Math and Science courses to take for a Humanities kid?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi guys, my course selections for next year (junior year) are right around the corner and I need advice on picking my math and science courses. I’m very much a humanities person, I love reading, I love history, and I love languages. I’ve taken AP European history this year, it hasn’t been too difficult. I’m planning on taking AP Capstone Seminar, AP French, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Microeconomics next year. For English, I’m taking a course called Junior English in which I will be taking the AP Literature exam at the end of the year; the course isn’t an AP course but many students take the AP Lit exam at the end and do fine. So in total, I’m taking 5 APs, plus I’m also taking Spanish IV next year.

What I need help with is what math and science courses I should take next year. This year I took Honors Advanced Algebra, I’m kind of struggling, but its mainly because the teacher is horrible, and HAA is notoriously known to be the worst math course in my whole school because of its insane difficulty, most students have told me its harder than AP Calc, and also Precalc. As I mentioned before, I’m not interested in math at all, I took Honors Geometry as a freshman, breezed my way through. I currently have an A in Honors Advanced Algebra but it takes A LOT of effort and I actually think I work harder in HAA than I do in my AP class. I’m debating whether or not to take Honors Precalculus or just regular Precalculus next year. I am not planning on taking AP Calculus, neither AB nor BC in high school. If someone could give me some advice it would be appreciated greatly!!

Also, I took HBio in freshman year, it was rigorous but I did fine, I’m taking HChem this year and its pretty easy so far but I just find it so boring. The theoretical stuff is just too abstract for me, I just feel like I’m learning information I really do not care about. The math part of chem is equally as boring and as I mentioned before I seriously hate math and science. Science however, is much easier for me than math, I put a lot less effort, the usually 1 day before test cramming. However for math I actually have to study a few days in advance. I’m debating whether or not to take Honors Physics, regular physics or forensic science or marine biology next year. I don’t know what combination would be good for me and if someone could tell me what colleges are looking for in students it would be great.

Just a few more questions:

Do colleges care more about 4 years of math, or 4 years of science?

Are colleges more concerned about students who have taken all honors math courses or all honors science courses.

*** One last important sidenote***

I’m aiming to get into a good college. My GPA in freshman year was 4.0 but it has dropped since this year (because of math) and I really need to use Junior year to raise my GPA. I’m thinking more of going into a Liberal Arts college. Either that, or an Ivy school; I have really set my eyes on Colombia. Don’t know if thats possible though! I’m not planning to major in engineering, mathematics or anything that delves too deeply into science so any advice on picking my math and science courses to create a balanced workload for my Junior year would help me so much!

Thank you!!

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do the physics and pre calc. whichever is easier in the honors level- take that honors and the other regular. that way you tick all of the boxes!

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Ask current students in precalc and take the class that’s likely to have a good teacher. For a good college, Honors Precalc would be best, but ask your current teacher to see if you would likely get a B or higher in Honors Precalc, or if you should take regular precalc. Ultimately, it’s up to you between regular precalc and honors precalc - if you feel that you could handle precalc from a better teacher, then go with Honors; a suggestion: ask your GC what the conditions are for “dropping down”, so that, if honors precalc is too hard, under what conditions/in what timeframe you can “drop down” to regular precalc .Plan to take AP Stats your senior year if it’s offered.
I would suggest regular physics - it’ll show you challenge yourself and it’ll have the added benefit of making sure you have all three of bio, chem, and physics, which top colleges like - and keep forensic science or marine bio for senior year.

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Highly selective schools prefer to see all three of biology, chemistry, and physics. Math to the highest level available to you is also preferred.