Hi all, this is my first post here on collegeconfidential (I hope I’m doing this right!). My sophomore year is almost over and I would like some suggestions about my schedule the remaining two years of high school. I realize that this may be a bit lengthy… Thank you in advance for your time!
I moved this year, and my new school here works on a block schedule unlike my old school where we had a 9-period/day schedule. These are the classes I have taken/am taking so far:
Freshman Year (old school)
Math: Geometry Honors
English: English II Honors
Science: Biology Honors
Social Studies: Global I (No AP/Honors offered)
LOTE: French II Honors
Electives: Orchestra, Design and Drawing for Production, (Phys Ed)
Sophomore Year (current and block schedule- orchestra takes up two out of the eight slots):
Math: Alg II PAP and Pre-cal PAP
English: none
Science: Chemistry PAP
Social Studies: AP World
LOTE: none (schedule conflicts with orchestra)
Electives: Orchestra (x2), Debate, Speech/Phys Ed (required)
These are my currently scheduled classes:
Junior Year
Math: AP Stats
English: AP Humanities (AP Lang+AP US so x2)
Science: none
Social Studies: AP Humanities, AP Psychology
LOTE: French III PAP, French IV AP
Electives: Orchestra(x2)
Senior Year
Math: AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC
English: AP Lit
Science: Physics 1 AP, Chemistry AP (also x2)
Social Studies: none (will take gov/econ online or dual credit)
LOTE: none
Electives: Orchestra(x2)
My main concern is having a gap of science and possibly foreign language (either keeping the above schedule or switching AP French IV with AP Physics). I had a really messy schedule this year with no English and French, and I don’t want to do this again. However, French III and French IV should be taken together (otherwise there will be another year long gap in between) so I don’t want to sacrifice that. But then I’m not sure if having a year gap of science is the best choice either. I’m open to any suggestions and your help will be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Could you switch Psych and Physics? I’d definitely try having a science junior year if you can fit it in.
i think you should take calc before you take stats cause stats is more like an outlier math. calc actually develops on precalc. definitely take a science junior year cause you want your transcript to look varied. typically science classes are valued over language classes so you should prioritize in that way or something depending on what major you want to do. taking so many hard APs senior year probably wont make much of a difference on your college apps…
^actually, the 5 “core” classes that top colleges want to see each year on your transcript are:
English, Math, Science, Social Science, Foreign Language.
For Foreign Language and Math, level reached subsitutes for number of years, so that if you have AP French junior year you’re considered to have completed “4” or “5” years of French.
You’d need 4 units of Science, including 1 each of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The 4th one can be an AP in one of these three, another AP, or another science class altogether.
Depending on your major, you should focus your classes around that. For example, if you’re majoring in psychology, you’d probably need biology and psychology at least. if you’re majoring in engineering, you’d need to have done at least calculus until after senior year and either biology, chemistry, or physics AP. and so on. But i think you might be underestimating the difficulty of doubling up sciences. I scraped by with an 89.6 in physics 1 and that was when it was Pre-AP and I got my only 3 C’s in chem 2. and i can tell you from experience BC is wayyyy harder than it looks. that was the only class i ever dropped out of and i did AB. your courseload seems to be a bit much. just remember not to get too in over your head and get swamped by these tough APs.
Yeah, that’s what really would be best, but I have a PSAT class the first nine weeks and AP Psych the second nine weeks… So unfortunately, I won’t be able to do that:( Thank you for the suggestion though!
marie122 and MYOS, thank you for your suggestions. Do you think I should just not take AP Stats at all and take AP Physics instead? Also marie: that’s what I really should be doing, but I don’t know what I’ll major in yet. It probably will be math/science related so that’s why I’ve been trying to take a lot of math classes. Also, math is my strongest subject (I’ve had a 100 in all math classes in high school so far), and I really need a lot of APs to stay competitive (currently in top 0.5% of my class). Some students are taking 7-8 APs a year.
Do you attend a competitive high school or a lower-performing school?
It’s a competitive suburban high school with 800-900 students per grade.
Same with my school. I think you should take challenging classes but only if you know you can handle the pressure and get good grades on this. Its the end of my junior year and I had decided to take 5 AP classes this year. After March I was dying.
March: SAT
April: ACT
May: 7 AP exams (many of them back to back)
June: 5 Final Exams (which I need to get high grades on to get A’s) and 3 SAT 2’s (Chemistry, Math 2, U.S. History)
June - July: Summer School/College Apps
Trust me, you don’t want to go through this. 
Pick classes that you know you’re prepared to work hard on. For example, don’t pick Physics AP just because of the GPA boost and not because you’re interested in it cause believe me, snoozing through an AP class is not the best way to go.
Good Luck 
May the odds be ever in your favor.
The force be with you (idk if I’m saying it correctly; never seen Star Wars)
I dont know any more famous motivational lines
k bye 
You shouldn’t go without a math, but you shouldn’t go without a science either…
Thanks marie!! Yeah actually i might change my senior year a bit… It does seem like a lot:/ and dang wow you deserve an applause for going through all that in such a short amount of time!!! Do you recommend taking either the SAT or ACT before the spring?
Topaz: yeah… I completely agree… I’m not sure what I should do…:((
A general question for anyone: would it be a good idea to contact a college admissions officer about this and ask what would be the best choice for me? (My dream college is Brown, so I’ll email them or something if this is what you recommend.)
If you attend a competitive school, then colleges couldn’t care less about your class rank as long as you’re top 10%. SO don’t take an impossible schedule that will affect sleep hours.
I would take Calc AB junior year, Calc BC senior year. Take either Physics 1 or Chemistry junior year instead of doubling up on Humanities. You really want to have one core class each year unless you’ve got a very very good reason.