I recently moved to a new school and am basically taking a senior level courseload, in addition to a few more courses to graduate early.
AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB (self studying for BC test)
AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP US Government
AP English Language
possible self studying:
AP Statistics
Does anyone have tips as to time management and as to whether this courseload is even manageable come May?
“Is this a ridiculous schedule for a junior”
IMHO, yes, this is ridiculous.
What are your grades up to now? How many APs have you taken up to now?
Graduating early is probably a bad idea.
You set yourself up for failure. Drop 1 of the English APs, 1 of the History/Government APs. Keep at most 5.
Yikes, haha.
I have a 3.94 UW and 4.0 W. I’ve taken AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics and got 5s on each last year.
I’m graduating early in order to hopefully study abroad, since I’m already maxing out on the opportunities that lie here.
I think that you are likely to find that APUSH is a lot more work than AP economics. It is the one (along with AP Euro History) that would scare me the most. I will admit that I loved economics when I took it (in university) so I might be biased.
What do you mean by “maxing out the opportunities” where you are? With a more sane junior schedule (APUSH, AP Eng Lang, AP calc AB, AP chem), there would still be several AP courses left to take senior year (Eng Lit, calc BC, US govt, econ, another science). Have you already taken a physics course of some kind?
If you’re smart and you manage your time well, you can manage it. Next year (my junior year) i’m going to be taking
AP Calc AB
AP US History
AP Comp Sci
AP English Language
AP Physics
AP French
And I will be possibly self studying AP Statistics.
So these are very similar schedules so I think you can manage it if you really focus. We’re in the same boat! 
Does your school not allow you to take BC without taking AB? If your school does allow you to take it, then if you’re taking the BC exam why not just take the class as well?
The schedule might be doable, but you’re taking unnecessary risks that won’t help you significantly in college admissions (but could hurt you quite a lot if you end up getting poor grades because the workload is too much). Specifically, I recommend the following:
Don’t self study BC - I don’t see self studying BC helping you significantly in college admissions. Colleges, including the most competitive ones, generally don’t give any significant weight to self studying an AP.
Don’t take both AP English Lit and AP English Lang - Choose one or the other, I don’t see the point in taking both in the same year. And again, taking both is not going to help you significantly (if at all) with admissions, but could backfire badly if the workload ends up being too much.
Don’t self study AP stats - for the same reason as 1)
Also, definitely don’t take any more additional courses, unless you have a very very good reason for wanting to graduate early (and honestly, I can’t imagine a reason that would make sense).
In my junior year I took 8 AP exams (2 were macro and micro econ). I passed all except one but I really regret it. My junior year was extremely stressful and though my grades were good, I was constantly exhausted. I would advise you to rethink your schedule. Is it doable? Yes. Should you do it? No.
Now let’s take a look at the specific classes and I’ll tell you about my experiences:
AP English Literature
A LOT of reading, I only took the 1st semester my senior yr then switched out due to personal reasons. I’m not sure how you feel about English but I personally do not like it and found this class very boring and time consuming.
AP Calculus AB (self studying for BC test)
The exam was fairly easy since my teacher made the class more difficult than the exam. I think this is a manageable class depending on how strong your math background is and how your teacher is. If I’m not mistaken you can’t even take both the AB and BC exam in the same year. BC is not too bad once you’ve done AB but I wouldn’t recommend self-studying it if you have not finished AB.
AP Chemistry
This exam was extremely challenging. I loved chemistry but ultimately got a 3 since I took it during my junior year and simply did not have enough time to devote to it. This class requires a lot of time to really understand the material. There are so many topics it can be quite overwhelming.
AP US History
The class was not too bad in terms of workload but the exam was medium difficulty. Subject matter can be interesting but there is a lot to cover.
AP US Government
I did not take this class, sorry.
AP English Language
Not too bad in workload but get ready to write. My teacher had us write an essay at least once a week. The exam was not particularly challenging but you definitely need to have good writing skills.
AP Statistics
Do not self study this. There is a lot of material. I took it during my sophomore year and loved the class. The exam was challenging and I would not recommend self-studying.
Overall, if I were you I would choose one of the AP English classes (preferably language not literature), consider dropping US History or Government, and maybe substitute those for an easier AP such as Environmental Science or Psychology (if you haven’t taken them yet). Also have you ever self-studied for an AP exam before?
@JustinDaMan1141 there will be plenty of opportunities to study abroad in college, and if you are really eager, you could consider a gap year abroad. As others said, graduating early is not a good idea, especially seeing as your high school offers enough challenging courses to keep you busy through senior year.
I don’t know about your school, but the APs that give the most work in my school are Chemistry, US History, US Government, English Language, and probably English Literature (I haven’t talked to anyone in that class/experienced it myself). I know that US History and English Language alone give 3-4 hours of homework a night, so I can’t imagine how much work all of those APs would be. I know one kid in the grade above me who took at least 8 APs in one year and ended up with Cs in all of them (I don’t know how he did on the exams).
And it’s honestly not worth it to graduate early. You don’t have to take my advice since I haven’t graduated yet (I am a junior), but the way I see it, you’re going to want to spend as much time being a kid as possible. I knew this kid who was basically a prodigy (he was also in calculus in 8th grade), but he had little-to-no social skills. Yes, he was brilliant, but social skills are just as important as intelligence, so the same advice goes to you.
Extracurriculars are just as important as academics, so if you’re spending 6 hours or more on homework, you won’t have time to develop your personal side.
If you want advice on the courses you should take, here’s what I was planning on doing (I ended up dropping AP Language)
AP English Language
AP Calculus AB/BC
AP US History
AP Physics 1
AP Computer Science Principles
So from your list, I think you should take:
AP English Language
AP Calculus BC (don’t self study BC)
AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP Statistics
At my school, a student with a schedule like this would probably be top 10.