Is this plausible? Rising Junior Schedule

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I am a rising junior looking to apply to selective colleges with engineering in mind, and I am seeking advice on my schedule for next year. I attend a college prep Catholic High school in California (99% go to college). So far, I have been very successful in all of my classes, and I am planning on stepping up my game next year. However, I am unsure if I am taking too big of a leap.

Last year my schedule was:

Advanced STEAM (The a is for art, basically an engineering class)
English 2 H
AP World History
Academic Coaching (Study Hall where I also helped others)
Chemistry Honors
Pre-Calculus Honors
Religion (required)

I received all As and A+s and scored a 5 on my AP World History exam. Additionally, I am currently taking Dual enrollment Spanish 102 and my local CC, which my high school counts as Spanish 3. My Junior year schedule is currently as follows:

*US History
Engineering Design
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP Lang
*AP Computer Science A
Religion (required)

I have marked the two classes I am looking to potentially adjust for next year with asterisks. Unfortunately, my school offers only two levels of US History: CP (college prep aka regular) and Dual Enrollment. I am certain that I would enjoy the Dual Enrollment class and have the potential to do well in it, but because I am stem oriented, I am not sure if the added difficulty will be incredibly beneficial when it comes to college admissions. Furthermore, the Dual Enrollment class is known as one of the most challenging classes at my school in which 3-4 students across two classes generally get As. Along with my already challenging schedule, it is very possible, probably even likely that I will end up getting a B in this class (which I accept as I know a B in a tough humanities class will not kill me as a future engineering major). Secondly, I am hoping to swap AP Computer Science A with AP Physics 1. This one I am very sure about, but I have yet to be able to make the change due to a lack of space in the class. However, it is likely that I will eventually get this changed. I realize that this will increase the difficulty of my schedule, which is partly why I am unsure about swapping into Dual Enrollment US as well.

Other things to note: I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA through sophomore year, and scored a 1460 on the PSAT in 10th grade with no prep. I also scored a 1520 (790 M, 730E) on my first official practice SAT and plan to take the real SAT in the fall along with the Math II subject test. I am very willing to put in the work that I know will be required of me should I chose take this course load. Finally, I absolutely do NOT want to be held back by a slightly less competitive schedule when it comes to applying to top engineering programs.

Any advice is much appreciated!

2

FWIW, my daughter’s AP and dual credit history sequence got her out of a general ed distribution at her college. She really enjoyed the classes in HS and got a lot out of them.

What are your plans for your senior year schedule?

3

My planned senior year schedule is:

Engineering Capstone and Practicum
AP Literature
AP Gov/AP Macroeconomics
Dual Enrollment Linear Algebra/Differential Equations
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Comp Sci A (assuming I get into physics 1 for Junior year)
Religion

I have read that taking humanities APs often helps STEM majors meet general education and/or breadth requirements at many colleges, which certainly makes the class seem like a very strong option assuming the college accepts the credit.

4

I think you have a solid plan for your courses.

5

So go ahead with the changes I proposed in my original post? I’m really only concerned about the extra work, but the college credit is very tempting.

6

If you want to go into engineering, you do want to get some kind of physics into your high school schedule before you graduate, since physics in college often recommends high school physics as a prerequisite.

7

This doesn’t seem like an extravagant or unrealistic junior schedule by any means. Your planned senior year schedule is reasonable as well. Since you don’t want to go overboard with rigor and your schedule is already acceptably challenging, I’d recommend either AP Physics 1 instead of Comp Sci along with regular US History or DE US History + AP Computer Science, but that’s just my preference.

8

Take physics 1 indeed. Stay in regular history as you’ll need an easier class in there and that schedule will be considered challenging.

9

I think you would be fine with the DE US history, as you said, getting a B won’t really hurt you considering you’re interested in engineering.