<p>ugh, i just got my schedule, and i signed up for ap comp gov, ap english, ap euro, ap chem, and ap calc. i got none of them because they are all fourth period, and during fourth period i have to take advanced sports medicine, because i have to finish a two year internship because it is my major ec. so i have no ap classes my senior year. yeah, i hate my school.</p>
<p>because of this, i decided that i would take only three out of six periods at my high school, and do the rest at my community college. at high school, i am taking advanced sports medicine, anatomy and physiology, and one more thing. i was put in "marine science" but i want to go to my counselor and see if i can take something harder. at the community college i signed up for biological anthropology, american government, and english composition.</p>
<p>so, my question is, will it look like i simply got lazy during my senior year? generally, if you take three high school classes, you only take 5-10 credits at the community college, and i am taking 17. will this help? btw, i know my counselor could say something to explain it, but what if he doesnt? or even if he does, that still doesnt change the fact that i have no ap classes and other applicants do.</p>
<p>also, i could self study for some of the ap tests, but if i did, would it even matter? i am a senior and by the time i have my ap scores, decisions will already be out.</p>
<p>make sure your guidance counselor emphasize this..... wow...... you should probably also self study and let the college know that you are. that'd show initiative and at least ensure them that you're not lazy.</p>
<p>ok. but assume my guidance counselor is very incompetent, because he is, haha. so what if he doesnt do much of anything? will the cc courses help me out?</p>
<p>I would strongly recommend taking similar classes at the juco, i.e., chem (or bio or physics, dropping bio anthro), euro (or US if you haven't already taken it), and calc if you can't take them at HS. While probably required for your internship/EC, Anatomy and Physio is a college prep class, while AP Chem is a college-level class. Thus, you'll want to beef up your transcripts as much as you can.</p>
<p>ive taken chem at the junior college, and there is no euro history. our college is on a quarter system, so i will end up taking about 7 or 8 cc courses total my senior year, including calculus. fall quarter i will take biological anthropology, american govt, and english. winter i will take calculus, and maybe a literature class. spring i really dont know yet. and anatomy and physiology is harder than ap chem at my school.</p>
<p>ive taken ap world (got a 4) sophomore year, and ap ush (5), ap bio (4), and ap psych (5) my junior year. at the cc, ive taken intro to anthropology, inorganic chem, college algebra, trig, and cultural anthropology.</p>
<p>you've actually already taken a lot of difficult classes so it may not be as big of a deal as i originally thought.
still, it's probably going to look like you got little lazy when this is obviously not the case. instead of self-study, could you take an online class? in my county there's a web academy with a pretty broad spectrum of classes (ap euro and ap environmental science are both offered for example), but i know this kind of thing might not be available where you are.
anyway, i think you're making the best of a bad situation and i hope you can find a way to let colleges know why your schedule is so odd.</p>
<p>yeah, we dont have online classes, i wish we did though, thanks for the suggestion. ive taken so much stuff that i dont actually need more credits to graduate, maybe just pe. but i still wanted to have a good senior year.</p>
<p>Wow, I thought we had some scheduling woes, but this takes the cake. Who sets up a master schedule with all these AP classes as singletons in the same period? You can't be close to the only student who's feeling schedule impact from this.</p>
<p>hmm, well at my school people usually only take one ap class in their senior year, or none at all. so i guess it wouldnt matter to them. and bio and psych are the most common senior aps, and there are a couple periods of those. but i took those junior year. we also have a lot of periods of ap us and ap world. also, our fourth period is longer, so all the ap teachers want it.</p>
<p>so here is what i am thinking i will do. at my high school, i will take advanced sports medicine, anatomy and physiology, and ap comp gov (i just found out its also offered sixth period). at community college, i will take about 8 courses throughout the year: biological anthropology, american govt, english composition, calc 1, calc 2, sociology, english literature, and maybe a science class.</p>
<p>i can self-study ap euro, ap us govt, ap english lit, and maybe ap calc. so that would be 5 ap tests total. that would be a lot of money though, so are you guys sure that it would help my chances to self-study for the ap tests? even though the colleges wont get to see my scores? i am looking at LACs like grinnell, carleton, whitman, colby, scripps, etc. </p>
<p>thanks, i really appreciate your responses.</p>
<p>I would not at all recommend self-studying an AP senior year. Colleges don't see your AP scores, so there isn't any guarantee that you are learning the material. Anyone can just say that they are "self-studying" twenty AP courses senior year, and then not take the exams once they get into college! (or just take the exam and do poorly)</p>
<p>Of course, nobody would believe 20 APs, but there's still no guarantee that you are actually working on them. And more importantly, what are you getting out of it, and what are you proving to colleges? You're just sitting down and memorizing a bunch of facts. It does show committment, but you can show committment by putting lots of time into developing an important EC. It's a lot more interesting for an Adcom to read about how you changed the way a charity is run than it is for an Adcom to read about how you sat down with a bunch of AP Bio flashcards.</p>
<p>Take the CC college courses, and then take the time you would have spent self-studying an AP and spend it on an EC that matters to you. It's a lot less boring, both for the Adcom and for you!</p>
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DEFINETLY have your GC write a LOT explaining this
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make sure your guidance counselor emphasize this
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<p>will it look really horrible if he doesnt? im kind of afraid to ask because i already need him to explain why my grades went down during my junior year. my dad died suddenly in the summer before junior year and my gpa went from a 3.9ish to 3.7ish. so it seems like thats already enough to be explained away. </p>
<p>i did the community college classes instead of being stuck in pottery and yearbook at my high school, will that at least somewhat make up for it?</p>
<p>and M's Mom, thanks for your advice, but i think they trust kids not to change their mind, right? you arent allowed to sign up for a really hard schedule and then just drop it after you get accepted. that could get you rescinded. if i said i was self-studying the aps, i think they would believe me, because if i didnt that would definitely cause a problem if i was accepted.</p>
<p>as for adding more ECs, unfortunately its just too late for me. there is no way that i will be able to add a significant activity this late in the game. i dont play sports and i am not even a member of any clubs, so there is no way that i would achieve a leadership position this late in the game. my only good EC is the sports medicine internship thing, so i am just going to have to stick with that.</p>
<p>so does anyone else have an opinion on whether i should self-study the aps?</p>
<p>Does taking college courses really look bad? I would have thought that would be a plus..</p>
<p>By the end of my junior year I will have exhausted all of my school's history courses; will it be frowned upon if I take a course at a local college? Actually, I was hoping to take Biology (taking AP this year), History, and Philosophy (not offered at my school) at the college.</p>
<p>"and M's Mom, thanks for your advice, but i think they trust kids not to change their mind, right? you arent allowed to sign up for a really hard schedule and then just drop it after you get accepted. that could get you rescinded. if i said i was self-studying the aps, i think they would believe me, because if i didnt that would definitely cause a problem if i was accepted.</p>
<p>as for adding more ECs, unfortunately its just too late for me. there is no way that i will be able to add a significant activity this late in the game. i dont play sports and i am not even a member of any clubs, so there is no way that i would achieve a leadership position this late in the game. my only good EC is the sports medicine internship thing, so i am just going to have to stick with that."</p>
<p>Nobody trusts a teenager not to change his or her mind! When you say you are going to self-study an AP, you are not officially signing up for the course, so you can't officially withdraw from it. Also, there is nothing preventing you from blowing off studying and getting a 1, 2, or 3 on the exam. The college won't know. Announcing your intentions to self-study 5 APs on your app is like announcing your plan to cure cancer on it! There's no way to know if you will follow up.</p>
<p>Frankly, if I were an adcom, I wouldn't believe that you were taking 3 in-school classes, 8 CC courses, and doing 5 AP self-studies. Even if the CC classes aren't year-round, I simply wouldn't buy it.</p>
<p>You don't have to pick up more ECs, but devote more time to the ones that you are pursuing. Or if your internship has set hours that you cannot increase, perfect your admissions essay. It's not about having more ECs, it's about spending time on the ones you have and making something big out of them. Going nuts trying to cram in AP self-study and extra little ECs will only drive you nuts! It won't impress adcoms.</p>
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Nobody trusts a teenager not to change his or her mind! When you say you are going to self-study an AP, you are not officially signing up for the course, so you can't officially withdraw from it. Also, there is nothing preventing you from blowing off studying and getting a 1, 2, or 3 on the exam. The college won't know. Announcing your intentions to self-study 5 APs on your app is like announcing your plan to cure cancer on it! There's no way to know if you will follow up.</p>
<p>Frankly, if I were an adcom, I wouldn't believe that you were taking 3 in-school classes, 8 CC courses, and doing 5 AP self-studies. Even if the CC classes aren't year-round, I simply wouldn't buy it.
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<p>well, im taking us gov and calc at the college, and comp gov at high school, so its really only two that i have to self-study for. although there is nothing stopping me from not following through with the ap tests, i dont want to get rescinded. you sign that thing saying that everything on your app is true, so if i put that i was taking the ap tests on my app, i would follow through with it. and if i get accepted and intend to attend a certain school, they will see all my ap test grades, from the collegeboard, not self-reported.</p>
<p>so my question really isnt if the college will believe what i write on my app, but if it would be worth the 500 dollars to self-study. most pms that i have received have advised me to self-study, but before i spend that much money i want to be sure. thanks again for your advice.</p>