Looking for advice as my son thinks through his schedule for Junior year. He submitted his schedule requests to his school and then we received a comment from a college counselor that it was not sufficiently rigorous for top schools. Curious to get the forum’s view.
Short background on him: GPA is roughly 4.0 UW/4.5 W. Interests are in STEM/Business. He wants to apply to the most competitive schools and his expectation after taking a sample test is 1500+ SAT/34+ ACT (still firming up which test he will take).
Junior year he is planning to take the following APs already: BC Calc, Physics I, Economics. It struck me as a sufficiently rigorous course load when added to honors Spanish, English/History bundle (his HS offers English/History as an honors humanities bundle that he has taken and enjoyed, rather than separate English/History classes) and a Biotechnology elective to earn a lab certification. He then has 5 AP classes circled for senior year.
Counselor looked at the schedule and suggested he needs to take AP US History and AP Lang to be competitive for higher level colleges. That strikes me as overwhelming, especially for a kid who plays soccer 15-20 hours a week at a high level and does other extra curriculars.
Curious the forum’s view… is there really such an arms race for APs that a kid has to take history/english APs even if his focus is STEM/business to be competitive? Is 3 APs (in Physics, Calc, Econ) not considered sufficiently rigorous?
Thanks in advance.
He can take AP Econ next year.
(APUSH is a stronger class. )
He can drop the Biotechnology elective, to take APUSH, AP Lang (or one of the two), AP Physics 1, AP Calc BC, honors Spanish, and, if desired, the elective.
His current schedule is rigorous but will likely not get the most rigorous checkmark. Ask the GC whether it will but I think the GC is telegraphing it won’t. Ask if taking just one of the two would suffice (how would it impact the Humanities Honors bundle?)
All in all, the proposed schedule is very rigorous so he could stick to it, especially if the other schedule will impact his sleep hours or general comfort. After all, the odds of making it into a university with sub 25% acceptance rates (even more so for sub 10%) are low enough that it shouldn’t alter his life. Do you think he can handle it without major?problems
Apush and AP lang are considered core APs, and having neither could matter.
Thanks. A few problems with that plan:
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For APUSH, they ask that you take US1 Honoros, not the humanities bundle (since they use the same text book in AP US 2). So he starts behind. Not the end of the world, but given the already rigorous schedule, I hate to have him take AP US and not have the first year prerequisite.
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As for biotech, it’s part of a 2 year pathway the high school offers where he’ll get a NOCTI lab certification and be able to work next summer in a lab. Not only goes to what he’s interested in but also I would think adds a good summer activity on the resume. So I can’t see a scenario where he drops the class.
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Thanks for the advice re: the GC. We’re having a conversation with her tomorrow to get her view as to whether the schedule is still in the “most rigorous” category if he doesn’t find another AP and hopefully that will provide more info.
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I would like him to stay in econ. He is considering it as a potential major/focus in college and it may drive where he applies to schools senior year. So it would be nice for him to take the class next year and know if it interests him rather than taking an AP he knows doesnt interest him to impress colleges. The whole thing is madness.
Two options I think he has:
(a) The school indicated there is a program to take US History II over the summer. If he took that, he would trade English/History bundle perhaps for AP Lang and AP Stats and then not take History. Not sure if that looks any better.
(b) Simply move into Honors US 2 but take AP Lang. That at least gives 4 APs.
There are a LOT of high school students in the US who are very stressed out. A few years back I googled and found the number of high school students who are taking medication for stress related illnesses, and it vastly outnumbered the number of undergraduate students who attend top 20 universities. This really has gotten ridiculous and destructive.
I think that your son should take the classes that make sense for him and participate in the ECs that he wants to participate in. Then he should attend universities that appreciate what he has done, fit your budget, and make sense for him.
This approach has at least worked very well for my family, and we have attended very good undergraduate schools and top ranked graduate schools (except one daughter has not yet applied to graduate schools).
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I appreciate that. This is our first born but my own background is as someone who loved 4 years at a large state school and then attended an ivy for law school. I just don’t know how that path has changed over the years. Our focus with our son has been to challenge himself and find what he enjoys studying in high school. Just crazy to me a kid can take BC Calc (as a junior no less with Multivariable Calc to follow his senior year), AP Physics and AP Econ and then be told that was not sufficiently rigorous … this AP arms race is madness.
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It still worked very recently for my older daughter, who got multiple DVM acceptances a couple of months ago and starts in September. I think that we need to do what makes sense, and trust that university admissions are somewhat sensible.
In a world that seems to have gone crazy, sometimes we need to do what feels right to us and trust that doing the right thing will work. There is nothing else to aim for in a crazy world.
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