so im from california and we have the A-G requirements for the UC system. I’m not looking to go into STEM. my career goal is probably journalism, and major is probably journalism, english, international relations, or poli sci.
so far my classes have been: freshman year:
honors english, accelerated math, biology, spanish, PE, and a required course from our school sophomore year
honors english, accelerated math, honors chem, oral interpretation (the aforementioned “easy class”), world history, spanish this year
AP Lang, APUSH, AP Chinese, accelerated math, Badminton (required PE class), spanish
thank you for the response !! my main concern with photo is that its a really popular course and it might mess with the classes i really want to get. tbh that’s the same with psych but psych i feel like i would learn something. i’ll ask my friend what she does in ceramics and if they do a lot of work.
If “accelerated math” does not include precalculus, you probably want to take precalculus. If it does include precalculus, it may be helpful to take calculus if you intend to apply to more selective universities (which is most of the QuestBridge partner colleges). A good understanding of statistics will be useful if you go into journalism or any social science, so keep statistics and pay good attention in class.
In science, you probably want to take physics (along with biology and chemistry that you already have) at some time during high school.
Remember that UC/CSU a-g requires a year-long art course, so choose one that you like some time during high school.
with the most respect possible, i don’t intend on taking another math class or another science class. im not planning on going into STEM and i don’t need physics in addition with my 4 APs. and accelerated math does include precalc.
oral interpretation counts as an art so i have that down already.
i’ve already checked with my school and i’ve checked the UC page, it is a VAPA under the theater discipline. our school is trying to get our speech class to qualify as a VAPA but there’s only Oral Interp for now, taught by the same teacher that is our coach
My very stressed out, over-extended kid loves ceramics. It is very zen, which might be a perfect thing for you. It is just enough physical and analytical and social and individual and challenging and aesthetic to be a complete and total therapeutic distraction. Not everything has to be goal-oriented.
If photography does that mind-clearing thing for you, try for that, and if it messes with your schedule too much, fall back on ceramics. But if it were me, I’d go straight for ceramics.
You really should take a look at the colleges where you are thinking about applying, to see their academic expectations. What is required for A-G is typically a minimum for top schools — even for non-STEM students. Is there a counselor at your school you can discuss this with? Will your schedule be considered most rigorous?
hi !! mostly i’m looking to apply for UCs and i’m also applying for the national college match next year. i am still trying to expand my college list and i made another topic a few days ago. i have a counselor at my school and she’s actually the one who wants me to tell her a course by this week to replace my dropped choice.
I’m already taking 4 APs next year and I’m also taking the 4th year of optional math. really trying to avoid physics but i did do honors chemistry.
The most selective colleges (including many QuestBridge colleges) may be less impressed by opting out of physics and calculus, since they tend to expect a well rounded base of academic strength in addition to something additionally outstandingly impressive in applicants that they admit.
For the non-UC colleges, what course options will affect your counselor’s rating on how demanding your course selection is, and your overall academic achievement? See the second page of Salesforce .
first of all I’m not going into STEM at all, and second of all physics, even regular physics, is probably one of the hardest courses in my school. the teacher is… a personality to say the least. i mean he’s enjoyable but he grades very harshly. to me chemistry >> physics by miles
If those were the choices, I’d pick Foods, Ceramics, or Photography. All are relaxing and will make your life better well beyond high school.
That being said, you do need a 4th science to qualify for most top colleges. If not physics then APES? Environmental Science?
Are you taking Journalism because of the school newspaper or can you be part of the newspaper without the class?