Hi all.
I am currently a sophomore in high school.
I currently live in Texas.
I didn’t choose to take any honors/AP classes my freshmen or sophomore year.
I didn’t take any freshmen year because I went to a very academically challenging school and I didn’t understand the importance of honors classes.
I was interested in taking honors biology and math but I wasn’t able to due to prior curriculum/placement test scores.
Next year I am taking 2 honors and 3 AP.
Senior year I am planning on taking 5-6 AP’s.
Thoughts?
My dream school is USC but I also love UT Austin.
Will they be unimpressed by me taking no honors or AP until junior year?
It depends on how you market it. If you say you were an unmotivated freshman who caught fire with learning, and you show a steady progression upwards with good grades all along, it shows growth. That sort of trajectory prepares you to keep climbing upwards once you get to college. Come up with a good story and they’ll like it.
Don’t worry too much about it. Right now it’s too early to make any college-related adjustments, but when the time comes, I would just recommend that you speak to your counselor and have him/her give you his/her insight. If not too many students at your school take honors/AP as freshman or sophomores, then you should definitely be fine. Even if they do, colleges will be glad to see you have progressed and started challenging courses and (hopefully) do well. Your counselor can also write about it in his/her letter of recommendation if he/her believes it will raise any “red flags.”
Don’t stress too much about it, focus on doing well this year!!
Don’t take 5-6 APs senior year.
Your trend line/trajectory is more important than the number of AP courses taken. Doing well in the AP exams of the courses you do take is important. GPA is really important also so be sure to focus on that since you apply with your end of junior year GPA.