<p>I am a sophomore in high school. I chose the following classes for our class selection today for junior and senior year. however, my counselor was telling me that I'm stacking my cards up real high by taking 5 AP classed my junior year. </p>
<p>She suggested that I flip AP Biology with Intro to Art because even though I will only have 4 APs my junior year, the reduced course work will increase my chances of doing very good. This is important because colleges primarily consider your Sophomore and Junior grades only, and Junior year isn't the year to possibly f*ck up.</p>
<p>Furthermore, we do not have AP Physics at our school; it is a planned course and if all goes well, the district should permit us to teach it at my school by the 2015/ 2016 school year. However, it's not certain, and if we do not get AP Physics by then, I'll be stuck doing regular high school Physics, which won't be too impressive. It may also mean that colleges will look down on my high school course plan considering that my Senior year would be far less rigorous than my Junior year.</p>
<p>There's a catch though, if I do end up choosing my counselor's recommendation to take Art first, and we do end up getting AP Physics, I'll be stuck in hell my Senior year with SIX AP Classes?</p>
<p>So what is worse, a risky course load Junior year followed by a potentially weak Senior course load, or the possibility of suicide?
PLEASE HELP,</p>
<p>JUNIOR (11)
-AP English I
-Pre Calculus
-AP Statistics
-AP Chemistry
-AP Biology
-AP U.S. History</p>
<p>SENIOR (12)
-AP English II
-AP Calculus
-AP Psychology
-AP Physics I
-Intro to Art
-AP Econ/Govt</p>
<p>I want to Major in Biomedical Engineering/ Pre Med, and then go on to Medical School. My top school choices are Stanford and UC Berkeley. ALL our science teachers for regular and AP division science courses are great, they legitimately teach. Not so sure about the Math teachers though. AP English II (senior year) is hell according to students; one novel per week!</p>
<p>You’re crazy!!! Either way you do it is too intense IMO.</p>
<p>Using Stanford as an example, you get no AP credit for English or social studies, so loading up there is a mistake. Take AP English as a junior and fun English electives as a Senior. Push Bio to senior year. You have no foreign language. Colleges are going to be more impressed with breadth than depth.</p>
<p>I am already doing my secind year of Spanish and after that Im done! I hare it. Your perception of breadth over depth is mistaken as colleges, especially engineering departments, almost always prefer students that are really good at a few thinks as opposed to being somewhat good at many things.</p>
<p>@jaga98 you need a foreign language, it’s going to look pretty bad if you don’t have one. If you’re taking classes to get into college, take a foreign language. The fact that you’re taking 5 APs is a signal to me that you are doing so to get into college, so take a foreign language. Seriously.</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting doubling up on math or science is a bad idea. I am saying that doubling up on math AND science AND Social studies at the expense of Spanish is a bad idea, and will put you at a competitive disadvantage for admissions.</p>
<p>Additionally, most top schools including Berkeley and Stanford require, a foreign language to graduate unless you place out. You might as well get it over with.</p>
<p>I agree with moving AP Bio to senior year and ditching the physics. If you took a science freshman and sophomore year, one per year is enough. You don’t need more than two years of a language. Sure it would help, but if you hate it (or hare it), that plan will surely backfire. If you have to take physics, plug regular physics in with AP chem your junior year.</p>
<p>It would be different if you took a language for four years already but you have only taken two! Try to take the third year in junior year and then decide about your junior year after that. </p>
<p>Competitive colleges typically require 3 years of a language and typically expect 4 (with many candidates have 5 or 6 years, or the linguists taking one language to AP level and another for 2-3, in the same way stem kids double up in science). It’s too bad you discovered you hated Spanish after taking it for 2 years, since if you’d tried it in middle school you could have switched to French or Latin (easier, contrary to popular belief) and still be on schedule with 1-3 for competitive colleges. Now, you don’t have a choice, you have to suck it up and take Spanish 3.
UC’s only require 2 years but unless you want to attend the “'lower” or “mid” UC’s, I wouldn’t advise taking only 2 years (and that would block out of Stanford etc.) Also, do you have your art requirement taken care of? (It needs to be done by the end of junior year and trips many applicants to the UC’s).
Your current schedule really is madness. It’s entirely un-necessary to “pile up” APs. If you want to show your commitment to rigor, take a community college class over the summer or at night second semester senior year. - it may be useful to take an intro to physics class then.<br>
The consensus in Adminisssions is that you need a total of 6-8 AP’s to demonstrate rigor.
AP English Language, AP Calc, APUSH, and 1-2 AP sciences are expected for Stem students. The rest is up to you.
JUNIOR (11)
-AP English I
-Pre Calculus
-AP Statistics => not necessary</p>
<p>-AP Chemistry = > either Bio OR Chem; have you taken honors Chem already, and gotten an A?
-AP Biology => keep for senior year unless you’ve already taken biology and gotten an A. In that case, switch with APChem</p>
<p>-AP U.S. History</p>
<p>=> Take Intro to Art and Spanish III instead of Stats and either Chem or Bio</p>
<p>SENIOR (12)
-AP English II => AP Lit is entirely unnecessary for stem kids. Take a “fun English” class instead.
-AP Calculus
-AP Psychology => should be fairly easy, like APES considered one of the “soft AP’s”; can be replaced with any Honors class of your choice, band, art, AP Stats, or kept as is
-AP Physics I => have you taken regular physics? If so, would they let you take AP Physics 2 right away? (Physics 1= Honors Physics without Calc, Physics 2 = AP physics without Calc; AP Physics C is the most difficult Physics class but it requires calculus and few high schools offer it.)
-AP Econ/Govt</p>
<p>I would replace AP Lit for sure, and potentially AP Psych; taking AP Bio or AP Chem would be much more beneficial and you’ll need the “fun” English class to breathe a little. Remember that senior year, writing applications is like having an extra class throughout the first semester!</p>
<p>I am baffled by how many people think that 3+ years of a Foreign Language are necessary, especially for engineering. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is a huge benefit to have the RECOMMENDED courses for college admissions. However, if I stick to the minimum for Foreign Language and meet the bare requirements (which are 2 years for all the colleges I’m considering), but build up an exceptionally strong background in the Sciences and Maths, (and Social Studies I guess), wouldn’t it make sense that it would balance things out. More importantly, would ANYONE disagree with the fact that a strong Science and Math background will be a LOT bigger advantage and take me a LOT further in Engineering than say Spanish? If I include what I learned in the past two years of Spanish, I am trilingual: English, Spanish, and Punjabi. Although I am by no means fluent in Spanish, I have undoubtedly learned many of the basic communication skills.</p>
<p>The main reason other than my passion for Math and Science that accounts for my lack of interest in continuing on in Spanish is the upper division Spanish 3 teacher. We only have one upper division teacher who teaches 3,4, and AP. HE IS HORRIBLE. Just to give you an idea, some of my most fluent Spanish speaking friends who study their butts off and do all their work barely pass with Bs or in some cases an A-. Although AP Bio is an AP class, I am a hundred billion percent sure I’ll handle it better than Spanish given my interest in the subject and the teacher. </p>
<p>SO FINALLY, back to my question. SHOULD I FLIP AP BIO WITH INTRO TO ART???</p>
<p>Obviously there’s advantages to both.</p>
<p>If I take AP Biology first, it will prepare me a LOT better for the SAT II Biology. I will be able to reflect my interest and ability in the subject because I know I can do good in it, as well as the AP exam. </p>
<p>If I take Intro to Art, I will have a relaxing class to balance out my other AP classes. However, taking this first means pushing AP Bio to Senior Year, and if AP Physics is made available in my Senior year, it’ll mean SIX AP classes as I pointed out in my original post.</p>
<p>It would also be helpful to know which course pattern would be most manageable. What steps can I take to make it MORE manageable, or in other words, LESS hellish, lol.</p>
<p>For those wondering, yes I have a life outside of school. I am founder and president of a club, I’m actively engaged in 2 others, I volunteer at a hospital (I have well over 200 hours by now at the hospital), and I’m also in track. </p>
<p>Clearly you are smarter than everyone else, even those like MYOS who has wisdom beyond your years and speaks the truth, so why don’t you flip a coin and decide that way. You’ll get an answer you like better.</p>
<p>I’m not smarter, I’m not wiser, I’m not by any means superior to any person on the forum. I sincerely thank every one’s contributions to my question, and yes, MYOS posted a very detailed and insightful response. I did not expect that from anyone. Thank You.</p>
<p>However, i feel that any additional responses will only help me make a better decision. We are community, not debate club. So when a member is asking for help, we try to help and make suggestions based on our own experiences and what the member asking is asking about. </p>
<p>I would again like to thank everyone that contributed to my question. We all have our opinions and I appreciate everybody sharing theirs given my circumstances. Thank You.</p>
<p>However, at this point, if anyone has a different suggestion or idea, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share it with me. I am still deeply uncertain which plan is better, my original plan or the one my counselor considered.</p>
<p>“Physics 1= Honors Physics without Calc, Physics 2 = AP physics without Calc;” Actually no. Physics 1 and 2 are meant to cover the physics B curriculum in 2 years and maybe somewhat more depth than before while still allowing plenty of time for instruction to meet state standards. Physics 1 by itself is just a semester of college premed non-calculus physics and won’t do an engineer any good other than to provide some introduction to the material they’ll be retaking in college. And I think colleges know it’s physics lite and wouldn’t be so much more impressed by it than honors physics. Honors physics will give you a broad introduction to physics whereas physics 1 will only cover half the topics, yet still not in sufficient depth to earn you any college credit. I think honors physics would serve you better.</p>
<p>I have two pieces of advice for you. 1. You’re missing a language. Why do you, a prospective engineer, need to take things like AP psych so badly that you cannot continue your Spanish? Why are you so confident colleges will be willing to overlook that you didn’t meet their application requirements? Do you think they’ll be so wowed by 10 AP classes that they won’t care? I doubt it. 2. If you think taking 5 APs (out of only 6 classes) is more academics than you can handle, then perhaps you should rethink your college list. </p>
<p>MYOS isn’t as smart as Mr Mom thinks if he thinks a college expects 3 or 4 years of a language for an engineer. This is from the MIT web page: </p>
<p>A strong academic foundation in high school both improves your odds of getting into MIT and will help you make the most of the Institute when you’re here. We recommend that your high school years include the following:</p>
<pre><code>One year of high school physics
One year of high school chemistry
One year of high school biology
Math, through calculus
Two years of a foreign language
Four years of English
Two years of history and/or social sciences
</code></pre>
<p>Whoever said the English doesn’t matter doesn’t get it, either. They want you to jump through the foreign language hoop, which is 2 years. Then they want the strongest English skills you can get – 4 years worth. And dump everything else into math/science.</p>
<p>But consider this – my son applied to both Penn and Cornell engineering, so I called them about his senior schedule. They want a strong math and science class senior year, so he added back AP Bio senior year. He didn’t want to take it, but both schools basically said his app wasn’t sufficient without a hard math and science. He also took an dual credit Lit class (class after AP Lit) his senior year for 4 years English. What that means is you better not take AP Bio and Chem both junior year, or you could end up without an AP science senior year.</p>
<p>I have known students who have done your proposed Junior schedule (with the exception of Honors level 4 foreign language instead of AP Stat), and they somehow managed all A’s, so it certainly can be done. If you think you can get A’s, then that’s the better schedule if your goal is Berkeley or Stanford. However, if you think you can’t get A’s, then move Art to Jr year and protect that gpa. Keep the GPA high.</p>
<p>Do you have a track record of doing engineering projects outside the classroom?
A) You won’t be able to get into the top schools for engineering without some ECs in the field
B) A lot of people THINK they want to do engineering but end up switching majors (I did)</p>
<p>If you really want to do engineering I’d tell you to work smart. Use Dual Enrollment at CC to advanced your math level. </p>
<p>Summer (sophmore-junior)
Community College Dual Enrollment Pre-Calculus 8 week course.</p>
<p>JUNIOR (11)
-AP English I
-AP Calc BC
-AP Biology
-AP U.S. History
-?</p>
<p>Summer (junior-sensior)
-Community College Dual Enrollment Art History/Philosophy/etc, course (maybe two) </p>
<p>SENIOR (12)
-AP English II
-AP Statistics
-AP Chemistry
-AP Physics I
-?</p>
<p>Biology and Stats aren’t too hard, while Chemistry and Calculus are, for that reason I would offset them. Physics is an applied math and if you have already finished calculus it’ll be a lot easier. </p>
<p>OK, I am going to try this one more time and then I am off this thread.</p>
<p>To the OP: we are trying to assist you. Your GC and basically everyone here has said that your proposed schedule is beyond cray-cray. Your schedule to the casual observer reads that you are packing in AP’s to impress admissions officers. To the AO’s it will be apparent once they read the application. The people who have responded to you have no vested interest in your future goals. They are simply people who have gone through this process, either as students or parents. There may also be the lurking AO imparting his advice. Many of the posters here, I have encountered on other threads. Their advice has almost always been helpful and relevant.</p>
<p>For myself, I have a level of inexperience. However, as a junior at a school that sends more than 30% of its graduates to the Ivies/MIT/Stanford, I give you, for free, the info that I get from my college counseling office, for which my parents pay $50K per year. You’re welcome.</p>
<p>After 6-8 AP courses, the laws of diminishing returns kicks in. You plan is to be a STEM major. What possible upside do you see AP Gov assisting you in your long-term goals? </p>
<p>You plan to go to med school. What happens when you are accepted to the UCLA Med Center program or the Columbia-Presby program for your residency. You do realize that they choose you, not the other way around? Are you planning to have your nurse translate for the patient that speaks no English?</p>
<p>So your Spanish teacher makes you work for the A? Boo-hoo. Suck it up,or take a class at a community college over the summer.</p>
<p>We’re in different classes,so it is moot. However when I graduate,I will have taken 2 foreign languages to level 5 and one more to level 3 (through sports camps in the countries, NSLI-Y). I’ll also have 2 math courses beyond BC and 1 physics course beyond AP Physics C. Who will be admitted? We will see, I guess. But, I will have fewer AP’s than you and richer EC’s ,so I am happy with that.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all your guys’ advice. At this point, I have am sommewhat reconizing the potential benefits of Spanish 3 over science, however, I have an alternative plan which I think might work out even better. Please point out the flaws.
Keep my jr and sr schedule as is, after consudering the courseloads of many students at my school and on various other posts, it seems manageable, especially considering my interest in all my planned classes… As for the POINTLESS classes as several members pointed out, like AP Econ, Govt, USH, ect, those are graduation requirements. I would easily substitute one for a class like, say, physiology and anatomy, because its more relevant to my goals, but I cant.
I know Spanish could be beneficial. However, instead of sitting in a class for a year that I hate, and risking a bad grade, Ill simply take
an online or self study, or perhaps a communitty college course over the summer, and then take the SAT II Spanish to semonstrate my knowledge in the subject despite only two years of the cla
ss. I’m sure that if I study hard, Ill be able to pull of atleast a high i6 to a low 7 hundered. Not the best, but makes the point.</p>
<p>For those of you who suggested changing the positioning of AP Chem, that is impossible because my school requires that you take AP chem right after regular chem (we dont have any honors science classe), and im in regular chem. As for stats, it will only help in real life situations, as well as the SAT reasoning according to our teacher.</p>