Oh yeah AP Lang too
1 Like
My son (class of 23) chose to not take a math and science his senior year as he already had what was required to graduate (4 years of math, science including physics).
2 Likes
I am all for figuring out schedules that work for each student. 
I was just surprised by English not being listed because our school makes students take all 4 years, and I didn’t know if this student had already doubled up somewhere or mom had just missed listing it (it was the latter).
1 Like
This almost certainly depends on your HS. At ours, to get into Wake and Emory one has to definitely be in the top 1/3rd of rigor (and GPA) to have a decent shot. Thus, for that tier, one typically needs 6-7 APs total, and the majority of successful applicants to these schools have all 5 core courses honors or AP in 11th, but there are some who get in ED and have only 4 of the 5 at the highest level in 11th grade. For even more selective T10ish type schools, a 6th core course is needed in 11th for the best chance, also honors or AP, or 10-12 APs total with all other classes highest /honors. It is a fairly intense school.
Other high schools are different. I think the best advice is talk to the college counselor at your HS and get specific details.
He is taking English Sr. year, I forgot to list it.
1 Like
She is going to have 11 APs when she is done, which I think is higher than most of the kids at the school, though I do not know for sure as she is our oldest.
English: Lang/Lit
Math: Stats/CSP
Science: Physic 1/Bio
Social: World/US/Psych/Econ
Latin
Our school does not provide rank other than top 2 and top 10% (and no earlier than semester 7). As for rigor, her only non-top level class will be Calculus junior year. She is planning to take AP Stats as a senior.
School does not allow Freshmen to take APs.
Our counselors do not do much, the students have to rely on the teachers for recommendations. But you can’t say anything as you do not want the counselor to screw your kid later.
It is too bad the counselors won’t help much. See if you can still manage to ask if taking the Calculus junior year instead of AP will matter for Wake/Emory and the like. At our school, the ones that step back after honors Precal in 10th or 11th to regular Calc in 11th (or 12th) put themselves at a disadvantage for that level of school but there are occasional kids who still have success with ED at either, especially Oxford-Emory. So not a deal-breaker, just much more rare. However, it is a competitive school: APSTAT is usually a second math taken in 10th by over 1/4 of the class, and about 60%of the class ends with either APCalc AB or APCalcBC. Stepping down in math to regular Calc like that usually means they are not allowed in APPhysicsC or APChem, sometimes not APPhys1 (almost half the class takes this in 11th) either depending on timing of the step-down. If your school does not have that huge percentage taking APcalc, it probably doesn’t matter as much.
Ahh if 60% of the class is taking AP Calc, it would be much less impressive then my daughter’s school. You have to be approved to take the class and it is more like 20% with AP Calc. Would see how it is a big deal not taking AP Calc if that is what a majority is doing. It is not like that here. The school wouldn’t let that happen.
3 Likes
It is a test-in school, and they all do have to be approved, so it isn’t as though they get in to APCalc without qualifying. It has a large percentage of top kids(about 1/4 of the class gets 97th%ile or above on national standardized testing), but yes I agree it is not an apples-to apples comparison. Schools are all so different; hopefully you can get specific details on what type of kid Wake and Emory accept from your school.
1 Like
My son 2025 has taken every free PSAT, ACT and SAT available on the internet. About every other Saturday I give him the reading, math or english section before he starts his day. Over summers, since 8th grade, I have him sit for the entire practice tests. The practice full tests, timed help tremendously.
I have read other parents negative comments about studying and practicing PSAT, SAT, ACT.
My first D was not a National Merit Scholar because I wasn’t aware of the process and its scholarship potential. That was my failure as a parent. Thankfully she did receive a full COA merit scholarship.
My second studied and was easily a National Merit Scholar. My third studied the tests from age 12 on. She was also a National Merit Finalist and soon to be a Scholar. My current S2025 I expect will also be a National Merit Scholar.
My first two have graduated with zero debt. My third is soon to accept a full cost of Attendance and my fourth plans to follow suit.
If your children are academically gifted then by all means they should apply themselves by practice testing.
My current senior has already taken borh the practice LSAT and GRE with excellent results.
Catching up after being off for a while.
D25 is in the process for signing up for classes. It is getting easier, we pretty much laid out the last 3 years when she signed up for classes last year, and nothing has really changed. Looks like it will be:
AP Lit
AP Bio
AP Calc AB (highest math we offer)
APUSH
Regular Chem (only option offered)
Spanish 3
Philosophy (1/2 class)
PE class (1/2 class, graduation requirement)
We probably won’t get her schedule back until sometime in the summer. It is always a bit of a mess and requires some tweaking to get things right.
She will also get 2 other classes that she probably will drop. As juniors and seniors, they can get excused to take classes from the local directional U. But you still have to sign up for a full schedule, then drop them during drop/add. Which is a messy way to do it. I’m guessing they do it because otherwise everyone would say they will take a college class, but not follow through and just take the free period from HS. So you have to line that up closer to the actual college class.
1 Like
With all the talk about scheduling for the next two years I’m pretty torn and could use some opinions. Looking forward my D25 will either have to drop foreign language or let her not take science or/and math her senior year. The dilemma comes because she is in both symphonic band and jazz band during the school day plus wants to take AP music theory. She is required to take health/PE every year and a practical arts class like wood shop or yearbook. I really want her to stick with German another year for the exchange program, we’ll have a student stay with us for 2 weeks this fall then my child goes to Germany with her class for 3 weeks and stays with the exchange student for a week. It’s not required she take German to go. Here’s a couple examples of what the next 2 years could look like:
11th:
Adv LA
Pre-calc or stats
Physics
Adv US History 2
German or practical arts
Jazz
Symphonic
Health/PE
12th:
AP LA
AP Macroeconomics (req financial lit)
AP music theory
Jazz
Symphonic
Practical arts class of some kind
Health/PE
AP stats or a science
She has no interest in stem or taking lots of AP/honors classes. Music is her first love and I can’t take that away from her. She already has Adv bio and adv chem. If she takes any science senior year it’d probably be AP chem because she likes it much better than bio, we’ll see how physics goes.
I would have her take Pre Calc and then Stats. My D23 didn’t take a science senior year because she really wanted to take an art and a photography class. She’s not applying to Ivies or Top20s but has been accepted everywhere she’s applied. She’s planning on majoring in Communications and Art or Advertising Design (depending on which school she picks) so I think the absence of an AP Bio or Chem hasn’t mattered at all.
2 Likes
Thanks, that’s how I was leaning as well. This was really helpful.
1 Like
I think it depends a lot on what her goals are. If she isn’t shooting for a highly selective then you are probably worrying too much (which is my specialty). For highly selectives, I know they want to see 4 years of language, and I have been told many times when I tried to put together a schedule for my kiddos that they really want to see all 4 major subjects (English/Social Studies/Math/Science) every year, even if they doubled up before. But I think the vast majority of schools won’t care, as long as she had 4 units of the major subjects at some point in HS.
I do think that it sounds like there are a lot of requirements at your HS, which make it kind of onerous to fit everything in, especially for a musician. If the requirements are listed on the school profile, I think most schools would take that into account, and cut her some slack, given that she isn’t taking “easy” classes or loading up on study halls, she is instead taking difficult classes, sticking with her EC, and meeting all of the various requirements.
2 Likes
Trying to catch up after being away for a year.
DD’s school hasn’t officially started the signup process for next year’s classes, but it’s coming up soon. Our guesses for classes are:
Eng Lang (H/AP presently undefined)
Euro Hist (H/AP presently undefined)
Bio (H/? presently undefined)
PreCalc H
French AP
Arts elective
Engineering (?)
Her school is moving away from APs (so the AP status for some of her classes are presently undefined. They might become honors classes or perhaps non honors/AP). With only a couple of exceptions, they also guide all students to calc in senior year. I can’t speak to whether this helps or hurts the students at her school wrt competitive admissions, but we are hopeful that the learning is at a high level regardless of label.
Re: 4 years of language for the highly selectives, I’ve been interpreting this as “has reached the 4th year of HS language” (or at least I thought I recall someone saying so at an info session) Have I misled myself?
Re: music theory, it might be possible to study theory at a local music school and use that class slot for another subject. DD has been doing that and is now pretty good at it.
Yes, I didn’t really say that right about language. I think reaching level 4 is the important part, not how many of those classes were in HS.
We have Spanish 1-4 then AP, but only for Spanish. I’m guessing more often than not when a student reaches level 4 there isn’t another left to go.
2 Likes
Thank you for the clarification, it’s a relief that dear ole me hasn’t been messing with my kids’ options 
We toyed with the idea of a different language next year after having reached level 4 this year, but she loves french so the decision became easy.
2 Likes
It’s good to see people’s plans for next year. I’d love some thoughts if people have them for us.
Background: D25 was at our local public for 9th, but decided to switch to a public charter for 10th to have more time for dance. We were talking to a counselor who really thinks she should switch to full homeschooling for 11th/12th to have more freedom and balance. She sent me suggestions last night. I’m mostly ok with switching to homeschooling, but it’s really hard for me to let go of the “normal” coursework. Her point is that it makes my kid look like every other kid and it would be beneficial to differentiate.
Charter 11th:
AP Eng Lit
Pre-calc H (or ap? I don’t understand this new course!)
AP Physics 1 or Physics H
DE US History
DE Psych
H Gov’t/Econ
Homeschool 11th:
AP Eng Lit
Pre-Calc H
US History (DE or non-DE, TBD)
DE Psych
Anat & Physiology
Neuroscience
Something lightweight
Typing it out makes me realize I’m really just mostly concerned about science; my fear is that not completing the triumvirate of bio/chem/physics will have her in the reject pile before they finish reading her app. FWIW, D25 did AP Span Lang in 9th and took a CC Spa Lit class in 10th, so her foreign language is complete.
Thoughts?
1 Like
What type of counselor was this? Is your daughter looking to apply into a competitive dance program?
I’m not sure that I understand her point about differentiating from other kids by homeschooling.
AP Pre-Calc is new for 2023-24.
1 Like