My child’s guidance counselor submitted the proposed schedule for her junior year. AP U.S. History, Physics Honors, College Algebra half year, Calculus honors half year, AP Statistics, English 11 honors. Is AP Statistics really hard and is this the right order for her to be taking these classes?
Honestly, it really depends on how its taught, but I would reconsider taking it with two other math classes and physics unless she really enjoys math. Some people I know consider AP Statistics one of the harder AP classes and really struggle, while for me and some others it was a breeze. I think if you can take AP Statistics you should, it is invaluable if you wish to pursue research, but when I took it, it was my only math class for the year. If your daughter is not willing to do 2 hours of math homework straight a night, then she might want to think about changing it. (And all those classes seem appropriate for a junior on an accelerated course. I have a friend last year whose junior schedule was almost identical.)
The problem I see is no foreign language - AP stats is an elective that shouldn’t replace a core class like foreign language (unless she’s already reached level 4 or AP).
I agree with @MYOS1634 . A student should not double up on a core subject at the expense of another core subject.
Instead of calculus half year, I would take a language.
What math would the student take next year? Why not take Calc as a senior?
Why take Stats ? you already have a math. What about foreign language?
Depending on the school the calculus could be calc a and senior year calc BC. There is really only 5 classes she is taking senior year so I’m maybe there is a class missing. Typically in our area AP stats is taken after Calculus
Need context in terms of what courses the student has already completed, and what the math sequence at the high school is like.
I don’t see any purpose in having three different maths. 67% of the classes your child is going to take are STEM classes. This schedule is far from well-rounded and shows a very clear overspecialization, and as people have said before, and I believe that a foreign language would most likely be looked upon much more favorably than AP Stats, which she can always take senior year.
Thanks for your comments and insight. Actually said child will be taking Spanish III honors, Religion (required) an elective and two arts classes. Has taken Trig/geom , biology, chemistry and AP Global.
I’m assuming Spanish III Honors, Religion, the arts classes, and the electives will all be senior year since they were not mentioned in the original post regarding the junior year schedule in particular. Is your child planning on taking a year in between Spanish II and III without Spanish? That might not be a good idea.
Can you list ALL classes recommended for junior year and what is available for senior year?
I am sorry if I was not clear before. Here is what child and guidance counselor came up with as a schedule for Junior year.: Religion II (required); AP US History; Physics Honors; AP Statistics, College Algebra in the fall; Calculus Honors in the spring; English II Honors; PE; Spanish III Honors; publications ( 1/2 year elective); Musical Theater and Dance.
This is what child is taking now: AP World History; Chemistry Honors; English Honors; Spanish honors; Trigonometry Honors; musical theater, Dance; PE; Stem(elective) and Religion.
I will have to look in the school’s curriculum guide to see what they offer for 12th grade. I will post that later.
Thank you! That’s helpful.
I’m guessing the structure at your high school is College Algebra (ie., precalculus) Fall junior year (I saw that Geometry and Trigonometry were taken already, so this would make sense) and an introduction to Calculus called Honors Calculus, probably the “A” in Calculus AB, so that the student can take BC senior year.
This is a heavy schedule. I’m not sure I’d keep AP Stats in there, because taking 8 classes is a LOT of classes and it’d take a lot of time to do all the homework, at the likely expense of EC’s (which matter a lot for college admissions -not quantity, but degree of involvement, leadership, and impact).
We talked it over and decided to keep the schedule suggested by the guidance counselor. Stats is on the schedule for senior year so she could have taken it then but child decided to do it in junior year. Child decided to drop one EC that took up a lot of her time this year. Thanks for your input. There are still 2 ECs and leadership in the mix.