I want to challenge myself more than I am currently in my junior year. I get worried about junior year being the “most important” year because I’m not challenging myself enough. I only have 1 AP and 5 honors, and the AP I’m taking is notoriously easy(AP Human Geo). I was looking forward to taking a dual enrollment class this year, but unfortunately my guidance counselor placed me in the regular version of the class which looks bad since dual enrollment was offered(I feel like they’re going to think I chose the easy class because I wanted to). I’m not even sure why I didn’t get in—I exceeded the minimum GPA requirements for dual enrollment. I feel like I’ll be doing all of this work for nothing since colleges won’t acknowledge me for challenging myself senior year. The APs I want to take are AP Calc AB and AP Government. In addition, I’m doing all 4 years of a foreign language just because I excel in Spanish. I want to study business in college so I feel like these classes are important. My school doesn’t offer any advanced economics or dual credit business classes unfortunately. Should I still take these APs even though senior year barely matters? Or should I just take a free period instead?
What are your grades like? What universities are you thinking about applying to?
3.4 GPA uw, a little over a 3.6 weighted. My GPA has been on an upward trend, though. Some colleges I’m looking at are Salisbury Univeristy and the Univeristy of Delaware. I haven’t looked at many schools yet.
I think that you are taking plenty of AP classes. For next year I would only take a small number in your strongest classes and/or classes that you are particularly interested in. I might back off a bit from the “3 APs and a DE” current plan.
For Harvard or Stanford (and a small handful of similar schools) you need A’s in AP classes. For almost any other university you really do not need AP classes at all if you do not want to take them.
You should keep ahead in your classes, try to continue the upward trend (this will help you), and take the classes that make sense for you.
Senior grades don’t matter but senior courses choices DO.
These 3 APs plus I assume English Honors and a science would make for a full senior schedule.
Have you been able to take economics? statistics? (regular, honors, or AP - just so you have an idea about the subjects).
BTW, 5 Honors, 1 AP, 1 regular is ABSOLUTELY fine if you’re not aiming for Harvard.
I took honors economics as a sophomore, but my school doesn’t offer any other econ classes after that. It sucks because that was my favorite class. I’m actually taking 2 APs now since apparently AP Spanish is only for level 5. I’m planning to take honors spanish 4 instead. I don’t think it makes much of a difference though since taking a 4th year of Spanish is already good enough. AP Stats wouldn’t fit into my schedule. My other core classes will be honors courses, including Honors Physics and English. I will have a full schedule senior year, yes.
Correction: I’m taking Spanish 4 Honors instead of AP since AP is usually recommended for bilingual people in my school and people who do level 5. So my schedule will most likely be composed of 2 APs, 1 DE, and 4 honors courses.
as myos1634 posted, senior year schedule definitely matters, that’s usually where colleges start looking and then work their way to 9th, so keep the APs, as long as they’re manageable and your GC should be able to explain how courses are assigned. You’ll be compared first to your high school peers, so if your rigor is comparable to them, you’re fine. good luck!
That’s fine for a lot of colleges. It sounds plenty rigorous to me. Not for Harvard, but you’re not aiming for Harvard anyway, and it’s definitely good enough for many State flagships, honors colleges at many universities/colleges, etc.
Look into Colleges that change lives (their selectivity would range from reach to match to safety for you but they’re all solid, student-centered, and will appreciate the rigor.)
Run the Net Price Calculator with your parents (be ready for them to be in shock because prices have gone up so so much since we were going to college.)