<p>So I talked to my guidance counselor a couple of days and talked to him about my schedule for next year. I said that I want 3 AP's, 3 honors, and 1 regular (math [my worst subject].) He said that I should do this instead:</p>
<p>Junior:
Honors Anatomy and Physiology
Honors Spanish II
AP European History
Honors English III
Algebra II
AP Art History</p>
<p>and this for senior:
AP Biology (the course that I originally wanted to take next year doubled up with hon. anatomy and phys.)
AP Spanish Language
AP U.S Gov/Hon Econ.
AP English Literature and Composition
Pre-Calculus </p>
<p>My school offers 9 AP's. I'm not taking APUSH because I took hon. american history last year; not taking AP Calculus AB (highest available) because I am not good at math and would probably fail; and I'm also not going to take AP Chemistry because again, it involves a lot of math and thereby my hon. chemistry teacher won't let me in the class.</p>
<p>I don't want to be an Engineer or anything involving math or science, but instead an English Lit major.</p>
<p>So my question is this:
- If I can't persuade my GC to let me into AP Biology during my junior year, will it still be ok? Like, if I actually end up with the schedules that I listed above, will that still be enough for Cornell, assuming I am able to maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.76 or (the very slight possibility of its being) higher?</p>
<p>If your GPA puts you at the top 10% would put you would be “okay”. The schedule seems okay too. You would definitely want your scores and ECs to shine though.</p>
<p>I don’t think it matters if you take it Junior or Senior year. Cornell will request your senior year schedule & see that you are taking it. Won’t hurt you that it is Senior, not Junior year. The only disadvantage I can think of is that some of the Cornell Colleges require 2 SAT II subject tests, one in Math & another of your choice. Your strength seems to be courses based heavily in language (Bio, English, & social studies). A good strategy is always to take the Subject tests in the Spring of Junior year, at the end of the corresponding class you are taking at that time. So if you wanted to take the BIO subject test, you’d be better off taking it your Junior year?</p>
<p>EDIT: Oops, I meant to write hon. spanish III during my junior year, not II. </p>
<p>csdad, I want to take the literature and spanish SAT subject tests and maybe the u.s history test. Should I take Bio as my third exam instead, to show diversity?</p>
<p>also, the worst case scenario for my senior year is that my spanish teacher tells me to take hon. spanish IV instead of AP Spanish Lang. Just in case she ends up doing that, should I take the sat ii spanish subject test during my junior year to show her that I am capable? or should I just do my best in hon. spanish III next year and wait until I finish AP Spanish to take the sat ii?
I’ve been having a rough quarter and my test/quiz scores in spanish are going down from 95%-100% to like 80%-92%. it’s embarrassing, especially since my spanish teacher is the one that decides whether or not I will go to AP Spanish, because she said to me
“I only let the people whom I am 100% sure are ready for it take the class.”</p>
<p>and it’s not because I don’t know what I’m doing. I DO know what I’m doing, but the fact that she expects such high grades puts a lot of pressure on me and on top of that, I have test anxiety. so with extra pressure + test anxiety = failure (at least in my eyes, and I guess hers too.)</p>
<p>I don’t want her to change her mind!!
should I just talk to her about it? or would it be rude to tell her that she puts too much pressure on me?</p>
<p>The schedule is fine and I’m sure on your guidance counselor recommendation, he’ll say you had a rigorous schedule. As for you rank, you should at least have a sense of where you stand within your class. Cornell admissions certainly will, even if your school doesn’t officially rank. I would Google “test anxiety” and practice strategies to overcome that. If you can’t overcome excessive test anxiety, a high-pressure school like Cornell may not be the best for you (though if you’re an English major, you’ll have less tests and more papers). A small amount of test anxiety is good in my opinion, but if it’s excessive and causing you to perform poorly on tests, you should take steps to address that, especially before college.</p>