<p>Hello, I am going to be a sophomore in high school in southern California. I was wondering what courses do I need to take in high school to boost my chances of getting accepted into UC schools. I know Math and Science are very important, but do I need to take AP History classes?My schedule is filled with AP classes, but do I really need to take this many? I get A's in all of my classes and participate in multiple clubs. I will take the PSAT this fall. Please tell me any input you think about my course schedule below. This is my plan for my high school classes the next three years:</p>
<p>Soph.
Adv. English 2
Adv. Pre-Calc
Chemistry
AP Euro
AP Psychology
Spanish 3
Baseball</p>
<p>Junior
Adv. English 3 (No AP)
AP Calc AB
AP Chem
AP US
Spanish 4
Drafting(Engineering type course)
Baseball</p>
<p>Senior
AP English Lit
AP Stats
AP Gov
AP Physics B
AP Biology
(I plan to self study AP Calc BC, it's not offered)
Robotics
Baseball</p>
<p>Feel free to leave your input! Thanks for reading</p>
<p>I’m not sure if AP History would be necessary, but it can’t go against you. My AP History classes were filled with dreaded bookwork and I HATED it and it caved too much into my time. Hopefully, you are much better with time management than me and can handle this, or you have more lenient teachers.</p>
<p>Your coursework for the next few years is solid. Also, does your school offer dual enrollment? It might be a good option for your English class, where there is no AP, and it would eliminate it so you don’t need it in college. I took dual enrollment ENG 101 and it was one of the best things I ever did. I also took dual enrollment electives at my school, like French, a Poli Sci class, and Psych 101 so now I won’t take electives in college, or English. This will free up some of your time when college comes, all engineering majors are a little rough and it would be less credits to take during the year.</p>
<p>Are planning to go to a school where it’s hard to get in because of prestige or some other reason? Or a state school? A state school won’t mind if you didn’t take AP History, assuming you keep up what you’re doing, you’ll get in in a heartbeat. It might be harder to get in a more prestigious engineering school if you didn’t take all honors, since people who did take all honors are the ones you will compete against. But if you stay in extracurricular activities and keep a high GPA I think then you still should be fine.</p>
<p>Thank you! Sadly my school recently cut almost all of our dual enrollment classes (the CA budget sucks!) but I plan to attend a UC school, hopefully UCSD, UCSB, or UCI. Thanks again</p>
<p>At least you have more elective courses. I would have killed to take a Drafting class, all we have left is like foreign language, dance and marketing. Also you can take them online through community college if you so desire.</p>
<p>If you want to stay local in CA, I heard Harvey Mudd is a great engineering school just a suggestion, though. I wish you the best of luck! Just keep doing what you’re doing!</p>
<p>Your courses look reasonable. But your local GC (Guidance Counselor) knows your school and will have the best advise. </p>
<p>Beachy - Yes, Harvey Mudd is a great engineering school…but applicants should understand that it is verrrrry competitive. (My son’s MIT alumni interviewer mentioned that he had been rejected from Mudd.) Mudd academics are intense, and even the students with strong IB/AP background find the work quite challenging.</p>
<p>Math and physics, math and physics, math and physics, math and physics, math and physics.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know you said you already know.</p>
<p>Math and physics, math and physics, math and physics, math and physics, math and physics.</p>
<p>I have no experience with AP classes, but I recommend doing whatever you can to test out of college GECs like English. I know AP classes can give college credit for things like English and such, you probably know more about this than me. But the more worthless classes you can test out of, the better.</p>
<p>Dude… you aren’t even a sophomore yet… what the hell are you doing planning 3 years of classes??? Who cares what you take as long as it’s interesting.</p>
<p>I’d take a 5th year of Spanish, if you like it. Having command of a second language is way more valuable than AP Bio or AP Stats and it shows long term commitment… I’d also try to take BC at a local Uni or CC. You want to continue to push yourself in math. It’s hard to self study yourself into enough mastery to skip directly into Calc III. Remember, this is an open, online forum. You’ve recieved my humble opinion. Verify it before you take it as gospel.</p>
<p>I’ll also strongly echo an opinion voiced earlier, take classes that interest you NOW. Don’t base all of your decisions on hoping to strategize some admissions game. Even if you do, there’s no guarantee you’ll get what you want or that when you do, tht it will actually make you happy or successful. The people who are most fulfilled are the ones that do what THEY WANT TO, not the ones that do what they believe someone else thinks they should.</p>
<p>If anything, people should know more stats. More and more I say, and I bet nearly all STEM majors who have graduated and worked in the real world would agree with me. I think more stats is far more valuable than learning more Spanish.</p>
just a suggestion, though. I wish you the best of luck! Just keep doing what you’re doing!</p>