My son is interested in taking the following as a sophomore. He plays two varsity sports the first half of school year, does Quiz bowl and is in Boy Scouts. So he has long days with practices. He suggests:
Honors Spanish III
Honors Chem
AP stats
AP World
AP Envir Science
Honors English II
This would be “keeping up” with the top 10% of his class. Although most of these kids don’t have any or many ECs.
Some parents have said the heavy schedule in lieu of ECs is worth it to gain college acceptance and scholarships. I guess I’ve always heard a well rounded transcript was more important…
Is this schedule doable? I was thinking he should drop the AP Envir science and just take another honors. Any suggestions?
Thanks
This schedule is very doable for your son, as long as he has motivation for school.
AP Environmental has a reputation for being one of the easy APs. AP world is a ton of work in most schools, and might be tough with the EC schedule you described. But if he’s only taking 6 classes, I would think it’s manageable as long as he is prepared to work pretty hard.
AP stats is an unusual choice for the only math class of a sophomore. Where is he in math sequence?
There are many paths to college acceptance. It sounds like he is very motivated and I would trust him to choose a path that is good for him.
Thanks! Yes AP Stats is unusual. I agree
And I’m concerned. His HS math department recommends this for kids on his math track because they feel it’s a good balance with AP world workload. He has had Algebra I and II and Gemoetry all honors. He doesn’t love math so I worry about the gap until he takes precalc as a junior. His HS counselor said its better to take calc closer to college so that he doesn’t forget it when he gets to college maths. I’m not so sure I agree with this and don’t even know what he will major in yet. .
I also heard that AP Envir Sci is pretty easy but I was told it requires some Chem. If he’s just taking Chem for the first time next year, will it make sense to have AP Envir Sci at the same time.
Thanks!
Ideally, he should take AP Stats when he is taking a Pre-Calculus course. Don’t take a gap year on math or he may forget some stuff. I would drop AP ES just because it’s a waste of a class. If he does stick with it, don’t underestimate the exam!
I can’t speak from personal experience about AP env. However, my daughter took AP bio and commented that the AP exam had a lot of content which she felt could also have been AP env material. So it’s my impression there is a lot of overlap and because of this I think it doesn’t make sense to take both classes unless you have a special interest in Environment. Perhaps someone who has taken both would have more to say on this.
AP stats is easier than calculus. I couldn’t say if it’s easier than precalc. There are people on this site who think it “looks bad” to take AP stats senior year after completing calculus as a junior, simply because it’s easier than calculus. Personally, I think that’s a bit silly, but the opinion is out there. But this may be what the counselors are really thinking. (For that matter, students in our school take AP gov as seniors after completing APUSH and AP world, and colleges don’t seem to mind, even though AP gov is much easier.) If the AP stats as a sophomore is the usual sequence at your school, I’d probably just go with it. Otherwise he will be separated from friends and also sometimes it creates scheduling issues if you aren’t taking the usual classes for your grade level. I don’t think it matters that much.
I’m thinking if you are concerned about the workload, maybe skip AP env, unless that is some special interest of his, and pick an arts or other fun elective that won’t be too much work. My sophomore is taking 3 AP classes, one of them AP world, and she was working nonstop during XC season. She does have 8 rather than 6 academic classes though. So, yes, it’s do-able but it might be more than he wants to take on.
Thanks! He was starting to feel good about taking an honors engineering elective and then the peer pressure ramped up… Most of his friends are heading toward the 3 APs so I guess he’s probably going to do this as well. :(. I think he’s going to be shocked at the amount of work he’s in for. Freshman year has been a joke.
This would be fine, I have a similar schedule and I’m on two varsity sports and other clubs as well.
Incidentally, many college scholarships are based more on test scores than on number of APs taken or anything like that. Many of the outside ones I looked at were based on significant volunteerism, not school class schedules.
A lot will depend on how fast and efficient he is with home work, but also what sports he does and how exhausted he is when done after each practice. My brother was a swimmer with 2-3 hour practice plus dry land, 5 month season. He was exhausted after practice every day and came home and slept, then did home work. He dropped his AP American History class because the reading was taking to large of a percentage of his total time available to do home work. Ironically he took basic American History with barely any reading, then reviewed all of the terms and essays from his AP American friends and still got a 4 on the AP test.
With that said I took all of those classes and the only one remotely challenging was AP World and once again it was due to amount of assigned reading not the content or concepts. He will do fine.
Too much or not totally depends on the student’s comfort level with each of these classes. How much time he needs to spend in each? Out of these classes, I saw my D. doing homework at home only for History and English. There were hard for her. The rest of the classes were easy for her and she managed to have the homework done at school. She was also very busy with the year around multiple and unrelated ECs. For references, I do not recall her being very busy with her homework until junior year when she took college American History and AP English Lit. These 2 classes were very time consuming. Her goal has always been to have an A in every class. So, it depends on the current level of kid’s skills in each class.
" My brother was a swimmer with 2-3 hour practice plus dry land, 5 month season." - yes, D. was a year around swimmer, and her summer season included 2 / day practices starting at the tender age of 10. But she had much more on her plate than just swimming.
Thanks. I’ve heard that AP world will be the most challenging of the three and lots of reading. He plays football and wrestles. Football isn’t so bad but wrestling is mid year and six days a week (all day tourneys on Saturdays.) He is a gifted student but does also have ADHD and anxiety. It’s controlled well at school and getting better with age. I suppose that’s a concern. Half his class of 500 is maintaining a weighted 4.0 this freshman year so the school is a bit intense and the kids are competitive.
And I should mention he’s very good about homework completion even if it takes longer than maybe other students. He’s dedicated with all A’s this year and very quick study especially with memorization type classes. And he loves history!
I also question the AP Stat - he should stick to the standard math sequence and go for pre-calc followed by calc (like most HS kids do). AP history classes tend to have a lot of homework (reading and writing). Despite people calling it an AP lite - my daughter’s AP enviro was the only science class which covered an entire textbook (one of those huge heavy books) so don’t underestimate the amount of reading for that class also.
" He’s dedicated with all A’s this year and very quick study especially with memorization type classes. And he loves history! " - Sounds like he should be OK handling the load. Removing the History burden, the rest of the classes are not that time consuming. Specifically, Stats are easy. Then, he will have only English as time consuming class, and it should not be bad either, as it is Honors, not AP. Not too bad!
I would add, for well-prepared freshman, many find it is not that tough to maintain straight As first year. That tends to change as they move into 10th grade and beyond.
If your student is thinking about using his sports to shape his college search (eventually), our experience with D3 recruiting was that schools are very interested in prospective recruits who are high-achieving, but not necessarily tippy-top, academic achievers. My kid’s gpa took a bit of a dip after 10th grade, when the demands of the classroom and on the field became more intense. However, his recruiting process showed us that LACs very much respected his ability to balance 20-30 hours of week of athletics, and still get very good grades.
“I would add, for well-prepared freshman, many find it is not that tough to maintain straight As first year. That tends to change as they move into 10th grade and beyond.” - While it is true, the best is to learn to continuous adjustments. Then, you do not need to deal with the sport requirements at college where kids are much more challenged and consumed by academics. The straight A HS kid with decent SAT / ACT scores will be offered great Merit scholarships at few publics / privates and the sport will be optional then. While few coaches primarily from private colleges were pursuing my D., she was not interested in college sport, she knew that it would interfere with her ultimate goal. And, in fact, it did. She tried to be on the club team and even was part of home competitions, but after college freshman year, realized that she needs to drop it to allow time slots for other important ECs and to meet requirements of high college GPA.
Whatever you decide, it will need adjustments! Your life, your decisions!
To the OP: I was trying to communicate that, in our experience talking with LACs, there tends to be some more flexibility in the academic portfolio for recruited athletes. I’m not talking a 2.5 gpa, I mean something like a 3.75 vs. a 3.95. Schools recognize that, when kids might have 20+ hours a week for their sport, maintaining excellent but not perfect grades is still quite an accomplishment.
Another consideration is that for a lot of kids (often, but not always, boys), continuing to play their sport helps keep them organized and efficient – many parents of high school athletes that I know share the experience of their kid’s grades dropping after season ends.
At every information session I have attended during college searches for 2 kids, some parent will ask whether it is better to get Bs in the most demanding curriculum (APs etc) or As in Honors classes. Pretty much every admissions officer chuckles and says something like “Well, we prefer As in the most demanding curriculum,” and then says something like, “seriously, we want to see students have challenged themselves academically at a level where they can still be successful.” Which we interpreted along the lines of “be sensible” – don’t push a non-STEM-y kid into double loaded APs in the sciences, just to max out on APs. Take classes which challenge the student, but don’t ignore their interests and strengths.
One consideration at this stage in high school class selection is to what extent the 10th grade classes serve as pre-requisites for upper level classes the student might really want in 11th/12th grade. Depending on the school’s practices, there may or may not be flexibility in registering for upper level classes a kid wants if they haven’t been on the right “track” before hand. Those are the questions I would explore with Guidance.
Good luck!
Thanks! His passion is his sports but I’m doubtful he will be good enough to play in college. He wants to challenge himself academically and also not miss out on the sports he loves In high school. We will need merit aid. It sounds like he now decided to drop AP Evir Sci and take honors drafting instead next year. I guess I have mixed feelings about this since mapping out the next several years of classes. I thought I’d be happy about him dropping to two APs…
Env sci is a requirement and he’ll have to double up on science APs junior or senior year since he will probably want to do AP Chem and AP physics at some point. Maybe it makes sense to do the 3APs next year. Who knows. The teachers are recommending against it since they say you need some Chem before AP Envir Sci. It’s all enough to make my head spin!
I too would question Stats over Pre Calc. He will need the Pre Calc for Physics and it’s better to have one before the other. My Junior has them at the same time right now and counseled his little brother to not follow his lead.
My current freshman will have the following for his sophomore year
Honors Chem
AP World
PreCalc
French 4 (may self study for the AP test)
Jazz
Band
Honors English
Plus XC, Track and Scouts. It will be very doable for him and honestly we/he might like a little more rigor but not at the expense of music. He will likely have 4-5 AP’s junior year (AP Lang, AP Calc AB, AP Physics 1, APUSH, AP CS-C) and then 3 for senior year (AP Lit, AP Calc B/C, AP Physics 2. He’ll be leaving those pesky PE credits till senior year and hope for a waiver.
My ADHD boy (current junior) had a hard time with AP world. While he loves to read, it was a LOT of reading and a LOT of note taking. He tried very hard to talk his little brother out of it.