<p>I'm a junior currently in AP Latin at a very rigorous high school, and when I apply to colleges, I plan to apply as a Classics major. At my school, seniors are allowed to take six classes, all of which can be electives.</p>
<p>At the moment, I'm definitely planning to take two English electives, AB Calc, and Philosophy, meaning that I'd have two classes left. My school offers Latin V, which typically has just a few students in it and is very educational but not as rigorous in terms of the amount of work, and we also offer an Ancient Greek Independent Study, which is very rigorous. Therefore my options for the remaining two classes on my schedule are:</p>
<p>-Organic Chemistry (because I might need to have a science)
-Ancient Greek</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>-Organic Chemistry
-Latin V</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>-Ancient Greek
-Latin V</p>
<p>Basically -- as a potential Classics major, should I take both of the Classics electives and forget about Orgo?</p>
<p>Colleges generally like to see both biology and chemistry on a transcript; physics is a plus. Top colleges expect at least one of the sciences to be pursued at an AP/IB/equivalent level. </p>
<p>Greek is certainly the most pertinent to your goals (assuming it’s Attic rather than Koine), but whether you should favor it over orgo depends on how much science you’ve already had.</p>
<p>Greek does have two advantages:
(1) Applicants who’ve had Latin are a dime a dozen at elite schools, but those with Greek are much more uncommon. It is more rarely taught and a considerably trickier language.
(2) Colleges are more likely to let you jump into intermediate Greek than skip organic chemistry. (Put another way, a year of Greek in high school is more likely to equate to a college course than a high school course in organic chemistry.)</p>
<p>Greek all the way. College Greek courses are more rigorous than anything you’ll find in high school, and you will be much better off if you’re not totally unexposed.</p>
<p>Greek and Chem. You’ve already had AP Latin, so presumably if you keep up your skills a bit in senior year in Latin – just read/translate some Latin literature occasionally and review grammar so you don’t get super rusty – then you can get right back into the swing of things as a college freshman. A classics major is designed to be completable for someone who’s never taken any Latin OR Greek, so with your level of Latin proficiency I wouldn’t worry about trying to get further ahead in classics at all. Of course, this changes if you absolutely hate chem, but if you would be interested in it then it would look good to have that diversity of subject matter on your transcript.</p>