I’m a sophomore in high school, currently selecting which courses I’ll be taking for the next two years.
As it stands, I’ll be taking absolutely no AP classes next year, instead focusing on fun, project/competition based classes (Engineering, Anatomy/Biomedical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering/Sustainable Design). While in senior year, I’ll take AP Lang, Calc BC, AP Chem, and AP Physics C. Because of this, I won’t have the grades nor AP scores for those classes to put on my college apps.
How would this affect me, and is it significant enough to warrant a change in my schedule? (At my school we’re very limited as to what classes we can take each year, so if I want to move up some of those AP courses, I’ll have to pass on the engineering courses and do something boring senior year.)
Any info is appreciated.
Taking all of those AP courses your senior year might get overwhelming, especially since you will be going from no AP classes to all AP’s. Those AP classes aren’t exactly easy either. While it is important to not slack off senior year, you’ll still need to save time for college applications, essays, scholarships, etc. In my opinion, I would either take one of the AP classes in your junior year to balance out your schedule for junior and senior years, or keep your junior year schedule as it is and take one less AP class your senior year.
I agree with @LionKing2398 In addition to going from 0 AP’s to 4, AP Chem and AP Physics C are very time consuming, not only due to the inherent workload, but that amount of lab time involved. It is probable that you are seriously underestimating the work that goes into writing college applications; it’s really equivalent to another course.
While this does not solve the issue to taking Calc/Chem/Physics at the same time, you’d be better served taking AP Lang as a junior. The class teaches you how to be a better writer, which is invaluable for writing college apps.
Let me clarify a bit. I’m not at all worried about the difficulty of the classes, Calc BC and Physics C will be a breeze for me, and I know I will have to do a lot of work for Chem. I know nothing about AP Lang.
My concern is that I won’t be able to prove this on my apps, since I won’t have the scores to show for it. It may also look like I slacked off junior year.
I’d love to take AP Lang as a junior, but because of my school’s system, I will then be unable to take biomedical engineering. I am however considering taking Chem next year.
Some background:
Took AP CS test freshman year (self-study 5)
AP Bio this year
AP Environmental Science this year
AP Calc AB this year
Very strong math background
Strong physics background
It is true that I haven’t factored applying for colleges into my schedule.
Then it’s really a question for your GC. Will s/he say that your schedule is “most rigorous” on the Secondary School Report based upon your proposal, or will s/he drop it down to “very rigorous?”
Don’t focus on colleges not seeing the scores; they see nobody’s senior AP scores be decision time. But if your proposal impacts how your GC rates your course rigor, then I’d be concerned.
OK, that works too.
OK, but you might be being short sighted. Personally, I’d focus on classes that would help me get into to college vs. ones that I really like, but will neither reduce my college workload nor assist me on my applications. YMMV. . Is taking biomedical engineering as a senior not an option?
Thanks for the info. My GC knows that these (engineering-based) courses have a lot of project-based work, and actually recommended against my proposed schedule for that reason. As for your last question, its pretty much impossible to take Biomed senior year assuming I also want to take Physics.
So from what I’ve gathered, it doesn’t matter what year I take each class in, as long as the councilor thinks my schedule is rigorous. Does this sound right?
Yup.
I’d DEFINITELY take AP Lang rather than Biomed Engineering. Doubling up on engineering junior year is already pushing it, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of taking classes that will help you perform better in college as well as get into college.
I’d take AP Chem, AP Lang, and one (or two) Engineering classes junior year.