<p>I have a question that some of you may know a bit of.</p>
<p>freshman year of high school, I took no honors or AP courses.
sophomore year, I took 1 honors class, the rest regular.
Junior year, I took 3 APs, and 1 honors class, and two regular.
Senior year, my schedule includes 6 APs and one honors class.</p>
<p>So, I did not really challenge myself freshman or sophomore year, and yes, I do regret it. I have gotten all A's and B's, and my highest semester GPAs has ironically been Junior year. (both UW and Weighted). I am also taking a class at a CC this summer (hopefully). </p>
<p>My question here is: will colleges see this "upward" trend? Even though I got A's and B's fresh/soph year, I still was able to Junior year even though I took on a harder course load. Hopefully the case will be the same for senior year.</p>
<p>Yes, colleges will notice that you took more difficult classes and did well in them even as your course rigor increased. </p>
<p>At some colleges (usually large state schools), overall GPA is more important than course rigor, although course rigor is definitely still considered. But as you’ve done well throughout high school, you should be in a good position for most schools regardless. </p>
<p>Colleges will definitely see the increase in rigor and your increased success. However, you’re at a competitive disadvantage as most students even competitive for Top 20 admissions will have taken the most rigorous course load offered to them since freshman year. And you seem to have “slacked” (for lack of a better word) for the first 2 years of your high school career.</p>
<p>It really depends what schools you’re looking at.</p>
<p>I hope so. I really regret not having challenged myself freshman year, I wasn’t really thinking about how what I was doing would affect my future at that point.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it’s how you finish, not how you start, that is most important. And honors classes freshman and sophomore year count for little if you also have AP courses in later years. You’ll be just fine at most/all schools.</p>
<p>6 APs senior year is a bit too ambitious for most students, depending on which APs, you might want to rethink that before you undo all the good you did junior year. Anything over 6-8 APs total does little additional good in admissions and you really don’t want to crash and burn from too rigorous a schedule. There may be too little reward and too much risk in such a schedule, so consider cutting back one or two of the APs. But it would help to know exactly which APs we’re talking about.</p>
<p>You’ve gotten solid advice. Now it comes down to your crafting a realistic list of target colleges. You’ve matured and ultimately, you’ll be rewarded for that. What that reward might look like may be different than what you’re envisioning though. Please go into the college search with an open mind and a realistic assessment of your achievements and a realistic list of what may make you happy. Good luck</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I am planning to take AP Computer Science, Physics B, English Literature, Biology, European History, & Calc BC. Calc BC is tentative, I am planning to take Pre-Calculus at the CC over the summer, and that may or may not happen depending on what’s being offered. Additionally, at my school Comp Sci & Euro are not that hard, from what many people have told me. Most of my time would be devoted to Physics, Lit, and Bio. I’d also be taking French 5, which is an honors course (I can take the AP test, but the class itself is not listed at CC).</p>
<p>Thanks for the comment T2. I’ve got some places in mind, especially one that I can get a potential automatic scholarship at with ACT. I’ve chugged out high enough numbers to where I can go almost any direction I want at several different places, but I do wish I was able to get some better study habits and whatnot… First semester of sophomore year, I slept in like two of my classes every day. Got 2 A’s and 4-5 B’s that semester. Hope that does not continue.</p>
<p>That’s quite a course-load - impressive if you can pull it off, but it may be a course too far. Given the schools you’re aiming at, are all those courses necessary? Or are you risking a meltdown, when 4 APs plus French would accomplish the same thing? </p>
<p>I’m never a fan of AP Lit because it’s a known time-eater, but it has it’s uses. Assuming you make it into Calc BC, I’d consider dropping off the extra math and science APs, which would be Bio and CompSci, but it depends on what you would replace them with. Alternatively, you could keep one or both of those and drop AP Lit and substitute it with an English class that contains a college essay component, if your school offers that.</p>
<p>Still too much info missing to make a meaningful contribution. But taking Pre-Calc over the summer then leaping into Calc BC tells me you’re trying to make up for a previous record that I don’t think is as weak as you think it is. I think you can back off a bit and still accomplish the same thing.</p>
<p>you’re probably right. I may not go into Comp Sci - there is technically a prerequisite class at my school(which I have not taken) but a friend of mine said she is skipping it and going right into AP comp sci, because the comp sci teacher says you don’t really need to do said prereq class to do well in AP. Nonetheless, I don’t think I need to bypass another barrier If I’m going to be taking pre-calc to do calc BC anyway. Alternatively, I could do calc AB, but as someone who’s career interests are in physics/engineering, I won’t be letting up on calculus any time soon :P</p>
<p>I don’t really know why I am doing AP Lit. I sort of impulsively decided to sign up for it, when English is not my strongest suite anyway… One of the teachers at our school teaches a humanities senior english class that we can get actual college credit for if we pay for it (sans AP test). She is also good at helping us prepare for college & essays and stuff. It’s said to be a significantly easier class.</p>
<p>To be honest though, I don’t know what to take instead if I were to drop a lot of these classes(outside of the regular option). We have some interesting engineering honors electives, but when I signed up for one last year, it didn’t have enough people signing up for it to actually make a class… and my counselor said that was the case for the majority of them. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, I think I can handle a good chunk of APs. I’m saving up a lot of money for the tests, and I not meaning to brag, but I’m pretty good at taking tests. I’ve already taken AP Lang, so Lit may not be necessary for a possible English credit. Math comes pretty easy to me, so I would have to devote a lot of my time to bio & lit which are as you said, burns time like wax. </p>
<p>I get excited thinking about all of this. What a nerd. Nonetheless, I’ll try to find somewhere to ease up on the schedule. I wish I even knew my counselor’s name lol.</p>
<p>At least you’re starting to think about it. If you did great at AP Lang and have the senior English class, that that over AP Lit, especially since it’s not a strong class for you. And not taking AP CompSci could open up a fun class for you - is there anything you just want to take because it sounds interesting, from pottery to auto repair? Why not take that and get a chance to do something you may never get to take again? That would leave AP Calc BC, AP Physics B, AP Bio, AP Euro, French V, Senior English, and a fun elective - plenty rigorous and definitely doable with a high GPA.</p>
<p>Anyway, I went to the CC to register for the summer pre-calc course but that’s not going to happen. Misleading information on their website lead me to believe it was much cheaper than expected but that’s apparently not the case.</p>
<p>Thus I will be taking Pre-Calc senior year, and i won’t be able to do Calc AB or BC. I guess that would ease it up in that department. </p>