My schedule is utterly messed up. Help?

Applying to College
1

<p>I was supposed to get both AP Japanese and Research Practicum - Forestry (which is a program I was accepted into for my senior year capstone project in my Science and Technology magnet program), but now I'm almost certainly going to have to choose between them. This is a big problem for me for a couple of reasons:</p>

<p>First of all, in sophomore year, they overfilled the Japanese II class and didn't let me take it. I self-studied that year and that summer and the teacher let me take Japanese III as usual. This year is the first year my school will be offering AP Japanese, and most if not all of the people who decided to continue past III tested out of IV to take AP. (I don’t think there’s enough people to have a IV class at all.) I only need two years to graduate, but I absolutely need 3 years to get into the colleges I'd like to go to. I was really counting on being able to take AP.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I was accepted to Forestry in, I dunno, probably March or April (I’m horrible with time). I've been getting data for the project all summer. There's only one person in the program who's been more active than I have. I hate the idea of having to abandon it after having come this far with it. What's more, the people who were doing normal projects were supposed to figure out what they were doing and find mentors over the summer. I've not only invested a lot of time in this program, I'd be behind schedule if I had to switch out.</p>

<p>I'm furious that they're making me choose between these classes (they really messed up the rest of my schedule, too) and I'm trying to figure out a solution as quickly as possible. Unless I've overlooked something big by making this more complicated than it has to be, and I really can just drop one or the other without a problem, right now it looks like one of three things are going to happen:</p>

<ol>
<li>I keep AP Japanese, drop Forestry, and do a normal capstone.</li>
<li>I keep Forestry, drop AP Japanese, and take a class online or at a nearby university or something (I live within walking distance of classes on the state flagship campus, and am happy to look into any reputable online classes from anywhere).</li>
<li>I keep Forestry and convince my teacher to let me do an Independent Study period for AP Japanese.</li>
</ol>

<p>Right now it's looking to me like #3 is my best option, though I have no idea how my school handles independent study things- if they'll let me do it during a class he already has and let me just work on my own or something, then it won't be a problem, but if it has to be in one of his lunch/free periods, it's going to be a big one. The Japanese teacher is only there for half the day anyway. I’d go for #2 in an instant, but I don’t think there are any classes I could take that I could physically go to (because of timing), and I’ve never heard of an online program I’d consider really reputable (but does anybody know any good ones that might work for me?).</p>

<p>So what do you think? What should I do? I go back to school on Monday, and need to figure this out as quickly as possible. The rest of my schedule has ridiculous mistakes on it as well, and I’ll need to submit all corrections at the same time…</p>

2

<p>Option #3 sounds like the best if the school allows it. If not, then I would say option #2 would be the next best.</p>

<p>Honestly, Option #1 sounds awful.</p>

<p>I hope that things work out for you.</p>

3

<p>^Agreed. Look into 3 first–the Japanese teacher may be willing to help you out during your Independent Study if you explain the situation.</p>

4

<p>So my teacher emailed me back this afternoon and says that an independent study for AP Japanese apparently isn’t a good idea, and that I should try to transfer into Japanese IV when I get my schedule fixed. (He also told me to come by on Monday to discuss “options” with him, though I really can’t see what other options there are.)</p>

<p>If I were to take Japanese IV, how would a college look at that? Since I could theoretically have taken AP Japanese? (Do colleges even take scheduling problems into consideration at all? It’s not like my school puts up what classes are held when… I built myself a new schedule, but I had to go through the schedules people posted on Facebook to know what was in which period.) I feel like there might be a bit on the Common App where this could go- if so, should I mention it?</p>

5

<p>“but I absolutely need 3 years to get into the colleges I’d like to go to.”
This is definitely false.</p>

<p>Take whichever one you think would interest you more. Take forestry and you can explain in Additional Info. about how you couldnt take II so you self studied and now you cant take AP because you wanted to do forestry (explanation of why you only have 2 years)</p>

6

<p>^ I’d like most of all to go to Stanford or Brown, so, well, it’s not so false…</p>

<p>It’s not like I’d drop Japanese altogether- I’d just take a lower level when I wanted to take a higher one. I just want to know how a college will look at that.</p>