Not Taking Science Senior Year?

Applying to College
1

<p>My main question is will it hurt me to not take a science senior year in order to take more classes that focus more on what I'd like to do (journalism, politics, diplomacy, history). I'm having doubts about my chosen schedule because a friend told me her cousin is an admissions officer at Brown and they throw out apps without a science senior year.</p>

<p>I'm definitely an English/history/languages person- I get all As in those, take very rigorous courses, participate in extracurriculars relating to these, and have gotten many awards. I take regular math (Bs in Algebra, As in Geometry, B/maybe an A in Precalc), and honors science (B/A in bio, B/B in chem, A/A in physics).</p>

<p>4.5 weighted/3.8 unweighted GPA. 32 ACT for now (English: 35, Math: 33, Reading: 34, Science: 27)</p>

<p>Schedule for next year
1. AP Statistics (instead of AP calc)
2. AP Economics (instead of AP science)
3. AP English Lit
4. AP Gov/ AP Comparative/ Constitution Team Combo Class (It's a pretty big deal I was accepted to this)
5. Italian 4 Honors
6. Newspaper Practicum (I'm an editor next year, so we have to take the class. I'm dropping French 3 Honors to take it, but I have Italian, so it's okay)</p>

<p>I'm not sure if I can even change my schedule at this point- many of the classes I'm taking (almost all of them) are exclusive and only one period of the day, and the sciences may be full. I can't take AP physics because I'm not taking AP calc, I can't take AP Chem because I'd fail, AP Environmental is too easy, and the AP Bio teacher is nuts.</p>

<p>I'm interested (in order of most to least interest): UChicago, Columbia, NYU, Washington U at St. Louis, George Washington (safety), Georgetown. And I haven't really looked into it, but maybe something in Boston or UPenn.</p>

<p>So: how big of a deal is it that I'm not doing science as a senior?</p>

2

<p>An AP Science course instead of AP Economics would make your senior year schedule stronger from the perspective of the most selective colleges on your list. I encourage you to get the opinion of one or two of those colleges. An email to the admissions department might be the best way to do that.</p>

<p>I very much doubt that an application gets thrown out by the Brown admissions committee for a “missing” and “expected” senior year science course.</p>

3

<p>My son, who has strong history / political science interests, got into a Top 20 university without a science senior year. He chose instead to load up on some history / political science / law-related courses that were really of interest and fit with his whole profile. I see no need to force yourself into a science bucket if you’re not a science person.</p>

4

<p>One of the biggest mistakes I made was dropping a science course my senior year. Very stupid.</p>

5

<p>If your intended major involves science in any way, be sure to take a science. If not, well, maybe it’s not necessary. I took Bio freshman year, Chem sophomore year, and Physics senior year. I needed one more science credit senior year for the advanced diploma but I’m terrible at science, so I didn’t want to take an AP. I ended up taking online earth science senior year and my schedule was as follows:</p>

<p>Honors gov
Psych
AP Lit
Honors Musical Theatre
AP Music Theory
Honors Online Earth Science</p>

<p>I got into all my schools as a music major: UMiami, NYU, The New School Jazz, Berklee C of Music, USC, and VCU as an English major safety. Somewhere in the 3rd marking period, I realized that I was so behind in the science course that my chances of completing it were slim. So I withdrew the class after making sure it was okay with USC. As long as I keep my other grades up, I’m able to call myself a Trojan. </p>

<p>Basically, do what you want to do. My schools saw that I was very passionate about my chosen field of study/career path, and I showed in my application and audition that that’s what I’m going to do with my life and I’m going to do it well. I’m getting a standard diploma because I was one science class short. Is that disappointing? Slightly. Would I have gone back and taken an AP science class instead of playing a principal role in the school musical? Heck no. It seems as though you already have enough AP classes to get into those schools. An AP science shouldn’t really matter if you want to go into journalism or history. Stats, Econ, Lit, and the last one seem like perfect choices for what you want to study in college.</p>

<p>If I was a college admissions person, I would prefer the student whose schedule matched up to his/her interests rather than the student whose schedule looked like everyone else’s.</p>

6

<p>Consider replacing AP Statistics with AP Calculus. AP Calculus is much more useful than AP Statistics for university credit and prerequisite to later courses that you may have to take. For majors like economics or business, you may have to take a calculus-based statistics course (which AP Statistics is not). A stronger statistics background (from the calculus-based statistics courses) can also help with other social studies majors.</p>

7

<p>I tried to switch from AP Stats to AP Calc AB, but my counselor said the classes were full. I can’t add a science anymore anyway, but I wouldn’t have wanted to take the sciences offered and your comments helped me not worry quite so much about pursuing my passions instead of what’s expected of me. My counselor is very assured that this is just fine as well. To take a science is a period and a half, which means I’d have no studies- I also just don’t have that block of time, it’s unscheduleable, it conflicts. The Econ class I did instead of science is 1 semester AP Macro and 1 semester AP Micro, so it’s pretty strong. I’m feeling alright about it now, I definitely have a strong law/international/history focus, taking Econ adds to my general sphere of interest- science wouldn’t. Thank you all for responding, it helped me a lot.</p>

8

<p>If you have no interest in science, then maybe it’s worth it to skip it even if it impacts you a little negatively in admissions, especially if it’ll help you focus on other classes and keep up your grades there. I’m like you, also skipping science senior year, and I’ve just accepted that it might hurt me because I’m still happy with my decision- I love school but hate science, and I’m not going to put myself through another year of something I don’t care about just on the off chance that that might be the deciding factor somewhere.</p>

9

<p>

It’s good to put things in context. Your son applied ED. Is OP willing to apply ED?</p>