Junior Year Schedule - Advice?

Parents Forum
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<p>Hello all, I am posting here because I feel I can get a better idea of what ap classes to take for my junior year than on the ap thread since most people there can handle a lot more aps. I am currently taking 2 aps (stats and world) this yr and took ap human geo. as a freshmen. Right now, I'm considering taking:</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB
AP Spanish 5
AP English Lang
AP US
Hon Physics
Hon Accounting
7th class...idk yet</p>

<p>This would be a lot of work, so I was wondering if any parents have any experience with their child in too many aps or how they handled it. Calculus AB is the hardest math at my school, so I probably will spend a lot of time there. AP Spanish is 1st period everyday and only 1 class. I heard ap exam scores are erratic for that class, but it's mainly reviewing for ap exam, listening practice, etc. Ap english is a TON of annotating, so 70% of grade is from there. There are also random timed essays, so many ppl consider doing dual instead. AP US is specific knowledge with hard tests, so I think it would be a lot different and harder than Ap World. *I'm not considering taking Ap bio or chem, the most rigorous sciences at my school. Will this hurt my rigor or if I plan to go to college for some math/science type major?</p>

<p>*One other thing is ap national scholar...I will have taken 7 aps by junior yr, but the requirement is 8 aps, all 4-5's, avg of 4+. I don't think I can do it, so should I risk my gpa to take 5 aps next yr, and is it really on college apps to be a national ap scholar jr 1/10 in state vs as a senior, where it's more common?</p>

<p>*gpa is 5.0 for A in ap
4.5 for A in hon</p>

<p>.5+ for any +'s.</p>

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<p>My son insisted on taking six APs in his junior year–basically your schedule but with AP Chem and Computer Science substituted for honors physics-- and rounded off his schedule with a difficult elective, Japanese II. I told him at the time that he was biting off more than he could chew, but he is a risk-taker and would rather be overtaxed than bored. He ended up managing OK, and getting 5s on all the exams. But he took a significant hit to his GPA and class rank with a fair number of B grades. He also had to drop his varsity sport.</p>

<p>As far as we could tell, his performance on AP tests did not matter to colleges at all. Presumably they did care that he had taken a rigorous curriculum, but I am not sure it had to be that rigorous. In fact I think he may have done better in the elite college admissions game if he had had As in honors classes rather than Bs in AP classes (both tracks count as “most rigorous” from his school’s guidance counselors). He did get into some good colleges, though, and has been happy to have the advanced placement credits to skip out of most of his general-education requirements.</p>

<p>Now my daughter is coming along, and I’m encouraging her to limit herself to 3 APs in her junior year. She is more of a perfectionist about her grades than her brother, and she also is seriously committed to some time-consuming ECs that she is not prepared to give up. She will probably do AP Language (the emphasis on writing in that class is very valuable across the curriculum), Calculus AB, and US History.</p>

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<p>I think the schedule now is ok since I am not taking ap chem/ap bio. Those are WAY too time consuming, and I think only the valedictorian of the senior class has an A in ap chem. Most have B’s/C’s. </p>

<p>The problem is idk if it’ll hurt if I plan to be an engineering major or just somewhere with science; I’m not sure what colleges will think with no ap sciences. I will do ap environmental, but I’m not sure what else to take for sciences senior year.</p>

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<p>one of my kids took 5 AP’s total. Passed all with 5’s. Because of that and loading up on a few additional classes he’s graduating from college a semester early which is going to save our family a ton and he’s decided to bike ride across the country with his free semester off before working.</p>

<p>So take as many as you think you can handle, but don’t leave yourself without any free time to smell the roses and have a little fun too. Life is not all about tests and studying!!!</p>

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<p>What constitutes “too many APs” depends a lot on how quick a learner you are and in which areas. It also depends a great deal on how much of a risk-taker you are – if you bite off more than you can chew, your grades and probably your sleep could be impacted.</p>

<p>Last year, my son took 3 APs and a college chemistry class with 9 classes total; he had enough time left over to teach himself 4 additional science and math APs – and get straight As. He got away with this because it was a math and science intense curriculum and he’s the kind of kid who NEVER opened a math or AP Physics textbook to prep for a test, it was all just “obvious.”</p>

<p>This semester he took 10 classes, 5 of them APs plus 2 college classes. He was totally worn out by the end of the semester. The difference was that this time he had 3 very reading and writing intense AP classes, which combined took up two-thirds of his time. He’s an excellent writer, but a slow one, and one who over-researches his papers just because “it’s interesting.” He ended up with two rare Bs, one because he forgot to turn in a paper that he had finished on time the very last week of the semester – an unfortunate and sloppy oversight I attribute to his exhaustion. </p>

<p>So you have to consider your strengths and your personal situation:

  • Can you turn out A-quality papers with minimal effort?
  • Can you learn calc with minimal effort?
  • Does Spanish come easy to you?
  • Are the AP teachers in your school lenient or extremely tough in giving out As? At my son’s school, only 2 out of 30 students in AP Bio got an A (he was one) and 3 out of 30 in AP English Language got an A (and he wasn’t).
  • Does the school provide class rank by weighted GPA? My son’s school does and we knew going into this that his #1 rank wouldn’t be in jeopardy even with triple-Cs, because of the sheer number of advanced classes he has taken through his custom-approved curriculum.</p>
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<p>apstudent1, not to discount LoremIpsum’s post, but her son is very much the exception, not the rule.</p>

<p>Any student taking 3 or more AP classes is taking a very heavy load.</p>

<p>Remember 2 things:

  1. taking any particular AP course is a very different matter from taking multiple AP courses. My D took 5 honors courses her freshman year. While she could succeed at any one of them individually, in combination it was too much. She struggled, it was VERY stressful, and it took the rest of her high school career to dig out of the hole that was left in her GPA.</p>

<p>2) Don’t worry too much about what college admissions officers want to see. Plan your high school career to satisfy yourself. You want to be challenged but not overwhelmed, and you want to have some time for your other passions - be they music, sports, or friends. Remember, you only have one chance in your life to be in high school. I wouldn’t kill myself with an overload just for the chance to be called an “AP National Scholar.” That title will not get you into an Ivy/Top Univ, and not having it won’t keep you out.</p>

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<p>I don’t want to risk gpa/class rank, so I’m looking for a good balance. I know it’s hard to get A’s in any ap, but it’s doable. There will be some late nights for annotating and such. I don’t know what type of schools I can apply to based on my schedule’s rigor. I took out ap env. jr. yr to have a relaxing class senior yr.</p>

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<p>Have you already taken a year each of “regular” (college-prep, or whatever your school calls it) biology and chemistry?</p>

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<p>I don’t think you should drop Spanish… Actually being bilingual is an advantage that’s not even close to comparable to having a name value college degree, IMO.</p>

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<p>I agree with lullinatalk that Spanish is incredibly useful. I wish I could speak it nearly every week. I don’t think there’s one right answer to how many APs, you should take the number that you think you can do reasonably well in, that interest you, that are reasonably well taught at your school. Both my kids opted out of AP English because it was a huge amount of work, reading books they didn’t like. They took English electives instead. It didn’t keep them from getting accepted to a few top 20 universities. I’m always amazed at the AP schedules I read about here. I don’t think any one takes more than 10 APs at our school and most take fewer.</p>

<p>My pretty precocious older son took 1 AP freshman year, 1 AP sophomore year (would have taken 2 but there was a time conflict), 3 junior year, and 3 senior year (+ one post AP Math course). My younger son took 1 sophomore year, 2 junior year, and 3 senior year. </p>

<p>“A ton of annotating” sounds like a total waste of time to me.</p>

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<p>Four of the harder APs plus honors physics IS a bit much, given that you’re already concerned – usually these AP classes, especially in bulk, turn out to be harder than expected rather than easier. One problem that you may not yet anticipate is “work clustering”: your AP teachers will tend to all slam you with multiple tests or papers all due within a very narrow timeframe. One reason my son was able to manage his ridiculously-over-scheduled work load was due to the fact that his college classes were out-of-sync with high school’s timetable and one online class was time-flexible.</p>

<p>If you plan to major in math or science, your AP English Lang class is perhaps more than you need: 3 years of honors English with one of the AP English classes senior year should count as “most rigorous” with less work. By the same token, your science classes could take some enhancement if you want to be competitive as a science/engineering candidate. One relatively simple solution is to drop AP English down to honors and take AP Environmental Science (APES) as your 7th class. APES is considered a very soft science class, but it is nevertheless an AP, which will help your GPA. Couple with honors physics, your record will look both very respectable and more science/math focused.</p>

<p>Of course, you will absolutely need to take one of the major AP science classes senior year – bio, chem or physics – to be credible when you apply to a top-tier school. If this sounds too tough, perhaps you’ll need to reconsider becoming a math and science major: most of your college classmates will be the top 3-4 nerds from each high school nationwide who found the high school material easy. Many former high school wiz kids suddenly find themselves to be C students in college. You don’t want to end up competing with this group unless you’re confident you can manage to be first or second in your high school AP science class without killing yourself.</p>

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<p>In terms of “which AP courses and tests to take”, the answer may differ slightly between the courses and the tests.</p>

<p>For “tests”, AP credit policies at the universities you are considering is most important. Generally, but not universally, English and Calculus are the most likely to be useful for credit (against writing requirements and freshman math courses respectively). Policies do vary; for example, at some universities, AP credit may be usable for a given subject only for non-majors. If you intend to go pre-med, note that medical schools tend not to accept AP credit for science courses, typically requiring either retaking or taking more advanced courses at the university.</p>

<p>For “courses”, if the AP courses are the best available courses in your high school in areas that you are considering majoring in, it is a good idea to take them, even if the AP tests may not be accepted for credit. For example, if you intend to major in physics or engineering, AP Physics B will be useless for credit, but if it is the best available physics course in your high school, you may as well choose it over regular high school physics (of course, if AP Physics C is available, choose that over AP Physics B, although even the AP Physics C test may not be accepted for subject credit for physics and engineering majors at some universities).</p>

<p>If you want to go into “some math/science major”, probably the best selection of AP courses if you can handle them is English, Calculus (BC if offered), whatever science out of Physics C, Chemistry, or Biology that you are most interested in, and Spanish. Although if it is your junior year, you may want to consider whether some can be moved to senior year.</p>

<p>Another thing to think about is to see if your local community college offers transferable courses in math and science which you may want to take in senior year. Also, if any of your friends in school are native Spanish speakers, talk to them in Spanish to reinforce your Spanish language skills.</p>

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<p>From personal experience, don’t burn yourself out. If you think you can handle it, go for it. I would think AP national scholar looks very nice on a college application, but most private schools look for well rounded students. If taking these classes will force you to give up some of your extra curriculars, I would think about reevaluating. Also, if you plan on majoring in a math/science you should probably take chemistry or biology. Many schools have that as a requirement for admission - and you don’t need to take them as APs. Hope that helps!</p>

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<p>I’m taking chemistry hon this yr and took biology hon freshmen year. Unfortunately, my shcool doesn’t ap physics; they did a few yrs back. I could go take it at another school senior yr, but idk if that’s the best choice. We also have to take AP Calc AB since there is no BC at our school. I would have to do the same thing senior yr to take BC.</p>

<p>Anyone know the ap exam tetsing schedule for next yr? I hope it’s different because I think this would mean 4 consecutive day ap exams next yr.</p>

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<p>One AP test a day isn’t so bad; you should be exempt from attending class on those days. It’s much worse when you have 2 exams on the same day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.</p>

<p>There are, by the way, two or three make-up days during the 3rd week, that you can attend if you get sick or if you have a scheduling conflict where 2 tests take place at the same time. My son took 8 APs last year and had two conflicts, which he resolved during make-up week.</p>

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<p>If you have to take courses at another school because you run out of courses at your high school, it may be better to take transferable community college courses instead of AP courses at another high school, if the transferable community college courses are better accepted for credit at the universities you are planning to attend.</p>

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<p>Just take what you like.</p>

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<p>The trouble is that some colleges will take AP credits but not community college credits. If getting credit is an issue you really have to look ahead at what colleges you think you will be applying to. My kids certainly didn’t know! So they took the courses that made the most sense in terms of both being recognized as worthwhile and that they thought were interesting and that were taught by teachers they could stand to be with.</p>

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<p>Hmmm, interesting. Here in California, UC and CSU schools tend to be more accepting of specific pre-approved community college courses than AP credits (e.g. UC Berkeley accepts community college physics and history courses more so than the AP tests in those subjects). But that may be due to the fact that one of the community colleges’ functions is to offer courses to prepare students to transfer to UC or CSU as juniors (although they certainly do offer other types of courses like vocational courses and general interest courses, most of which are not transferable to UC or CSU).</p>

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<p>It’s only 1 class at another school. We have about 15-20 aps, but some of them are art aps and other languages, which I can’t take. The problem with ap environmental is that the class isn’t bad, but the ap exam is difficult for a lot of people. While that may be an easier class than say ap bio next yr, it would be stressful come exam week since I think all 5 of those aps are in the first week. (midterm + ap exams would be tough)</p>