Orchestra/Journalism (School Newspaper) vs. AP Classes

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi,

I’ll be picking classes for next year, my sophomore year, in the coming months. I am currently in orchestra, and have been since 5th grade. I am taking one AP this year, AP Human Geography. I’m not sure about my plan for next year. The APs available to me in 10th grade are:

AP German
AP World History
AP Statistics
AP Music Theory

I will definitely be taking AP German, as I am in an accelerated German III class at the moment. My brother recommended that I take AP World. At my school, this class is considered to take some self-teaching, and requires a lot of textbook reading. AP Stat and AP Music Theory are both available as electives. I get 3 slots total, but language (AP german) takes up one, and orchestra the second. AP Stat is a very difficult class at my school, so I am not sure I want to take that along with AP World because it is more or less a guaranteed 3 hours total of homework, at least. I am applying for journalism for my elective, which is the class that publishes the school newspaper. It is only open to 10th graders and up. It would be best if I continued it through high school, right? However, I am planning to continue orchestra through high school as well. Is it a mistake to “lock in” two of my classes for the rest of high school, meaning I can only take up to 5 AP classes?

What would you do?

Thanks!

2

Personally, I would take Journalism. AP Stats sounds like its way more work that its worth, and you didn’t explain AP Music Theory but I’ve heard that is actually quite tough. Journalism lets you explore a new interest, and if you don’t like it, you can just take something else next year. On the other hand, if you take AP Stats and don’t like it, you’d be in for a tough year.