Need some advice fast

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>Hi. I have arrived at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics just last Saturday. I found that I am not allowed to take as many classes as I normally would. Here is what I'm taking:</p>

<p>1st Trimester:
Graph Theory
AP Chem
Intermediate French
American Studies(english + history together)</p>

<p>2nd Trimester:
Vector Functions/Partial Derivatives
AP Chem
Intermediate French
American Studies</p>

<p>3rd Trimester:
Multiple Integrals and Vector Fields
AP Chem
AP US History(follows up from American Studies)
Intermediate French</p>

<p>I took AP Physics B last year, and got a 5. In order to take AP Physics C this year, I need to pass a lab test. I am not sure how to study for it, so I'm in a sticky situation.</p>

<p>The problem is, both french and physics are full year courses. I have to take french either this year or senior year. I really want to take physics. </p>

<p>If I got into AP Physics C, do you think I should take french senior year, and take physics this year, or the other way around?</p>

2

<p>I'd take physics first, unless French is your thing, in which case take French first. But you already took Physics B...</p>

<p>Can you just take French and self study for the Physics C AP Test?</p>

3

<p>If you want to take Physics, take it. If you're asking strictly from an MIT admissions point of view, go with Physics, but I don't think what MIT wants to see should dictate what classes you pick (because, really, they want to see what you're interested in, if that made any sense).</p>

<p>I only had 2 years of foreign language and I'll be attending MIT in the fall (Spanish I & II freshman and sophomore year).</p>

4

<p>Well, I don't like french, but I dislike the other foreign languages even more.</p>

<p>Actually, french is good, its just that last year's teacher was really bad to me.</p>

<p>I think I will take physics if I get in.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>

<p>PS: Studying for the AP Physics C would be very difficult given the amount of hw here.</p>

5

<p>I took the AP Phys C test this year, and I'm not going to lie, it sucked. I crammed hardcore for it, and managed to pull 5/5. I took the class online, so the workload was pretty tough too. But, I think the class is very much dooable; just be prepared to work.</p>

6

<p>I think the last thing MIT wants to see is you cherry-picking your classes for them. Go with what you want.</p>

7

<p>Ok, things are really getting bad.</p>

<p>My schedule for this trimester looks like this:</p>

<p>AP Chemistry
Embryology(didn' pick this, just got stuck with it)
American Studies(english and AP US History together)
Intermediate French</p>

<p>I just found out the following:</p>

<p>Intermediate French is a requirement for juniors(or spanish).
AP Physics C is a year long course
I can only have 4 core courses first trimester
Juniors are not required to get into a math course for fall trimester(because of scheduling conflict.</p>

<p>One possibility is to switch embryology for graph theory(may or may not work), but then don't do AP Physics C(maybe self-study mechanics or E&M).</p>

<p>The other possibility is to take AP Physics C in place of Embryology, and then try and overload 2nd trimester and take Graph Theory along with multvar calc.</p>

<p>I'm equally interested in both, but the reason I'm asking here is that I will be able to take both at some point, and I want to know which would be better for me now.</p>

<p>I'm mainly concerned because I don't want colleges to think I don't like taking math. This is out of my control, since a lot of my friends did get into graph theory(because other classes didn't conflict in scheduling).</p>

<p>I'm going to try and get into some electives, like intro to complex systems, number theory, discrete math, etc. I've got to concentrate on my Siemens project as well.</p>

8

<p>Sagar, forget about colleges. Jeez. These boards make me angry, and I'm new here.</p>

<p>Forget about what colleges want to see. Take what you want to take because you're interested in it. Challenge yourself, but not to get into college. I took two AP exams, and three AP classes. Not exactly a high number, but the other classes I took I loved. I took advanced CS courses, advanced acting courses, advanced math courses...because I was interested in them.</p>

<p>You can explain why you made the choices you did as to which classes you take in the supplemental sections. That's what I did.</p>

9

<p>I took the lab exam and got in.</p>

<p>I have to either get into french adv or exempt it, or take Intro to Japanese in order to take AP Chem and AP Physics. </p>

<p>What would you guys advise me to do? Should I take Intro to Japanese? I'm kinda interested in it.</p>

<p>Should I wait till next year to take one of the AP's?</p>

<p>PS: I am not asking this for college, but I just want some advice, since I am having trouble making the choice myself and would like input for it.</p>

10

<p>take intro to japanese. if you find it interesting, you can pursue it more next year (they offer upper-level classes, yeah?), though you might make sure it's not an unexpected time-sink (i hear memorizing kanji can be a mite time-consuming.)</p>