<p>Hi everyone, I'm a current junior in high school who is preparing to sign up for senior year courses. Unfortunately, I was rather dumb as a freshman/sophomore/junior and did not take any of the required courses for graduation (art, tech, and health) and must take them as a senior. Up until this point, I have taken rigorous courses, including two AP classes sophomore year and three my junior year. I have taken multiple honors courses as well. My grades have been excellent. However, I am worried that my significantly less rigorous senior schedule will have an adverse effect on my college applications come fall. </p>
<p>My senior year schedule goes as follows:</p>
<p>AP Literature and Comp
Regular Calculus (I really am not a math person..I struggle a lot.)
Newspaper (this will my third year on the staff and my second as an editor in chief)
Teacher's assistant (one semester..for a teacher I am very close with)
Health (one semester)
Technology
Digital art
College class (second semester only, a double period. So I am doing health + Teacher's assistant for one semester, and the college class second semester)</p>
<p>Will colleges really look down on my senior year courses? I have taken a lot of hard classes up to this point, and I don't want them to think I'm purposely slacking off. My gpa is great, and I have not received my SAT scores (May sitting) yet, though I will most likely take it again in October. I am interested in schools such as USC (probably my first choice), Pepperdine, NYU, and Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Quite possibly. I don’t see any science, social studies or foreign language. You may not have a lot of options at this point–clearly, you must graduate–but you may be at a competitive disadvantage relative to other applicants who’ve already met their art, technology and health requirements, and have room in their schedules for AP French, AP science, etc.</p>
<p>Not the answer you wanted, I’m sure. Sorry.</p>
<p>Can you satisfy any of those requirements in summer school so that you can add some more meat to your senior-year schedule?</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! I already looked into taking health and/or tech over the summer, but it’s all filled up already. I definitely see your point. Would it be better for me to take AP Statistics instead of calc?</p>
<p>Also, after this year, here are the credits I will have:</p>
<p>3 English (Honors 9 & 10, AP Lang)
3 science (Honors Bio and Chem, AP Enviro)
4 Social Studies (Honors US History, AP Gov, AP Psych, and AP World)
4 foreign language (Spanish 1, Latin 1, Latin 2, honors Latin 3)
4 math (algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, and regular precalc)</p>
<p>Also, my college class (affiliated with a state university and taught by a professor at that university) is a social studies course.</p>
<p>Are you on a 4X4 bloc schedule, or something?</p>
<p>The credits you’ve accrued to make some difference. For instance, you’ve taken 4 units of foreign language (though 4 units if the same language would’ve been preferable). But only 3 units of English? That surprises me.</p>
<p>I don’t think AP Statistics is better or worse than calculus (unless you want to study science, in which case calc is better), but others disagree. They say calc is better than statistics.</p>
<p>No, we have seven classes. The remaining classes I took were electives (required gym, journalism one, and two years of newspaper). </p>
<p>Yeah, so I took algebra 1 and Spanish 1 in eighth grade, but I included them brcause they show up on my transcript. Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>Hm, yes. I just thought that AP stat would be better than regular calc next year because it’s an AP class. My strengths are definitely not within math/science and I do not plan on majoring in those fields.</p>
<p>Possible major? It could affect your choice. At this point your senior schedule is what it is, you could drop the TA if you can find something more academic, that fits your schedule. Can you get your principal to waive the tech or art, some places they have the power to waive local requirements provided you meet state requirements which may be less? I like the consistency of dedication to newspaper editor, is your major possibly in journalism? Class rank and difficulty of academic schedule in context of your school is important. You will need good SAT’s for those schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply! Yes, I am most interested in majoring in the journalism/communications field, but I’m not 100 percent sure. The TA would be for my journalism teacher, with whom I am very close. She has been a wonderful mentor, and I learn a lot from her every week. I do see your point in dropping TA, though it’s hard to find single semester classes that are substantial.</p>
<p>I will definitely consult my counselor regarding this situation. I highly doubt there is any way I can “get out” of these courses though, as it was my own scheduling choices that led me to this predicament. </p>
<p>My school is quite competitive, but we do not have a class ranking system. I believe the students in the top five and 10 percent of the class are notified, but I’m not sure about how this works at all. </p>
<p>However, as of right now, I’m pretty sure I’m in the top 10 percent of my class. My unweighted gpa is 3.97, and my weighted gpa is 4.62.</p>
<p>No physics? Colleges often like to see all three of biology, chemistry, and physics.</p>
<p>Also, your foreign language counts as only 3, because 3 is the highest level attained in any one language.</p>
<p>Statistics is probably of more use generally than calculus if your major does not require calculus, since understanding statistics can be important in a lot of areas (although taking calculus can allow you to take a more in-depth statistics course later). AP statistics is not generally considered a difficult course, since it emulates a semester-long college course that is not generally considered difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks for the note about stat, I think I will definitely take that instead of calc.</p>
<p>After watching many of my friends struggle with physics (honors and ap), and knowing that I am not particularly gifted with math, I decided not to take it. Maybe that was a mistake but I can’t really do anything about that now…</p>
<p>AP stats and do well in it. Don’t worry about the Physics, put your energy into what you are good at. Can you do some special project during TA downtime, aim for state contest in some area? Extracurriculars?</p>
<p>I completely agree with this. And if you’re inclined toward something in the area of journalism or communications, calculus will be as useful to you as knowing how to churn your own butter, while if you understood something about statistics, you might be able to do better reporting than the multitude of reporters who, apparently, don’t.</p>
<p>Haha, yeah. Stat is definitely the better option. I will definitely coordinate with my TA teacher and see what I can do. I’ve entered some journalism contests in the past and I hope to do so again. Last year I won one of the individual categories for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which was awesome.</p>
<p>My extra curriculars aren’t amazing, but I’d like to think they show commitment and dedication. Besides being a class, newspaper is also an out of school commitment. Additionally, I am a championship level Irish dancer (and I’m asian, by the way), and this is my tenth year dancing. I am planning to beef up these ECs over the summer, and I’m going to be doing a significant amount of volunteer work.</p>