<p>Hi guys, I'm new to the forums, and I haven't posted anything yet to the forums, so I'll start out with a new topic.</p>
<p>I'm currently a sophomore, and class selection time is coming soon for our school. I'm a bit befuddled on what I should pick for my classes next year. Some classes are shoo-ins, such as my English and French class, but what else should I have for next year?</p>
<p>Some factors I have for class selection: How good it looks for college purposes, rigor, AP or Honors status, etc.</p>
<p>So right now, here are options for my future class selection:
Junior Year:
Science - AP Biology or Physics Honors (At my school, both are weighted classes)
English - English 3 Honors shoo-in
History - AP US History shoo-in
Elective - Marketing - I'm taking a 3-year academy which I'll explain another time
Math - AP Calculus AB or AP Statistics
French - French 3 shoo-in</p>
<p>Senior Year:
PE - (For HS requirements)
Science - AP Biology or Physics Honors whichever one I don't take Junior year
English - AP English Lit or English 4 Honors
Social Studies - Govt. Honors/Econ. Honors shoo-in (There's NO WAY I can take the AP Govt. class without failing to pass A-G requirements in California or HS requirements, which are REALLY screwed up)
Elective - Senior Project - Again part of the academy
Math - AP Calculus AB or AP Statistics whichever one I don't take Junior year
Elective/French - Graphic Arts (To pass HS Standards if I can't get my way around the school's requirements) or AP French</p>
<p>For now, these are the classes I want to pick for my next two years.</p>
<p>So if you guys can, please give me your opinion on what classes I should take to manage all the factors I'm considering, and to help me get into a good college!</p>
<p>(1) What are examples of “good” colleges? Do any require or strongly recommend 4 years of foreign language? You can check by looking at their admissions web sites.</p>
<p>(2) Is science or engineering a possible college major for you?</p>
<p>Depends:
Does your schools offer Calc BC?
Are you apply to engineering schools, if so, take honors physics before AP Bio, it is more important.
Other than that, it really doesn’t matter since you will wind up taking all of them eventually anyways.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Good colleges: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, etc. (I was initially considering Ivy Leagues, but I think I don’t have much of a chance for them). None of the colleges I’m applying for have a 4 year requirement for Foreign Language.</p></li>
<li><p>Science or Engineering: I’m not trying to pursue anything related to them. Like I said, I plan to pursue something in a Social Science style major, such as Economics or Communications.</p></li>
<li><p>Calculus BC: They do, but I feel I won’t get a good grade in BC because Math is one of my weaker subjects. Taking a AP Cal or Stats is a given due to the fact that I’m in Pre Cal right now, and after Pre Cal there are no other math classes for my level other than those two.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Majoring in economics (or business) will typically require a year of calculus (typically, AB = semester, 5 on BC = year, but check each college) and a semester of statistics at the minimum, and students intending to go to graduate school in economics will likely need a lot more math than that.</p>
<p>Other social studies majors are unlikely to require calculus, though statistics is useful for any social studies major. However, it is not always the case that AP statistics is accepted – some schools or majors may have a major specific “quantitative methods” course, or may only accept a statistics course with a calculus prerequisite.</p>
<p>For foreign language, be sure to check the graduation requirements as well as the admission requirements at each school.</p>
<p>In the case of colleges looking at my classes, is it true that they look at Junior year more than Senior year? Because the way I pick my classes for next year might be influenced by that.</p>
<p>^IMO yes, because they will see the full jr year, but at most half of your sr year. For that reason, if you can do well in all of them, I would recommend going with AP Bio and AP Calc during your jr year. Again, that’s only if you can handle the load and keep your grades up. </p>
<p>In general though, I don’t think that either schedule is going to have a huge affect on your college admissions results as they are not that different.</p>
<p>One other consideration. I think that a student should take the AP exams for any AP courses they take through jr year; others will disagree with this, but I think it helps to show competency on a standardized test in a higher level course. But since colleges will not see sr year AP test scores, it is really optional, depending on whether the student is interested in the credit or placement a score would give. So, if you are concerned about scoring well (4 or 5) on any of the AP subjects, it might be a good one to hold for sr year.</p>
<p>Stanford is just as selective as the most selective Ivies (and more selective than many of them) and is on par with Harvard, Princeton, and Yale academically. The Ivy League is an athletic conference, not an exclusive group of schools that have met some academic standard. Plenty of top schools aren’t Ivies and plenty of highly selective schools aren’t Ivies.</p>
<p>I agree with the above that the schedules are very similar. I do recommend that you take AP Lit instead of Honors English so as to bump up the number of APs you’ve taken, since they’re in the same subject.</p>
<p>I’d take AP Bio before Honors Physics if you think you can do well in the course and on the AP exam, as being able to report a good score on the AP Bio exam might help you out a bit in admissions. Plus, the more AP courses you’ve taken and done well in by the time you apply, the better. I think it will look better to have taken and done well in an AP and be taking an honors course in your senior year than to have taken and done well in an honors course and be taking an AP in your senior year.</p>