Is my senior course load too light?

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

My parents are preventing me from taking anymore classes than what I have right now because of time issues. I play tennis competitively, help my parents with their business and also run a non-profit so most of my afternoons are extremely busy - just for perspective to show that I’m not spending my time twiddling my thumbs and watching Netflix. Thus the light senior schedule, This year I am taking

AP Calculus BC
AP Chemistry
Physics Honors (Neither FLVS, nor the part time Physical school I attend offers anything higher)
Drivers ED
Spanish 4 Honors

I had to drop AP Computer science because of lack of time, but I am just really worried that especially compared to my schedule in junior year, my lack of difficult classes will look horrible to colleges ( I am looking into the ivies). I took one AP freshman year and four in my junior and senior years each (Passing with 4’s and 5’s)

I am not taking an English because I have taken them all - English I, English II, AP Lit and AP Lang and my school doesn’t offer any history AP’s that I have not already taken. If I were to add more classes to my schedule they would be either AP Psychology or AP Computer science.

Will prestigious Universities punish me for the lack of rigor? Will they see that its not because of lack of motivation but rather lack of time? Or should I try to squeeze in another AP? If it helps, I want to major in biomechanical engineering.

Thank you!

2

How many AP’s did you take last year?
Drivers Ed is not a class that College Adcoms give credit for.
I’d say your schedule is a little light.

3

I took four: AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Calc AB and AP Gov

Do you think my schedule this year will raise red flags for admissions officers?

4

Not red flags, per se, but it does look light compared to others applying to the same schools.
If I were you I’d step back from the NP and do AP CS instead.
You are going to need coding skills for engineering in college eventually .
And there aren’t nearly as many girls taking AP CS as boys, so it will be a feather in your cap.

5

I think what jumps out at my most if the lack of Humanities. I know you have taken all your English and history, but is there a way to add something to better balance the quantitative with the non, other than just foreign language? Can you do dual enrollment?

6

Thanks for your replies! I can’t really dual enroll because, again, lack of time. So, yeah that sucks. But I could maybe squeeze in AP Computer science. I would not be willing to drop the non-profit because there is really no one else available to run it at this point. It’s very near to my heart and its gotten to the point were I have both my physical school and the Colombian school system onboard (whoo hoo!) . So I’m not backing out now! :). Do you think AP computer science is enough to fix my schedule?

7

Actually, in order to “fix” your schedule, you should be taking some kind of Humanities class. I agree AP CS is beneficial, but it’s secondary - you’re lacking “core” classes and English + Social Science aren’t classes that go by “level”, but by number of years. BTW, as Stanford succinctly put it “it’s not a game of who has the most APs wins”. In other words, even if there’s no other AP class in these core subjects, you’re fine taking an honors seminar in English or a specialized class in history.
Right now, you’re taking 3 science/math classes and 1 humanities class. You need 1 more “core” class at the bare minimum.Regardless of your talent and reasons, you will not make he cut at top universities/LACs if you only have 4 academic classes per year.
Do not drop the charity, because the work you’re doing shows you’re extremely efficient and reliable not to mention passionate about something important.
But you do need to improve your schedule to be competitive for top 25 universities/LACs.