My daughter is beginning her junior year tomorrow and she’s having a crisis. I think the classes she picked are too hard, and I’m worried she’s going to crash and burn, and ruin her GPA. She wants to be a science major, though she’s not sure now if she’ll be Environmental Science, or Botany. She doesn’t really need to take APUSH, so I’m suggesting she replaces it with another, easier AP class. What should she take??? Here is her current schedule:
AP US History
AP Lang
AP Spanish Lang
AP Biology
IB Environmental Systems
Honors Pre-Calculus
In our school they had standard or AP History so my daughter did an online Honors during the Summer. The school offered it through Florida Virtual. Was like $650 but accepted as credit in our district even though it’s pass/fail.
We focused on her well being vs. getting into Harvard, etc.
She did get into W&L - so it didn’t hurt her from getting into a great school.
I would say you have a great point - but maybe she can handle it. The question is - is she angling for Ivy or a top school or is she just looking to go to a solid public/private - because that’s more than enough rigor for either but she can definitely tone down the one class and she’d be fine (but maybe not for Ivy). Had they offered Honors History at school, my daughter would have taken it…but standard is the non-college classes so that’d be a no no.
That’s actually a great idea! She could take it in the Summer at a Community College. The problem is that the AP classes are weighted, and if she takes it somewhere else it will hurt her GPA. But, I’m not sure. I’m just learning all this. W&L is a great school! We’re in CA so we’re hoping for UC Berkeley or UCLA. So not Ivy, but darn competitive. I think she wants to stay in state. Their well-being is the most important thing!
So our school starts at 7:15 but my daughter went at like 9:30 - she had study hall and then an online class. The extra sleep helped so much.
She did the Honors US History online in Summer - so not a college class.
But whatever works for you.
Good luck to her…of course there’s still two years, her interests may change - and there’s a ton of great schools in California and nearby - and nearby (like Arizona) comes with great merit aid.
This is fabulous news! I thought taking classes at a community college would hurt her because they’re not weighted! Is it best to add it to her transcript or keep it separate because her high school doesn’t weight CC classes?
The UC’s will ask for the college transcript unless the HS has a dual enrollment agreement with the CC. Just remember any college course taken will be on her permanent college record and will have to be disclosed if applying to Graduate or Professional schools. Make sure she takes a course in which she will excel.
My daughter is going to UCLA. She took regular US history in Junior year. Her teacher was tough though and they had a TON of work. Maybe not as much as AP but it wasn’t an easy class. Good luck to her and I would recommend not overloading. UCLA likes high GPA but it’s not the only thing they look at.