<p>I was wondering what classes I should take my senior year. I'm a junior and I want to make sure my schedule is strong enough for college admission to a prestigious school, maybe U of M or an Ivy League school. But I've got a few in my mind and I'll need some opinions. For AP's, I'm currently taking Chem and English.</p>
<p>Current plan for Senior year classes:
Anatomy and Physiology
AP Biology
BC Calculus
AP Physics
CNA program (certified Nursing)</p>
<p>I could also take these classes in place of those classes:
Psychology (A direct college course which gives me a college credit as long as I pass)
Sociology
Health Clusters
Something for the hell of it like Art</p>
<p>Is my plan too much? I'm trying hard. I've got a 3.97 GPA. I'm hoping this will all be good. And yes, I know I'll have to score a 4 or 5 on the AP exam. I was just wondering if it would be the best to take these courses or not and if not, which ones I should instead.</p>
<p>Are you planning to take only 5 classes? You schedule is very science-centric. It’s not bad, since I assume you’re going for premed or nursing, but it’d help if your 6th class were indeed Art, or an advanced foreign language class, or a humanities class, to show range.</p>
<p>It isn’t bad. I would honestly say what you have is fine. Your senior year isn’t going to have a huge impact on wether you get in to college or not, so maybe make it easy on yourself and don’t go overboard adding classes.</p>
<p>On what do you base this? I think that senior year first quarter (for ED) or first semester (for RD) grades are extremely important. First of all, the classes taken from those available show whether or not the applicant has a rigorous course load. Second, a decline in senior year grades over previous years would be a very bad sign. Likewise, senior year grades showing an upward trend would be seen as a nice positive.</p>
<p>If you will be pre-med or pre-law, be aware that college courses taken while in high school do become part of your GPA for medical and law school application purposes, even though colleges generally won’t include grades in transferred courses in their own GPA calculations. So an A+ or A grade in such a course preloads your pre-med or pre-law GPA in a favorable sense, but a low grade preloads it in an unfavorable sense.</p>
<p>I’ve taken 2.5 years of Spanish (apparently my AP’s interfered with the second part of Spanish so I couldn’t take the last part. But I’ve had classes related to business as well. I’m going for PreMed. My school only offers 5 classes per trimester as well (hate it) so that’s what I picked.</p>
<p>I thought I would take Art to take it easy but idk if I would need those classes going into PreMed at a prestigious school. Idk if colleges do watch senior year as much as junior year because I’ve heard from many people no and many yes. But I figured I would attempt it to score a 5 on the AP test. I’ve done well in my AP’s so far but idk if that would be way too much for senior year for me. Maybe I should do AB Calc instead of BC? Idk yet, haven’t gotten an answer for that</p>
<p>Are you talking about after the AP test and getting a 4 or 5, or even as I’m taking them? I’ve done well so far, not dropping below an A, even getting some of the highest grades - even on my finals - but I was also unaware of that information. Could you please completely explain it to me? Sorry, I haven’t been aware to information such as that, my school lacks in providing information to help students exceed.</p>
<p>What is the highest level you completed in Spanish?</p>
<p>Note that many colleges like to see completion of level 3 or 4 (or AP level) in a foreign language in high school. Many also have graduation requirements for foreign language that are higher than admission requirements. Also, in medical practice, knowledge of common languages spoken by immigrants is helpful.</p>
<p>If you have heritage ability in another non-English language, college policies on that for admission and graduation vary. However, either heritage ability or additional high school language can give you higher placement in foreign language courses in college, if you choose to or are required to take them.</p>
<p>What colleges would you like to apply to?
Because the Ivy League will NOT like it if you only took a language for 2.5 years (expectation is 4 years/level 4, and many have AP.)
If you’re getting an A in Honors Precalc, Calc BC would be okay to take. I’d keep CNA since it’d help you stand out.</p>
<p>UCBAlumnus was talking about dual-enrollment classes like the psychology class you talked about - if you’re confident you can get an A in it, then it’s good, but if you’re not confident you can get an A in it, don’t take it.
Do dual enrollment classes “count” as a high school class? Since they may be outside the regular HS day and may be “added” to your schedule…?</p>
<p>So you take 5 classes for 13 weeks, then you change?</p>
<p>If you took only the first half of Spanish 3, then you have completed level 2.5; if you took the first half of Spanish 4, then you have completed level 3.5. Many more selective colleges prefer to see completion of level 3, 4, or higher by the end of high school. Completing an AP course would be considered level 4 or higher (though whether it is 4 or 5 depends on the high school and college looking at it).</p>
<p>I was thinking Ivy League but apparently, Spanish 3 is the same as Spanish 4. If you’re talking about dual enrollment, usually it’s added into our schedule during our school year. Anything out of our school - but at a college - I believe, can be counted as during the school year. I think I’ll be taking CNA at my community college and just taking Psychology as a direct college course. But any opinions on that instead of CNA during the school year? And after ever 12 weeks.</p>
<p>colleges may give you credit for an AP 4 or 5 and allow you to skip level 1 of that class in college, but they would not be considered college classes (they’re one semester college classes stretch to last one year, for instance, and the grading policies for the class are the high school’s) so medical school wouldn’t consider them to calculate your undergraduate GPA. However, a dual enrollment class taken on a college campus IS a college class so it’d count toward your undergrad GPA toward med school.</p>
<p>For the schools you’re targetting, you should probably finish Spanish 3 and either take Spanish 4 or AP Spanish if you can, yes.</p>
<p>If you can take CNA over the summer, that’s a good idea (or psychology) if it helps you fit in Spanish 2.5 to 3. If you can add psychology at the community college, ONLY take it if you’re SURE you’re going to get an A since classes taken on a college campus will be counted in your GPA for med school. Plus: it’ll allow you to take an extra psych class in college (psych is part of the MCAT) and if you get an A you start off on the right foot; minus: if you can’t handle the class or get a B, colleges will wonder if you can handle THEIR college class and you’ll start off on the wrong foot for med school. So see if a syllabus is available online, if it looks like something you can handle, check out the prof’s reputation on ratemyprofessor (remember to dismiss overwhelmingly disgruntled comments as those typically come from “it’s so unfair I got a C I basically almost did all the work” students and any comments about “hotness” because seriously why should you even care but keep in mind the reasonable-sounding comments, whether they’re positive or negative. If it’s a mixed bag, is that related to the class - prof more suited to upper level or lower level, to certain subjects within the field, etc?) Then see what the drop policy is for dual enrolled students - so that if you are in the C-to-B range after a month, you could drop it without penalty or the class appearing on your transcript.
However, psychology wouldn’t replace a “core” class like Spanish 2.5-3. (You should also be able to take Spanish 2 at the college, it actually covers Spanish 2 and 3 or 3-4 in one semester so if you can handle it -be aware it’s VERY intense, with at least 2-3 hours of hw a day - it can be a nice way to prepare for Spanish 4 or even AP senior year and thus have all the credits you need for top colleges.)</p>
and any comments about “hotness” because seriously why should you even care but keep in mind the reasonable-sounding comments, whether they’re positive or negative. If it’s a mixed bag, is that related to the class - prof more suited to upper level or lower level, to certain subjects within the field, etc?) Then see what the drop policy is for dual enrolled students - so that if you are in the C-to-B range after a month, you could drop it without penalty or the class appearing on your transcript.