My son just started his Senior year and is currently not taking an English class. He took AP Language junior year, and took an online college English class last summer as well as an optional Honors Great Books class junior year. He was advised that he does not need an English class to graduate. It seems like not taking English during senior year is pretty risky from a college admissions standpoint. Any guidance would be appreciated! He is taking a pretty rigorous schedule otherwise, with 4 APs. Thank you!
Others should weight in, but I would think that that taking a college English class last summer means he’s good for senior year, especially since he took two english classes as a Junior.
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Why is he not taking one this year? It looks like he has five English classes already, which is more than the standard advice of four, so if there are no more rigorous English classes he’s fine. However, if he could take AP Lit or an honors class without a schedule conflict that would be ideal.
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It’s not really about that, though, is it? It’s about what colleges he wants to apply to and what they want to see. Have you researched what the schools on his list ask for?
My D22 ended up doubling up on English this year and is taking AP Lang online and AP Lit. Her school doesn’t offer AP Lang so she couldn’t take it last year and took English III honors. She is an English/writing nerd, though, and wants the APs for some of the schools she’s looking at.
If he is more STEM oriented or not applying to top 20 schools it’s probably fine. A lot of seniors take it a little easier in their schedule. My D22 is not looking at top 20s and I think almost all of the schools she’s looking at would be fine with no English senior year since he has other English courses over the summer and the Great Books course.
If he’s looking at Top 20 schools or very selective schools they may want to see rigor (aka AP Lit).
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Was it a school-offered summer course? If so, have you checked on how it will appear on the transcript?
My D22 took school-offered online Honors Physics over the summer and it will appear on her transcript as a Senior-year course (oddly showing she took H Physics and AP Physics C at the same time).
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The summer course listing on the transcript reads “College English” . Pretty vague!
If it appear on the transcript, it’s better than nothing.
In fact, I suspect it’s much, much better than nothing when it comes to schools that recommend/require four years.