I am currently a junior who’s going to be a senior next year, and after figuring out and submitting my senior year class schedule, I’m draped with one final question/worry: Is it worrisome that I won’t be taking any science credit classes in my final year of high school? By next year, I’ll have finished all 4 science credits required to receive my Advanced Diploma and meet the reqs. of UVA admissions, and although I’ll still be taking challenging classes that aren’t science related, how does the admissions office (Dean J) fare with the balance of classes in terms of subject category? What I mean is, will the admissions team look at my application any more differently if I don’t take any science courses in my final year?
I figured this was the best way to get directly connected to Dean J who I see often around these forums and the CC community such as you all who offer such informative advice! I might also email the admissions office directly if I don’t receive an answer just in case. Any information and advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Are you in state or out of state? What percentage of your graduating class typically gains acceptance? What courses do the accepted students at your school take? Your guidance counselor will probably be able to answer these questions, and I would most definitely share your college thoughts with him or her and get advice regarding your senior schedule.
From what I’ve been able to glean from research, meeting with the legacy alumni liaisons and the acceptances from our area, UVA doesn’t necessarily just expect the minimum requirements if it is possible for a student to go beyond them. That said, if your school doesn’t offer higher level courses, UVA won’t penalize you either. The legacy alumni folks told my daughter that she should continue to take core classes through her senior year, even if requirements had been met. She ended up with 7 high school math classes because she started taking high school level math in middle school and our high school has 8 blocks of study in a year. One of the years she completed 2 math classes because the other top students in her grade were on that track. There is some leeway though. Since my daughter completed AP Spanish her junior year (5 Spanish credits), the alumni liaison did suggest that she could take an alternate AP class instead of starting a new language senior year. My son, though opted to take 2 years of Chinese in his senior year even though he had already completed Spanish. I think the expectation is that you take the most rigorous curriculum that your high school offers. If there are no alternatives and you have maxed out your science courses, you are probably fine. If there are other choices, I would consider taking one of them. My kids kept the rigor their senior year, and it worked out for them:).
That is just my opinion, and others may have different advice. And, please go see your counselor:).
Thanks for such a brisk reply, oldUVAgrad! I should have definitely mentioned more about myself, shouldn’t I? I am instate and although I’m not completely sure of the stats, I go to a pretty competitive public school. As asking my counselor goes, I did go to her but she said I was “completely fine” with not having any science classes due to the rigor of the rest of my senior classes. Although I do love my counselor dearly, I wasn’t quite as satisfied with her answer, and am hoping to get a little more from the admissions reps!
When the question came up about whether it would be okay to stop taking a foreign language after completing level 4, she said that they really wanted to see students take all 5 core subjects (English, Math, Science, Social Studies/History, and a foreign language) every year. If you have completed all the Spanish classes, for example, that are offered at your school, then they want you to just take whatever other language is available. (Among other things, this gives them a good basis to directly compare most applications by considering only their core academic subject HS classes.)
If they frown upon your stopping studying foreign language (regardless of how far you got with it), then I expect they would probably also not be happy about you not taking any science at all your senior year. It might not be a deal breaker, but I wouldn’t recommend that kind of gap in your transcript without a very good reason for it.
You can ask Dean J questions on her blog. In fact, she prefers questions to her be posted over there.
I’m guessing that it would be fine to skip a subject one year as long as you meet the minimum (which you said you do) and as long as you have a full schedule of very challenging classes. In other words, if you want to take 2 upper level math classes instead of a math and a science class senior year, I’d be surprised if that would be a problem. However, if you replace the science class with frisbee, that might not be very impressive. (FYI - my son is actually taking a for-credit ultimate frisbee class at UVa).
@JeSuisKelvin Hey I’m OOS and I dropped science and was accepted. Also, if I’m reading your post correctly, you have four years of science anyway, which I don’t. I figure if it could happen to me it can happen to you. Good luck!
@Charliesch Oh, well I am aware of her blog, but I just didn’t know where I could post a question haha, but I will try that as well. An ultimate class for credit sounds intriguing, I might have to look into that haha. I see what you mean, thanks for your insight. I might actually talk to my counselor about maybe moving me into a higher level, 2nd level math course. @Zenithar143 That’s awesome information. Congratulations on the acceptance! We are very different people I assume but you saying that gives me a lot more comfort. Thank you man.
