<p>You guys don't understand my situation and you won't but... I'm going to be a junior and have NOTHING saved up. My parents never cared. Also, I want to go to either Penn State or Texas and they are terribly expensive. Unless I get a full ride for XC/track to one of those schools (being like top 100 in the nation... not gonna happen), then I don't know what else to do besides AP courses.</p>
<p>I'm enrolled in AP Chemistry and I'm determined to go out of my way to get a 5. Honestly, I can't afford to take any science courses in college. I don't want to, even though I don't plan on having a science-related career. I just can't afford to. I need to avoid as many courses in college as possible.</p>
<p>My senior year:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics (shorter one, longer one if I don't get a 5)
AP Psychology
AP Spanish </p>
<p>So is it fine to take AP courses that you don't care about? Aside from the complex ones... I'm obviously not taking AP Music Theory.</p>
<p>Why don’t you self-study those courses and take classes that you do care about instead?</p>
<p>There are some colleges that offer dual enrollment options. In addition, you could just take a couple of courses at your local community college. You should be enabled to obtain some financial aid though.</p>
<p>OK I don’t know anything about self-studying though, but since my school’s in Ohio, we have “Creditflex” where I could gain credits without seat time in high school, but it’s a pain in the butt to apply and stuff.</p>
<p>I wanted to take Calculus I at Xavier University, but it’s Monday-Friday’s in the morning- during cross country practice.</p>
<p>Well, perhaps you could take some courses online. Some community colleges do offer online courses. I believe that you need to physically be at the community college to take exams though. You could also look into state funded online schools. I’m not sure if there are any in Ohio, but in California there are a couple of online schools funded by the government that enable you to take courses online at your own pace.</p>
<p>^You could try to do that as well, but in terms of courses, I recommend that you take classes that you are actually interested in.</p>
<p>Well unfortunately my past two years of high school have sucked and instead of getting straight A’s like I expected, I got a couple of C’s and I also got in trouble by the principal for stealing :(</p>
<p>Yes, I have a miserable life compared to how happy and rich everyone in my school is :(</p>
<p>^ The stealing part could be a bit troublesome because your principal has to sign off before you go from NMSF to NMF, but if you write an honest letter as soon as next year starts explaining how sorry you are and that it won’t happen again things might smooth over by senior year. Some scholarships apply to NMSFs too.</p>
Take the PSAT in October, get one of the top scores in Ohio, become a semifinalist, the semifinalists with the highest scores become finalists. Then, the people running the whole thing determine which finalists become National Merit Scholars by judging them based on the scores, grades, and extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>Is it only based on the PSAT? If it is, then shoot me. I’m a terrible test taker and my estimated composite score was like 19 from the ACT, so I must do bad on the SAT also. Oh well. I guess life is supposed to suck.</p>
<p>The ACT is a different test than the SAT, so you might be stronger on the SAT. I wouldn’t discount it right off the bat.</p>
<p>But gettting back to your original question, I don’t see why not. AP classes are designed for you to get college credit. Just make sure that you can handle the courses since you don’t want to bite off too much.</p>