I am a sophomore at a pretty competitive high school and I need advice for my schedule for the most important year of HS, for my junior I am taking:
AP Calc AB
AP US History
AP English Language
AP Environmental Science
AP Psychology
and journalism (which is our school newspaper where I am an editor)
How much homework should I expect, will colleges like this schedule, is it rigorous enough since two of my AP’s are considered easy APs?
It depends on the level of colleges to which you are planning to apply as well as what you have as career aspirations. Which level have you reached in foreign language? Which science did you have 9th and 10th?
Homework expectations are unique to the school/teacher; you should ask current students.
Freshman year i took:
Spanish II
Honors English
Honors Algebra II
Chemistry
Journalism (I’ve been a part of it since freshman year)
and a PE
Over the summer i did spanish III
Sophomore Year (currently):
Journalism again
AP BIO
AP Euro
Honors English
Honors Precalc (aka trig)
My safety school is UCSB my target school js UCSD, USC and my reach schools are UCLA US Berkely Georgetown
As for career I would like to do business, marketing, poli sci, or some type of communications degree
Just want to clarify that unless you are talking about UCR and UCM, no UC especially UCSB can be considered a safety. A safety is a school where your stats are above the 75th percentile and you can afford. You are only a Sophomore, so there is no way of knowing how your Stats at the end of Junior year will stack up against the other applicants. It is great you are planning ahead, but until you have take your SAT/ACT and your 9-11th GPA, you cannot come up a list of safety schools, only likely schools.
I am a current sophomore at a competitive high school and I need advice for my schedule for my junior year. I am aiming for schools like UCLA, UCSD, UC Berkely, Georgetown, maybe Brown, with my safety schools being UCSB and SDSU. Next year (junior year) I want to take:
AP Calc AB
AP US History
AP English Language
AP Environmental Science
AP Psychology
and journalism (which is our school newspaper where I am an editor)
Will colleges like this schedule, is it
rigorous enough since two of my AP s are considered easy APs?
More Background:
Freshman year I took:
Spanish II (aka Spanish 3/4)
Honors English
Honors Algebra II (aka Honors Algebra 3/4)
Chemistry
Journalism (I’ve been a part of it since freshman year)
and a PE
Over the summer I completed did spanish III to get my 3 years done.
Sophomore Year (currently):
Journalism again
AP Biology
AP European History
Honors English
Honors Precalc (aka Honors trig)
and a PE to get that credit done with
My plans for Senior year are:
AP Stats
AP Lit and Comp
AP Art History
AP Gov
Physics
Journalism (hopefully editor in chief)
I understand what you mean, I guess I should call that my target school alongside UCSD and schools like UCLA would be my reach schools.
Rigor is most certainly fine, considering you have 5 AP classes. Might be a lot of homework, though, and it really depends on whether you can handle it along w/any extracurriculars. I actually limited myself to four APs each year, and it was a pretty good workload for me. I took: AP Bio, AP Junior English (English Language), AP Calc BC, and AP U.S. Then, I took Con Law one semester and sociology another.
If you are in Honors pre-calc, you may be able to into BC instead of AB. Most schools in my area run on this track.
Math is not my best subject so I would prefer to take AB and then go on to BC, but many kids at my school do skip AB.
Try to take Spanish IV instead of AP Psych, or take Spanish IV over the summer again and plan to test (SAT Subject) in October when you won’t have forgotten too much.
Georgetown requires 3 subject tests by the way.
For political science, look into Occidental - you can do a “campaign” semester as well as a semester in DC (for credit).
Why not take Honors Physics instead of AP Environmental?
Stick with Calc AB.
My school doesn’t offer honors physics otherwise I would take that instead