hi i’m constantly worrying about my grades in these AP classes. I’ve been taking regular classes in my freshman and sophomore year (except my Accelerated Biology and Accelerated Geometry classes) and have been getting A’s. I thought my junior year i should try AP classes and well it hasn’t been going too well but i dont want to go back to regular classes because it’s very boring and I heard AP classes give you a better chance for getting accepted into a UC. And I was wondering will it affect me getting accepted into a UC?
For college admissions to the UC’s, it is always better to get an A or B in an AP class, than in a lower level class, but if you heading into C territory for these classes, you are better off moving down. Are there any Honors courses available in these subjects instead of regular level classes? UC’s do consider HS course rigor, but GPA is king.
It is a fine line and a difficult decision since the UC’s are very competitive. Sacrifice HS course rigor vs GPA. If you pull out at least B’s in the courses, you should be fine and you can remain competitive for several of the UC’s. Also UC’s are not some group of “magic” schools. If you are a CA resident, there are many excellent private and Cal states in which you will get a very good education.
Take advantage of any extra help from your teacher, private tutoring etc… and best of luck.
I know UC’s aren’t neccessarily the only type of schools out there that provide a good education. However, that’s just what my parents want from me and what is expected from me. I’m fine with going to a state college but I want to try and get into a UC. I’m trying hard in school in order to get those good grades and get into a UC but it just is difficult and all my parents do is stress me out about it even more. I actually wanted to study neurology and head towards becoming a Neurologist… but I’m not quite sure if going to a cal state is okay for that?
What I would assume, if I were an admissions officer, when looking at your academic profile, such as the fact that you were in almost all regular classes 9th and 10th grades, switched to AP abruptly in 11th, and experienced a significant decline in grades, is that you were not able to handle a rigorous course load very well (likely due to poor preparation in your first 2 years of high school). As it stands right now, you have no evidence that you are able to handle advanced coursework and possibly evidence to the contrary, so you have a lot to prove. Try to aim for a strong finish to your junior year with all As and Bs, choose a reasonable senior schedule, and I feel your chances will still be favorable.
What are the 3 AP’s?
What’s your current GPA?
Does your HS offer honors classes between regular and AP?
AP US HIstory, AP literature and AP art history
My current GPA is a 3.0 … which is quite unusual for me because I’m not used to getting low grades and am panicking more often this semester but I want to strive and challenge myself with these classes. I’m unsure what to do because I want to go to a UC .
Two of these are really hard APs.
My advice would be, if you can, to switch to us history honors and keep the other two, or switch to English honors and keep the other two. If you feel like it you could always try and take the AP test in May anyway.
Next year, pick either AP world (which will follow the format for APUSH) or AP English language (which will be similar to literature wrt the analytical skills required, but applied to non fiction texts), plus one AP only.
What are you hoping to major in?
Drop. A C in an AP class does not look good. B’s don’t look very good either
A B in an AP is fine but anything below is a problem.
If you were getting C’s in AP classes I would say you are not ready for them or for that much work across all your classes. Are there honors versions of the class could you drop to? Is there one class that is time consuming that you could drop to honors and keep the other two?