I was looking at my schedule for my final year and I thought that maybe I could cram AP Statistics into my schedule since it is a subject I adore but can’t take instead of Calculus because colleges prefer Calculus. I really love statistics, government, and economics so I don’t know if enjoying these topics would help?
The classes would be:
AP English Literature and Composition
Calculus Honors (Or would just taking honors look bad? I don’t think I can take AP I’m feeling really burnt out math-wise)
AP Biology
AP Government (Semester Course) and Microeconomics (Semester Course)
AP Statistics
Dual enrollment:
National Government (Semester Course)
State and Local Government (Semester Course).
Does this seem like a recipe for trouble?
Since you are already taking AP govt and Econ, I’m not sure why you would add more social studies. And dual enrollment courses if they are any good would be too much work on top of what you already have. What about ECs or a job?
AP courses are not college courses, even though they may cover similar material as frosh-level college courses. Some take a year to cover what a college course covers in a semester (e.g. statistics, calculus AB).
@CheddarcheeseMn You’re right. I didn’t think of it like that. Do you think I should drop both dual enrollment courses and instead look for employment/work on extracurriculars?
I know some kids who have skipped Calc and took AP Stat instead who are interested in government/social studies and still got into great colleges. As long as you have taken precalc I think you’ll be fine, since you don’t intent to major in stem.
Look into the colleges that your are interested in. Some colleges don’t require calc as a general requirement and if your major is a social studies topic, you won’t need to take it at all (unless you major in economics where some colleges require calc)
Defintely drop at least one of the dual enrollment classes. Your schedule is rigorous enough and it won’t benefit your college admission chances much to take dual enrollment. Doing some related employment/internship/extracurricular might be more beneficial as you could potentialy write an essay about the experience.
It also depends on what you’re planning to major in college and how many of those AP classes you’re planning to use as college credits.
@cram545 Sadly my major is economics with a possible minor in statistics so I probably do need Calculus. I decided doing dual enrollment is probably a bad idea and I should just stick with the 5 classes a semester, 4 AP and Calculus Honors, so I can hopefully keep my summer job through my senior year.
@collegehuh I plan on majoring in economics and I’m trying to get some of the math electives out of the way along with General Education while also looking competitive for top colleges.
A good economics major program will require calculus (and may require calculus-based statistics). If you want to go on to PhD study, you will also need to take more advanced math like multivariable calculus, linear algebra, real analysis, probability theory.
I would skip the AP Stats and/or deemphasize the stats, and take an AP Calc instead. Econ intent-majors will look a lot better with AP Calc on their resume. AP Stats is not particularly needed since most good Econ programs would require calculus-based Stats, which AP Stats isn’t.
If you took 3.5 AP classes, that’s a average load for a smart student. APs for Bio, Govt, Calc AB (or even BC) and Lit is fairly difficult but manageable.
My impression from your post is that you are talking about classes for your senior year of high school.
If this is correct, then you should keep in mind that senior year of high school is stressful. You are going to have an “extra effort” to do which is pretty much the equivalent of another AP class. This extra effort is researching colleges, visiting colleges, deciding where to apply, sending in applications, writing essays, arranging for your LORs and transcripts and test scores to be sent in, waiting for responses, and picking which school to attend. This is a lot of work. When it is over you have a huge emotional relief which does not necessarily match well with the effort to study for many upcoming AP tests.
I would back off a bit on the APs.
@ucbalumnus I plan on doing economics and then a JD to hopefully go into politics when I’m older.
@professorplum168 I’m currently taking 3 AP classes and it hasn’t been overwhelming at all (AP Language, AP US History, AP Macroeconomics) the only one I’ve had difficulty with is AP Language because I’m not passionate about it like I am for economics and politics. The only class I’ve really had difficulty with is Pre-Calc since I’m pretty burnt out (I took two semesters of Geometry in one semester and two semesters of Algebra 2 in two months over the summer online) which is why I was hoping to just take it honors. Although if it is that important I could probably push through another year.
@dadtwogirls well for the most part I have already researched and planned what colleges I will apply too but I get what you mean. I’m almost sure I should drop the Dual enrollment although I’m not sure about anything else. I don’t really want to take Calculus but it is pretty important. I’ve also heard that it’s really important to take an AP science course in High School hence why I have Biology (Eventhough I loathe the topic). In a perfect world I would just take
AP English
Calculus Honors (Maybe even AP since it’s only 4 courses)
AP Statistics
AP Government + Microeconomics
But I worry this will make me a weak applicant. Especially since I want to be a politician and I am really trying to reach some “reach schools.”
@TheGussA don’t know much about the level of difficulty of an Honors Calc class, because the class is not even offered at my kid’s HS. Generally speaking at my kid’s HS, kids with an A or high B+ in Honors Pre-Calc are eligible for AP Calc BC, and C+ to B+ students took AP Calc AB. It’s something you should go thru with you GC. “Will you get dinged for rigor by not taking an AP Calc class?” is one question I would ask.
Also, it might help if you could list what schools you are thinking of applying to, and what kind of math scores you got on your standardized tests.
@professorplum168 I could always take AP Calc AB instead of BC since it’s slightly more basic although I’ll make sure to ask my guidance counselor.
My list would be:
Reach: Columbia and Princeton.
Semi-Reach: University of Florida, University of Southern California, and New York University.
Safe: Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Florida International University and University of South Florida.
I have yet to take the SAT but I have registered to take it for the first time this March. However, I have taken two PSATs which would be:
10/11/17 - 1180: 580 in English, 600 in Math.
10/10/18 - 1220: 640 in English, 580 in Math.
I’m doing a rigorous SAT prep schedule I started a while ago to be fully prepared by March and I’m working on the Math that I dropped.
If you want to go into law, logical thinking is needed on the LSAT and in law. Proof based math in college could be good practice for that, as can some philosophy courses.
I meant classes during high school, sorry if I didn’t clarify…
However, you should try not to be afraid of math or other things that require logical thinking if you want to go to law school.