My strong suits are in English/humanities courses, and I will probably apply to colleges as a major under one of those subjects.
Semester 1:
Algebra 2 honors
AP language and composition
AP US History
AP Micro economics
Physics
Spanish 3
PLTW 1st year (engineering class)
Looks like I’m going to have all As except for two Bs in algebra 2 honors and Spanish. Like I said earlier, humanities are what my strong suit is in. I plan to back this up by taking SAT subject tests in history and literature.
Second semester:
Algebra 2 honors
AP language and composition
AP US History
AP Macroeconomics
AP Human Geography
Physics
Spanish 3
- I will drop PLTW, a two semester course to take AP geography. Will dropping a course, even to take a harder, and more rewarding (college credit) class look has to colleges?
Forgot to mention that between this year and next year, I will take 8 or 9 AP classes out of the 12 offered at my school. Also, algebra 2 honors and pre-calc honors will be my only honor classes taken.
You may want to ask your counselor if the schedule will be one which will cause him/her to mark your course selection as “most demanding”, and which (if you do well in it) will cause him/her to mark your “academic achievement” as “one of the top few I’ve encountered (top 1%)” on the counselor recommendation form like this one:
https://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/School_Report.pdf
Depends on context. How many AP courses are offered, and what’s the approximate average? Maybe speaking with your counselor is a good idea, but try to not come off as the grade-grubbing type. Show that you are genuinely looking for a challenge.
If your course appears as withdrawn, DONT DO IT. It will look terrible on your app and raise many red flags to college counselors. Now if you are simply talking about going from PLTW 1 → AP Human Geo instead of PLTW 1 → PLTW 2, then that is perfectly ok.
AP HUGE is actually considered one of the easiest AP classes, and I am a fan of PLTW, which at our HS is considered more rigorous than AP HUGE (they’re weighted the same, but any freshman can take HUGE, but only juniors & seniors with the proper prerequisites can take PLTW, which are dual credit). However, if you’re certain about a humanities or English major, I am not sure I’d bother with PLTW at all. You’ve got all the cores, and you don’t need another social studies elective. Are there any other requirements you need to get out of the way?
Your guidance counselor is the best person to tell you what would get the box checked. I wouldn’t be surprised if s/he told you it didn’t matter, since you have plenty of APs and all the cores.