Need Senior Schedule Advice

Parents Forum
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<p>My school just went to 8-class block scheduling this year, which is causing me some scheduling headaches (since I took some classes this year that I was planning to take next year). My dilemma is that I've pretty much exhausted all the "rigorous" courses at my school (I'm taking Calc II, Chem III, Bio II, French VI right now) so my senior year schedule looks like this:</p>

<p>Gifted English IV
Gifted Western Civilization
Physics II
Gifted Leadership
("Gifted" classes are comparable to AP classes in difficulty, I think.)</p>

<p>I'm planning to take Multivar. Calc through either EPGY or a local college; I'm also planning to take some sort of chemistry and maybe biology at the local college. If things work out, I'll also be assisting research at the Wetlands Center. (BTW, I'm thinking about majoring in bio, chem, or both.)</p>

<p>However, I've noticed that college applications make you list high school and college courses separately. My question is this: ** Will I be at a disadvantage in the admissions process (esp. Ivy-caliber schools) if I take only 4 out of a possible 8 classes at my high school? ** Should I take filler classes at my high school (really would prefer not to because they sound like a waste of time)? Lastly, in general, how hard/how much work are college classes? I kind of overscheduled myself this year and have barely any free time, so I'd like to avoid doing that next year.</p>

<p>I really appreciate any insight that you may offer, and thank you for reading my long post. ^.^</p>

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<p>What kind of guidance department do you have? How meaningful is the "research" at the Wetlands Center? Is there an educational component to the Wetlands Center/can you get a job there? What does your EC list look like?</p>

<p>What I'm getting at with all of this, is that if your ECs are a little thin (and they may be if you felt overscheduled this past year) this might be a good time to demonstrate a passion. Instead of taking so many more science and math classes that you have nothing left to take when you get to college - how about devoting a full half day to the Wetlands Center. The SeaLab close to us has a small museum, and does tours, etc for school groups - an enterprising young person who could help with the research and work as a docent, could get some great essay fodder, as well as have fun and learn something.
If you have a halfway decent GC, he could explain that the change in scheduling this year made it impossible for you to schedule anymore academic classes, so you chose to complete your graduation requirements and pursue this wonderful off-campus opportunity. I guess that would impress me more than repeats of science classes.</p>

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<p>I agree with cangel. This could be a wonderful opportunity to do some in-depth research, along with volunteer work, and maybe get some idea of what you want to do in life. If you already have that many high level courses, it doesn't make sense to stick in fluff just to get enough classes, or to run yourself ragged driving to and from college, the Wetlands Center, etc. It sounds like the work at the Wetlands Center could count as science, if you do reading for it and write up the research, or do a report on how you helped with it. Perhaps a teacher at your school would work with you, and it could count as independent study and add a high school credit or two that way.</p>

<p>Also, I have not seen any college applications that make you list high school and college courses separately, unless the college courses are taken after graduation. My son has taken both, and they are listed together with notations about which are college. College courses can vary greatly in time commitment. My son took college calculus and spent 1-4 hours a day on it. He is now taking Astronomy and beyond some weekly reading, has very little outside work. So it depends on the course and the instructor.</p>

<p>But I think that Wetlands Center sounds like the way to go, if that is something that really interests you. I think it could help, not hurt, in the admissions process. Most colleges love students who think outside the box and go beyond high school classes.</p>

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<p>consider taking stats-ap as a self study (it is easy). chug the leadership.</p>

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<p>Much thanks to everyone who replied!</p>

<p>In answer to your questions, cangel: My guidance department is pretty unhelpful (otherwise I would have gone to it for advice). All my counselor does is come to homeroom once a year and recite the requirements for graduation. If people ask her other questions, she gets confused.. But my school's not that prestigious; it's a typical urban public school where most of the kids are going to the local college. I think at most 1 kid gets into an Ivy-caliber school a year. Fortunately, the senior English teacher takes over as an unofficial counselor when we apply to college; thanks for the advice on getting her to explain the situation.</p>

<p>As to the research, I'm not sure how much I'll actually get to do. I went to the Wetlands Center last December and toured the facilities/talked with some scientists. There's a microbiologist who pretty much offered me an internship-type thing; she said to just call her and talk to her whenever I was ready (I was planning to call toward the end of summer). The project she was working on was relatively interesting: analyzing fish DNA and chromosomes for signs of aberrations that could indicate pollutants.</p>

<p>My ECs are alright, I think. They're the things that have been eating up my not-homework time. These are my major ones:<br>
[ul]
[<em>]10 years of piano (yes, I'm Asian) with quite a few awards
[</em>] 6 years of Science Olympiad with many medals (went to Nationals in middle school, but my high school team's been placing 2nd at state). I've been co-captain of the team since freshman year
[<em>] 3 years in Mu Alpha Theta; many regional math awards, several state ones, one national (13th though)
[</em>] tennis (I really like it)
[<em>] Treasurer of Writer's Club
[</em>] Officer of Beta Club (heh, my community service)
[/ul] Oh, and my friend and I want to start a Quizbowl team next year.</p>

<p>As to the college classes, I want to take the extra math and science classes because I find those subjects interesting :cool:, but maybe I'll just take multivar. calc and chem (either more organic or physical). </p>

<p>Anyway, working at the Wetlands Center for half a day sounds appealing. I'm kind of intraverted though, so I think I'd only be of assistance in the research areas. I was just concerned because I didn't want to look like I was slacking off.</p>

<p>Susantm: The part about your son's college classes was helpful; I guess I'll try and find course syllabi for the classes I'm considering. And thankfully, my school, the college, and the Wetlands Center are all really close to each other (within 10 min drive). Having a teacher work with me sound like a cool idea; I was originally just going to do the Wetlands Center thing as an EC.</p>

<p>simba: I would have taken your suggestion, but I'm taking AP Stats this year as a class >.< unfortunately, a very boring, tedious class. But thanks anyway :)</p>

<p>Any other thoughts?</p>