Importance of dropping Sophomore year Honors English in terms of colleges

I decided to drop my honors English class as my teacher is one of the hardest English teachers on campus and the work in his class requires 3-4 hours of reading per day. His reading is related to literature and it gets very confusing and I wasn’t really interested in it either. I had him in 9th as well and it was a super stressful class due to the reading and the pop essays; I was basically prioritizing English over my other classes. My choice of career is more towards Computer Science and Engineering so does it matter if you take honors English classes and AP Lang? Even with regular English, I can still do AP Lang but it’s likely I won’t take it as I already have 5 AP’s junior year. I mainly dropped my honors English class as I currently also have AP Chemistry and I decided to prioritize it instead. My counselor, juniors I asked, and a friend in college at UCSD said it doesn’t really matter but I keep overthinking it.

Are you dropping English altogether, or are you just dropping down a level, from honors English, to regular English?

You need to have 4 yrs of English for most schools, I think. But overall, I don’t think that it would greatly harm you to drop from honors to regular in English, especially if it means that your grade will improve. I don’t think that you should drop English altogether.

I just dropped from Honors to regular English so I still have an English class. I was just worried about the “honors” title as this is my first time in a CP English course. I also had him in 9th and was able to get an A both semesters, it’s just the time and effort needed for the class and I don’t feel like it’s worth it.

Hey, I’d like to help you out here.
First of all, just because you drop an honors class doesn’t mean colleges will drop you or anything. What I mean here is that it’s not the end of the world, but I don’t think you’re so worried about that part.
Of course, your GPA will drop, but I think it’s a good choice if you’re spending your whole time doing English HW when you should be focusing on STEM. However, dropping that must mean you must work hard in your other STEM classes to get that A.
I think the “importance” also depends on the school. If your school offers a lot of AP opportunities, then it may have not been such a wise choice if all the other sophomores are taking several APs. However, if you’re already taking enough, then that’s fine.
For me, my school doesn’t offer too many APs anyway, so dropping it in sophomore year is fine, as long as I have around 2 honor classes.
You don’t have to take honors now, but at some point you’re going to have to take honors english, even if you’re a STEM person.
I think many people might think that you don’t have to take APUSH or honors english if you’re a stem guy, but that’s not true. You still need to take other AP courses because the competition is fierce.
I hope this sort of answered your question. I wish you the best.

I would also talk to your GC as to how that affects you trying to do Honors English in junior year.
Remember other students will be taking AP English junior year so you want to see if you can at least do Honors.

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Unfortunately junior and senior year, there is only AP Lang or AP Lit and if you don’t do AP then you would have to do regular English as there are no honors for those years. I can still take AP Lang even though I’m in regular English but my schedule is looking something like this Junior year: AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, AP Computer Science A, Regular US History, (Regular English or AP Lang), and a possible free period or Sculpture class (to meet a graduation requirement). My schedule is a 4 by 4 schedule where there are 4 classes focused on for each half of the school year. Therefore, I don’t know if I should take AP Lang but rather put more focus on my other AP classes.

Where is your Foreign Language? Have you taken FL your first two years?

Yeah I have taken up till Spanish 3

Sounds as if you had to. As long as everything else is okay, and especially if you take AP Lang next year, you’ll be okay.

BTW, unless you are an extremely slow reader, it sounds as if the workload in that class is way out of line. Perhaps the administration needs some feedback about the workload being assigned in this class?

I have 5 AP’s already next year so I wasn’t really planning on taking AP Lang. Should I and does it really matter if I don’t?

Sometimes the readings are pretty hard so it requires more time and effort to understand what’s going on. My school just has a hard English department so there’s nothing much I can really do about it, unfortunately.

This doesn’t make sense. Calc AB is first semester college calc spread out over a year. Calc BC is two semesters of college calc over the course of a year. So how could you take both, in the same year? Does your school offer Physics C? If so, that is the one you should probably take, since you’re taking calculus, and since you’re leaning towards engineering.

It depends upon where you want to go. If you’re shooting for the very top schools, you probably would need to have taken the most rigorous courses offered, in English, too, even if you’re planning on Comp Sci or Engineering. If your goal is the just below very top schools for Comp Sci or Engineering, you’d still get in.

At my school, Calc AB is the first semester and Calc BC is the second semester. I’m not sure why exactly but that’s how it works at my school. I’m planning on taking AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2 junior year while taking AP Calc. I am also more interested in Computer Science so I’m not sure if I’ll be taking AP Physics C yet.

What exactly are the top schools? Does that mean Ivy League or UC schools? I feel as if my opportunity for Ivy League is already off the table due to not taking honors English this year as well as AP World History.

Hey!

I took 2 AP’s and 2 honors this year which is at an average stance at my school; it’s hard to say as some student’s are ahead in math so they have 4 APs due to Calc AB and Calc BC which I’ll be taking next year. Some students even have 5 sophomore year at my school but it really depends on the person. Honors classes don’t affect our GPA whatsoever unless its Math 3 Honors which is the only non AP math course that’s weighted ( I did take honors). Next year, I wasn’t planning on taking AP Lang as I already have 5 APs so 6 seems extensive. My school doesn’t offer honors English for 11th & 12th so it would have to be regular. I took honors English in 9th grade and I’m planning on taking AP Lit Senior year if I’m not doing AP Lang next year. I will also be doing AP Gov/Econ as a history AP Senior year.