I need scheduling ideas/help for junior year. I am in a bit of a predicament, because I’m not sure what would be the best course of action for me to take as an prospective engineering major.
Next year, I am offered English with emphasis on engineering. However, it is not honors, or AP. Basically, it is an English class that it catered with technical reports and scientific writing. We also might have to write engineering designs and things we are doing in our actual engineering class. I could take AP English, as I definitely am at that level. But I’m wondering if that will look better than the English with engineering emphasis.
I also am offered the option to double up on my sciences before I take AP chemistry and AP physics. However, is algebra based physics before calculus based physics that useful? If not, I’d rather take AP statistics instead.
What courses would you recommend for the upcoming engineer or that would be most useful for college admissions?
Option 1:
-Spanish 3
-Honors precalculus
-Advanced third year engineering
-Engineering based English
-Honors chemistry
-AP statistics
-Gov and Econ @ CC
-AP Computer Science online
Option 2:
-Spanish 3
-Honors Precalculus
-Advanced third year engineering
-AP English Lit
-Honors Chemistry
-Gov and Econ @ CC
-AP Computer Science (online)
-AP statistics
Option 3:
-Spanish 3
-Honors Precalculus
-Advanced third year engineering
-AP English Lit
-Honors Chemistry
-Physics
Gov and Econ @ CC
-AP Computer Science (online)
**I loose a couple of periods to travel time, that’s why I take some classes online and at CC.
As someone who though he wanted to be an Engineer for a decent part of high, as well as someone that’s taken most of the classes you want totake, I think I can give some credible advice.
It is definately worthwhile to take Algebra based Physics before taking AP Physics C. In fact, it’s a requirement at my school, and when I took AP Physics C as a junior, the three kids in my class that tried taking it without taking Algebra based Physics all dropped out within the first quarter.
Having taken AP Statistics as a junior too, I can assure you that none of the subject matter of the course is relevant for Engineering, although some of it is relevant for Biology and Chemistry, courses that you’ll probably have to take as an Engineering major.
In addition, AP English Lit is completely useless for Engineering students, and an unnecessary burden too. I would stray away from it. Does your school offer AP English Lang? The writing in that class gets way more technical than it does in Lit, and it would look much more rigorous to colleges than English for Engineers would.
Out of the three options that you have, I would recommend choosing Option 3. However, it would be even better if you could take AP Lang & Comp instead of AP Lit.
@equationlover I’m a senior right now, but starting next year I’ll be majoring in Pharmacy. Taking AP Chemistry my junior year made me realize I want to spend a career in drug design and research.
AP English, regular physics…you definitely should take regular before calc. Doubling regular chem and physics is very doable; I did it last year and did fine. Do well in precalc and maybe try to study a little calc before senior year…calc-based physics often jumps straight into calc, while your calc class might still be lagging with limits.
Just take a difficult but manageable course load and get good grades! High School isn’t necessary the time to specialize; it’s the time to explore all kinds of different classes, get good grades, and try to figure out what you like and don’t like. But if you know that your interests lie in a certain field, don’t be afraid to take those classes that seem interesting!
I just thought of something. Should I take statistics in my junior year at the CC instead of Econ? That way (because I still want to take the class) I would not have to take it in my senior year, because I plan on taking four AP classes then, as well as an college level engineering course. OR I could just get my history requirements out of the way my junior year (each one semester history credit at CC counts as one full year credit at my high school), and then take basically all science/math credits my senior year except for English, which sounds more desirable to me. @bopper@MYOS1634@LushLillies@mohchan360
Colleges will expect you to be enrolled in English, social science/history, and foreign language (unless you already reached level 4), in addition to calculus and physics C.
A senior year with English and only math/ science classes wouldn’t be well-balanced academically.
Ok, so then taking stats junior year would look better? I mean the only thing I’m curious about is if I have already completed the requirements and the recommended course sequence most high schoolers take (world and U.S. history, U.S. government, and economics) wouldn’t that be the same sort of thing as not taking another year of foreign language if you have already taken the recommended of level 3-4? Just curious, not trying to say you are wrong or anything. @MYOS1634
I’m of course going to talk to my HS guidance counselor and see what she says as well. (:
It’s a matter of balance - you could take all these social science classes over two years and it wouldn’t be the same as spreading them out.
I really don’t think a senior year made of English + 4-5 stem classes only would be balanced. It’s okay to double up on science but I’m not sure what the point is to what you’re suggesting.
Statistics : if you’re interested in it, take it in college. Of course you could take the high school version to preview it.
Ok. So having a balanced schedule overall would be better for colleges admissions…got it.
I will go to a STEM school for about three hours a day my junior year (as I have these past two years) so I do not have a lot of room to take APs because of transportation time.
Normally, if I were at the high school this next year, I would have taken AP U.S. government and one of the economics courses, AP English, AP computer science, and AP statistics, as well as an engineering course, precalculus, and physics… with more electives.
But because I loose class time, I have to take these classes at the local CC so I can still take the college level courses. I also loose elective space so I’ve had to take my high school requirements like gym and health online or through summer school. It’s a lot… I’m just trying to make it so I can take the classes that I want to be able to take without loosing my sanity my senior year (if I wanted to take AP stats with the heavy APs such as calculus, physics, ECT).
Taking one college economics class spring senior year will be fine. Taking one English class in the fall will be fine. Taking two/three stem (math + science) classes on top of that is okay.
Can you take all your classes at the college? This way you wouldn’t have to navigate high school /college journeys, and You’d only have five classes a week each semester.
I have thought of being totally enrolled in the CC (for my core classes), but I have heard of problems with transferring credits. In my state, all colleges can take my CC credits. In fact, the CC has a “preferred pathway” approach which basically gives you an 100% chance of acceptance rate into one of the schools I would LOVE to attend if I get a associate’s at that CC.
However, if I decided to go to college out of state, it will be harder for them to accept the credit. That’s something major for me to consider. I would love to enroll in that state college my senior year if I can, but that’s a big IF…lots of kids apply for it and on the website it even states it’s just like their regular “freshman admissions” process.
So I’ve got a big decision to make before junior year. I might as well just make an appointment with my guidance consoler before my scheduling meeting. The only disadvantage I see is the transferring credit and the possibility that CC college classes may not be seen as rigorous enough… I know there is a lot of discussion on this and I did a bunch of research on it last year before I decided to take my history courses at the CC. But I am still unsure with taking all of my classes there (my dream schools are University of Michigan and my state college). I know it depends on the college for what the prefer for the most part, but yeah. I might contact University of Michigan to see what they say, because I know my state college will be ok with the credits and rigor.
I just through about this… I am given 30 credit hours per school year for free through my college credit plus program in my state. So five classes worth three credit hours each per semester would work out. @MYOS1634
I’m an engineering major, take AP lit. You’ll get plenty of chances to learn how to write technically. Plus you can get out of college English. Though I really enjoyed my English class freshman year.
@10s4life That’s my plan if I don’t decide to completely enroll in a CC for at least my junior year…well, besides for my engineering class. In your experience (at least from the school your at) is it common for most engineering majors to come in as dual enrollment students?
I’m an EE at UCLA. Most students are not dual enrollment but have 10+ AP classes under their belts. Unless you are CS most engineering majors have zero experience coming in. They do have a lot of science and math complete. Ie physics, Chem, calc 1-2. Etc
Oh! That’s great! I actually want to be either an EE or CS major (LOL but I don’t have as much computing knowledge as most that come into CS.)
My problem is that I loose at least 1-2 class periods because of transportation, and around four total… so I have to take (at the least) all of my history classes at the CC, and I finish all of my elective requirements for h.s. graduation either online or in summer school. And that also means that I won’t be able to take a lot of AP classes…as of now, I’d have to take at least one or two of them online to even fit them in because of how my schedule works. (I’ll have around 6 done if I do it this way, two in my junior year and four in my senior year, not including the CC classes I would take as well.) But it’s also very costly to take the AP classes online; when I do dual enrollment, it not only saves me money in the end, but I can overall get more classes done, because they aren’t full year courses but rather semester courses. (The college credit plus program in my state makes 30 credit hours free AS LONG AS you get above a C in the course.) @10s4life
I would have had around 9-10 APs done if it weren’t for the fact, as stated before, that I loose a lot of class time…
I guess in the end (with your recent experience in college admissions) do you think colleges will understand my situation if I do go DE and it doesn’t look as rigorous (even though it should…) to colleges?
That will depend on the individual colleges. What schools are you looking at? From my experience you should be fine staying within your school for AP. Dual enrollment is really only worth it if you want to graduate extra early. Maybe if you want to you can explain this in additional comments of college apps. Your state may be different. CA is not really a big dual enrollment state in general but it’s pretty seamless to transfer cc courses to 4 years.