<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. 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>
<p>Many schools will require a 4th year of English, although often only 3 years of science are required. He does have 4 science courses, 2 chem and 2 physics. I'd be more concerned about him missing English during senior year. </p>
<p>If he is interested in pursuing cell biology in college, I would think missing Biology would raise eyebrows; perhaps self-studying for the AP Bio exam would make up for that, others may know.</p>
<p>A senior year schedule full of electives may raise some eyebrows, too. Is there any chance he could take the required ethics or theatre courses (or school-approved equivalents) this summer? Otherwise I'd have him look long and hard at the electives he wants next year, and at minimum add in an English course.</p>
<p>I agree on the fourth year of English. In our district, it is required, and most selective colleges strongly encourage students to take four years of English. If he is interested in cell biology, he should definitely take AP Biology. The AP exam will come too late to be taken into consideration during the application process, and the summer internship will not make up for it. If he cannot fit everything in his schedule, drop some of the electives and the fourth year of foreign languages. If he does not plan on majoring in sciences in college, however, the chemistry and physics classes should be fine.</p>
<p>He is planning to go in History as this is the subject he loves most. He intends to be a lawyer. Okay so English is must and he has to do it. AP Bio may create problems thus he needs to forget AP Foreign Language. But that means he is out for Huntsman program. Tough choices. In addition he is a varsity player and participates in varsity debates. Thanks</p>
<p>If he want to do history, the AP Bio is not critical. I'd suggest he go for the fourth year of foreign languages and fourth year of English.</p>
<p>His first priority should be that 4th English credit - he may not be able to apply to many colleges without it.
I would advise that he drop one of the Social Science courses, and take AP Bio and foreign language, with this reasoning:</p>
<p>Depending on where he goes to college, he will get little to no credit for those econ and gov classes (I'm assuming at least some of them are AP), while he may be able to place out of a foreign language requirement after 4 years of the foreign language. If those social science classes are not AP, they may not be as rigorous as the courses he will get in college (this is assuming a SS route in college), and may even be perceived as "lite" classes, depending on his school, the title of the courses, and how well recognized his school is by admissions people.</p>
<p>Finally despite the fact he is accelerated in math, some schools require 4 math credits, just like 4 English credits, and may overlook the fact that - DUH - he maxed out math in the junior year. Therefore if he is determined on all that government, drop the Bio.</p>
<p>If he drops some of the econ/gov, he can self-study the AP exam - some of the AP Bio exam is based on suggested labs, you can self-study, but it would be harder.</p>
<p>His stats read like potential Ivy, if he is headed that way, he may not get many actual credits for AP classes (unlike state schools, where you can, in some cases, still pick up a number of actual credits) - so before he either overloads his senior year, skews it too far one way or the other, he should look at various scenarios at a couple of his favorite schools, and decide just how much does he need to do.</p>
<p>We cross posted. Keep English and foreign language, self-study one government, if necessary, but I would prioritize keeping his Huntsman option open. I know he's really interested in government, but unless he goes to Andover or Exeter, I doubt his high school classes will be as good as Huntsman :).
Think positively, look at his options in the Huntsman program, and do the Bio only if a 5 will allow him more room in his schedule at Penn - Good Luck, there is no one right answer.</p>
<p>I got the message:</p>
<p>Fourth year English must thus he needs to take AP literature</p>
<p>Bio will be needed so he needs to take it</p>
<p>Fourth year language will allow him to tkae the last AP Languauge which will make him look good</p>
<p>Thus with varsity sports and debate, he should forget the social scince electives. Okay now I will convey the message. Thanks</p>
<p>Good reading here. Our situation is in the same ballpark. Daughter is entering junior year; has taken honors earth science, honors bio, and honors chemistry. NYS requires 4 years of english so that's a given. She will be have 2 music performance classes next year, AP English, AP US History, Pre-Calc, Spanish 4, and an IB Art class. Would it be a red flag if she skipped the science this year and as a senior took AP Physics? SHe would also take AP Spanish, AP English, Calc AB, and the 2 music performance classes as a senior?</p>
<p>His school is very competitive and does very well in IVY leauge admissions. ED is not an option for us because of financaid need. Thus we may be going the route of EA. He will be majoring in social scinces as he has done very well in this subject and recived awrds on national level. That is why he wnated to drop bio. Alas he has to take a subject which he has done research which is beyond AP Bio. Could he subsititute the paid summer program "Laboratory scince" at CTY for AP bio.</p>
<p>Hellousdad- both my kids did Lab Science at CTY-- it is not the same as AP bio (depending on the instructor, there may be very little bio in it! one of my kids did mostly chem, the other mostly physics.)</p>
<p>BlueJay-- will your school allow AP Physics after skipping a year of science? You need to check... at our HS AP physics placement is based on the recommendation of both the Junior math and science teachers... and if she doesn't have a jr. science teacher, you may get caught up in some bureaucratic mess where they won't let her take physics.</p>
<p>cagel:</p>
<p>His school is in the same leauge of Andover and Exeter. He is there on roughly 90% funding. I aksed this question to a parent whose kid will be attending princeton (he was also in prep school with my son). He told me to raise this question on this website as he told me that there are lot of helpful parents.</p>
<p>We did receive similar advice from admission counselor but thought maybe son could try differently. </p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>