My GC informed me that British Literature is not being offered at my school next year, which I was signed up to take. I don’t really want to take AP Lit since I’m taking BC Calc and AP Chem. I also don’t want to take the humamities full year class since it involves a lot of out of school activities. The rest of the English classes are all semester ones. Should I take French 4 or take 2 semester classes instead? My AP Lang teacher said the semester classes don’t look good on college apps and they aren’t that interesting anyways. I am taking Advance Journalism 3 next year which is an English credit. I know it’s not ideal but should I just do this and take the next level in my foreign language? Thanks!!
I want to major in Biology or something along those lines. My school offers no Honors english senior year. It’s either AP Lit or two semester classes. Will it look bad on apps in I take two semester classes as they think they could possibly be very easy? I feel reluctant in taking AP since I’m taking two other hard APs and then two more (requirement). Thanks for the advice!
They offer theory of learning, film lit, Shakespeare, speech, and creative writing, but I feel like with French 4 I can deepen my understanding of a subject compared to classes I would take just to take them. I’m not sure. Thanks for the advice!
Just because your school counts Advanced journalism as an English class doesn’t mean colleges will. So, before you make a choice for next year, email your matches and reaches and tell them that for English you were going to take Advanced Journalis 3 next year, which is an interest of yours and allows you to take French 4. But would (college Z) consider it an English class?
If they say no, either cross them out if your list or take Shakespeare and another one.
Alternatively, swap out one of the 6 (!!!) STEM classes you are proposing so you can take** both** French 4 and a lit-based English class. Doubling up on a core subject at the expense of another core subject is rarely a good idea.
@skieurope what class would you recommend since all of these are elective courses at my school. The only “core” English class is AP Lit next year. What would you recommend from that? I’ll drop a science if I need to. Thanks!
I view lit genre courses and author courses as “core.” Film Lit and Shakespeare work for me if you don’t want AP Lit. Creative writing could also work. Speech and journalism are nice electives, but they should be over and above core English courses, not “instead of” IMO.
I’m not cutting out English/ foreign Lang. I was taking an English till they cancelled the class . I am picking a new English now. Also, I was debating on foreign Lang because 80% of the kids who take French 4 with the teacher at my school get a B+ or below (going off of what I heard and what people who have taken it told me). She is not very good. I know people say that is no excuse but this is my 2nd year with her and I’m not sure if I can take another one (please no hate comments about it. My personal opinion and a lot of other people’s too lol). I am only taking 4.5 science (2 core and rest elective).
A good schedule for a STEM student aiming for selective colleges:
English, Calculus, 1 AP science, another science, history/social science, foreign language 4, one more class of choice (in your cases journalism3). Is that possible for a schedule?
If that’s possible you can add science electives. If not, the science electives have to go. You might decide to drop French and take the two English semester classes instead, but you’d need both you have a strong curriculum, so it depends on how difficult your college and major of choice are.
Yeah I understand what you’re saying. My French teacher agreed to me doing 4 over the summer so I will have 4 foreign Lang credits and I am taking all other cores (probably Shakespeare and film lit, BC calc, Honors physics, AP chem, AP gov and AP micro, then the journalism and science as electives) so I got everything covered! Thanks for the advice!
I wouldn’t worry too much about schools seeing two semester classes as bad. You are already taking several rigorous courses and if you explain the course you planned on taking was cut, they will be understanding. Plus, in my opinion it’s better to keep your gpa up than take AP Lit and have it suffer.