Hey guys, so basically I have planned out my sophomore year schedule. I will be taking English 2 regular, french 2, AP Human Geo, Math analysis honors (basically pre calc), chem honors, and Tennis.
Basically I chose to not taking honors english because i thought that its a big time commitment and I would get basically no honors points out of it for the UC honors point. English is notorious for giving a lot of hw and the work is pretty tedious and I basically do not want to spend so much time doing english homework (about 10 hours a week hw).
I might switch to honors Junior year but again, it doesn’t add up for the UC honors point in the GPA calculations. Do you guys recommend taking regular english if id doesn’t count towards UC GPA? Most of the class gets Bs and it would basically gurantee a B grade for me.
When it comes time to apply to college your counselor needs to check of the ‘took most rigorous courses’ box. Check with your counselor now to see if not taking English honors would be a problem. The other issue would be closing the pathway to taking English honors in the following year. Colleges would also look for a AP English class. Also a continued good practice in writing skills might come in handy when it comes to composing the all important college essays.
Good luck.
@nypapa this student is clearly aiming for UCs. The guidance counselor has no input on a UC or Cal State app.
@nypapa Me and my friends want to completely avoid taking AP English. We got to a pretty competitive top 500 school in California. AP English is the hardest AP class offered at our school. I currently have one of the AP English teachers and me and the majority of the class is scraping with a B- and Everyone gets Cs on the essays and hardly anyone gets an A. We have had 4 essays so far and they have been pretty brutal as we had to complete it in 50 minutes. My teacher said she assigned 22 ESSAYS THIS YEAR to her AP class. Ive talked to upperclassmen and all of them have said they have gotten Cs on the essays and their workload is too much and I don’t want to be one of them.
Im taking all AP classes for the other core subjects. I don’t really care if I don’t get that box checked because I don’t really want to suffer in that class. Im a Freshman and idk how UCs would be ideal for me, but I live close to UCR and UCI. I don’t really care if i go to UCR, UCI, or UCLA as IMO they are all good.
UC’s will consider your HS course rigor even if the “honors” classes are not UC approved for the extra weighting.
That said, you should take classes that you have an interest in and can do well. My son’s took Honors English even without the extra weighting and it did prepare them not only for AP English but their AP History classes since there are many essay type questions (DRQ’s and FRQ’s) on the exams in class and on the AP exam.
On the UC application you will list all classes (a-g courses) you have taken, in-progress and planned so they will consider all your classes on the application. For the UC GPA calculation however, only UC approved Honors, AP/IB or DE courses will be given the extra weighting.
Admissions does not expect you take every Honors/AP class available at your HS, but if you do want to take AP Lit or Language courses in Junior year/Senior year, then you will be better prepared by taking Honors English.
OP says they do not plan to take AP English.
Now that I think about it, I might take honors English Junior year. Course load varies throughout the teacher in my school. Besides I dont need AP English im already taking all other APs like Calc, Chem, Bio, Physics, Gov, etc
Something else to consider: Are you preparing yourself for College? If you are taking the lowest level English courses, are you going to be prepared to write papers in college?
So you are going to get admitted…but will you succeed?
and
Take a step back and ignore what your friends, the majority of the class and “everyone” are doing. How are YOU doing in the class and are YOU able to handle the honors level course next year? The AP teacher might be hard but how is the English 2H teacher? How is/are the regular English 2 teachers? Will you learn more in honors? If you are taking all other AP courses, will the regular English class to be too low academically and will the students in the regular class be less focused?
As is stated above, sometimes what you learn in English is more than the grade you receive in the class. Learning how to write well will help in other subjects as well as on your college applications and in college.
That said, it is not necessary to take all honors or AP courses. Just make sure you are choosing what classes you take based on what is best for you and not what your friends think.
ETA: I just looked at some of your other threads. It sounds like you should talk to your high school counselor and discuss how you are doing in your current classes, your level of stress and what UCs or CSUs might be target schools for you.
Probably because they use phrases like "Me and my friends "
Regardless, freshman year is too soon to worry about your junior schedule. Based on the OP’s many many threads about the GPA challenge in freshman year, s/he really needs to focus on improving GPA sophomore year before even considering AP Lang as a junior, which in all likelihood will not be an option without an A or A- in English 2.
An added benefit to AP Lang is that, if he gets a 3,4 or 5 on the AP exam, he will meet the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement. https://www.ucop.edu/elwr/