NO Biology in high school. Will it hurt in college admission?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>My son is taking a course load which is as follows:</p>

<p>9th grade: History, math, honors chemistry, music (school required), English and foreign language</p>

<p>10th grade: AP BC calculus, AP Chemistry, Honors Physics, AP Euro History, Sophomore English, Foreign Language II. (All AP scored are five)</p>

<p>11th grade: AP Physics, Foreign language III, AP language (English), Foreign language III, Linear and Vector Algebra and school required art electives</p>

<p>12th grade: He wants to take lot of history and social science electives such as macro and micro, us government politics along with more mathematics and two school required electives in ethics and theater. </p>

<p>Thus he has to either forget AP Bio or Fourth year of Foreign Language or Fourth year English class. He has done very well and achieved high scores in all two subjects and done very well in science in general. The reason he does not have time to take one of the classes in these three subjects. </p>

<p>However, he is doing a summer internship in cell biology in a paid internship in university. Should he forget biology and do not worry about it or take the AP bio exam independently? He has scored 5 in all APs and maintains very good GPA. He has scored multiple 800 in and SAT II. His PSAT score in 10th grade was 231.</p>

2

<p>I dont think it will hurt him, I think most schools just look for 3 or 4 years of a lab science. However taking AP bio senior year would probably look better than another social science.</p>

3

<p>he shouldn't forget about biology. It's a good idea to get at least a grounding in all subject areas no matter what you plan to study in college.</p>

<p>an internship in cell biology will be very specific, so it would help to take some sort of general bio course to diversify his bio info (learn some about ecology, evolution, molecular bio, etc.) or he could study by himself from a textbook.</p>

4

<p>So do you think he should forget the Fourth year foreign language or English</p>

<p>Can he register AP biology and take it without lab experience? ( he has taken a CTY course in laboratory scince and doing work in the lab right now). Is it doable?</p>

5

<p>Hello how is it that your child is taking AP chem in the 10th grade ?</p>

6

<p>He has taken a biology course in 7th grade and Earth Scince in 8th grade. He did an internship in a chemistry lab and thought it was something he could do it. He liked chemistry and did very well in this alongwith Physics.</p>

7

<p>you seem like a dedicated parent. If it is financially feasible then I would think that he could take an online AP biology course. Here is a link:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.apexlearning.com/subjects/advance%20placement%20subjects/ap_biology_oc.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apexlearning.com/subjects/advance%20placement%20subjects/ap_biology_oc.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>there are more places as well.</p>

8

<p>He shouldnt drop english or foreign language, if he needs to drop something it should be one of his social science electives.</p>

9

<p>Dropping English would be a very bad idea: most colleges require 4 years.</p>

10

<p>hmmm:</p>

<p>This stuff is basic, If I am correct he knows it all as he has to read two books on masters level as his lab work is much more advance then AP Bio work. I do not think he has time to study as he plays varsity sports and participate in varsity debate team. But thanks I will suggest to him. </p>

<p>If you can provide more links, I will appreciate it. Thanks</p>

11

<p>
[QUOTE]
Hello how is it that your child is taking AP chem in the 10th grade ?

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>Not to steal the topic or anythign, but I though a lot of students here took AP Chem in 10th grade. I will be taking AP Chem in 10th as well. I did take high school Bio in 8th and Chem in 9th though.</p>

12

<p>fev:</p>

<p>My kid has friends who take AP calc in 8th grade, AP Bio and AP Chem in 9th grade and AP Physics in 10th grade. This is pretty common in my son's prep school where lot of kids who attend on financial aid are very motivated too like you.</p>

13

<p>concerned dad, that is very uncommon, almost unheard of around here. Calc in 8th grade?!?!</p>

14

<p>Wow, I wish I could have taken some more advanced classes in 8th grade, but I was lucky to get what I did. My options for a school are also limited to the school on army bases in Europe.</p>

15

<p>to tell you the truth i was not close to being motivated enough to take AP's in 8th grade. My mindset was completely different.</p>

16

<p>Some of my 8th grade classes got boring though, I think I would have enjoyed it. I thought the "exploratory wheel" and a few other classes were just a waste of my time.</p>

17

<p>calc in 8th grade is not impossible, I've done it.
Anyway, if he is going a to be pre med, then yes... he definately should.
Since he has perform exceptionally well, I believe he earns the right to decided whether he wants to take bio or not.
What does he want to do anyway?
(note-if you can convince him to join a sport, that would pretty much seal the deal).</p>

18

<p>You should definitely take some form of Biology in high school.</p>

19

<p>He may want to take a course or two online. That's what I'm doing next semester. Perhaps he can take AP Bio at school and do AP Macro/Micro online, or vice-versa. I would suggest taking a look at UCCP (<a href="http://www.uccp.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.uccp.org&lt;/a&gt;) or Apex Learning (link above). You can view the entire first unit of every course at Apex. Good luck! :)</p>

20

<p>I don't think it would hurt you. I mean, people don't take physics and still get in. </p>

<p>BTW, does your state not have testing? BEcause in Texas, just about every school needs to have biology to please Mr. Bush.</p>