Hey, so I’m a sophomore. I will list the courses I am planning to take from 10-12th in high school. I was wondering whether my plan would be good to get into Ivy League colleges or even world-renowned, public universities. I just moved here from India, so my 9th grade courses are according to the Indian courses.
10th grade:
English 10
World History
Chemistry
Honors Biology
Algebra 2
Photography 1 (semester 1) / Computer Science (semester 2)
11th grade:
American literature
US history
AP chemistry
AP physics
Math analysis
AP statistics
12th grade:
English 12
AP economics
AP Calculus AB
AP computer science
Biotechnology
AP environmental science
I play cricket, outside of school, I am in a volunteering club and I just moved here from India.
I did not see any foreign language classes. Most “Ivy” caliber schools require 2-3 years of a foreign language. Also, if you plan to apply to any California UC’s, you need 1 year of an Visual/Performing arts course so maybe Photography 1 and 2?
Your curriculum alone isn’t enough to determine whether you have a chance to get into any selective colleges (not to mention Ivies or “world-renowned”).
In addition to taking the most challenging classes – and doing very, very well in them – elite schools also expect you to have very good SAT/SATII/ACT scores and impressive ECs. For the Ivies in particular, activities that show “leadership” are important.
Remember, the depth and breadth of your ECs are more important than the number of them. Selective schools want to see real accomplishments, not “resume padding”
Your courses might be a little bit less rigorous than they’d like, but normally, that is fine. There are not enough ECs for us to determine whether or not you are really passionate about something, which is something very important to the Ivies.
My only concern is taking AP Physics before Calculus. I’m taking physics at a local university so I never took AP Physics but my class has a lot of calculus.
You need to take a foreign language. Take Level 1 over the summer (Spanish, French, Portuguese?) at a community college. It’ll count as 2 levels and will catch you up for the progression.
11th grade:
American literature => take either AP English Language or Honors English/American Literature
US history => take it Honors
AP chemistry
AP physics => Physics 1 or 2? NOT Physics C (Level 2 for Physics)
Math analysis => is that Precalculus? Is there an Honors version?
AP statistics => filler class; instead, take either level 3 of your foreign language in HS, or through virtual high school, or at the community college (two semesters at the community college level mena you’ve reached the highest level even the highest-ranked schools would want. Alternatively you can take two levels/years in high school, where it’ll be slower-paced).
12th grade:
English 12 => take English Honors
AP Economics => either AP macro+micro, OR either one + AP Gov
AP Calculus AB
AP computer science
Biotechnology
AP environmental science => Level 4 of a foreign language if you didn’t take it via the community college, or another class of your choice (which can be APES, but APES is an AP Lite so it wouldn’t add anything in terms of rigor for college admissions; APES is really interesting so take it if you’re interested in the subject but don’t take it solely because you think it’ll impress adcoms.)
You need 1/2 semester of Photography or another 1/2 semester of art/music.
If you live in California, UC’s accept various proofs of certification that you can speak a foreign language, beside taking 2+ years of it, BUT other top universities don’t.
Buy Princeton Review’s Best Colleges and start reading about the top 10% of American colleges in order to have a better idea about what’s out there.
Also, buy “AdMission Possible” and “The College Solution”, which explain clearly what it takes to get into college… and being able to afford it. How to be a high school superstar by Cal Newport is also a very good read.
All these books will be interesting to your parents, too.
You can also recommend your mother the films “Admissions” with Tina Fey, and “Liberal Arts” with Josh Radnor and Elisabeth Olsen. (I don’t know whether those would be interesting to a teenage boy, although “how to seduce a girl with nicely written letters” is probably a lesson that could become handy.)
Continue with cricket, and become one of the best players in your state (or in the country) at the U18 club level.
Okfor the Honors thing - are you in a rural high school? What Ap’s are offered? is there a community college or 4-year college that your school offers for Running Start?
It doesn’t matter ifyou scored for biliteracy… top schools will want to see a foreign language (not “foreign to Americans”, but “foreign to you”). It DOES count for state schools, of which UWA is certainly a top one. Whitman is another top school in your region, as is Reed - both with very different “personalities” which you’ll discover when you read Princeton Review’s best colleges.
AP French
AP Spanish
AP 2D art
AP world history
AP Language and composition
AP Literature
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP Physics 1
AP Calculus AB
AP Calculus BC
There is a community college offered for running start - Bellevue college - but I’m not doing running start, because I did not take any AP classes in 10th and want to stay in high school to get used to the AP classes and may do running start in senior year.
HIndi counts as a foreign language for high school graduation and for most public universities, but because it’s not a language foreign to you (ie., you didn’t learn it as a foreign language in school), it doesn’t count as such for top colleges - and you’re asking about top colleges, hence the answer.
AP Language and Composition would be very important to expose you to the rigor expected in college writing. Since English isn’t your first language, do you think you could handle it?
oh, thanks for the clarification. I am not planning to take AP language because I am not very good at writing essays and that is not what I want to major in.
…except that in college, you’ll be writing lots of essays, so you’re better off taking a high school class that will prevent you from collecting C’s in half your classes.
English classes vary in difficult a lot by high school, and even within schools. For example- at my school AP English Language was a very easy class, and even then, most people scored 4/5 on the AP Exam.
