Rising Sophomore Needing Advice On Schedule

<p>Planning out my high school class schedule, this is what I've come up with so far.</p>

<p>9th:</p>

<p>Concert Band
English I Honors
Civics Honors
Math II Honors
Earth Science Honors
PE
Biomedical Technology (Didn't want)
Career Management(Didn't want either, teacher was horrid)</p>

<p>10th:</p>

<p>Symphonic Band (Year Long)
AP World History
Biology Honors
English II Honors
Math III Honors
Latin I</p>

<p>11th:</p>

<p>AP US History
Chemistry Honors
AP English III
Pre-Calculus Honors
Latin II
Latin III Honors</p>

<p>12th:</p>

<p>AP English IV
AP Physics I
AP Calculus
AP Psychology
Latin IV Honors</p>

<p>Thoughts:</p>

<p>Love band to death but I decided to drop it after next year because it just took up too much space and I wouldn't be able to take all those APs later on. Not entirely sure I'll be taking Latin as my foreign language, I just know I want to get 4 credits in a language. Is Spanish any easier to learn? I have no idea what I want to major in college or where I want to go. I've always liked MIT though. Is this schedule challenging and ambitious enough? Maybe a little too hard? Any advice appreciated.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t quit band in the middle of high school if I were you…
Colleges don’t look at it that highly… even if you were to replace it with an AP class</p>

<p>I agree with Yunallen. Colleges know how much work and ethic is put into Band. It would look great to keep it all 4 years</p>

<p>So I took your advice and revised my schedule to include band and this is what I got.</p>

<p>11th:</p>

<p>Symphonic Band (Year Long)
English III Honors
Pre-Calculus Honors
AP US History
Chemistry Honors
Latin II</p>

<p>12th:</p>

<p>Symphonic Band
English IV Honors
Physics Honors
AP Calculus
AP Calculus
AP Psychology
Latin III Honors</p>

<p>So I now have 3 classes which I had previously planned to take as APs which have now become only honors, and I now only have 3 credits in Latin. Is this really worth it? I don’t really plan on majoring in anything music related I just really enjoy being in the band. I don’t even think Band has honors credit. My dream school would be MIT if that helps.</p>

<p>I disagree with the first two replies. Colleges won’t care if you quit band midway as long as you show that you’re doing something else that you’re passionate about. Only continue band if you truly enjoy band and want to continue. Nevertheless, your schedule looks great!</p>

<p>At my school latin is easier… but it’s easier to score high on the spanish sat ii because it has a listening portion, so keep that in mind.
10th:</p>

<p>Symphonic Band (Year Long)
AP World History–very writing intensive. may want to take a different AP more related to STEM.
Biology Honors–lots of memorization, easy
English II Honors–easy
Math III Honors–assuming Alg 2 H, good, easy
Latin I–good, easy</p>

<p>11th:
Symphonic Band (maybe)–if you absolutely love this then stick with it but latin might be a better option for top schools. it ultimately won’t really make much of a difference
AP US History–challenging… the lowering of your GPA for a non-STEM course for MIT might not be good. Maybe take AP stats, AP CS A, or AP Bio instead… (unless you want APUSH)
Chemistry Honors–not bad, basically just knowing formulas.
AP English III vs honors english II–AP english lang is not that bad, i’d go for the AP
Pre-Calculus Honors–hard, but def need to take for MIT
Latin II–good
Latin III Honors(maybe)–good</p>

<p>12th:
Symphonic band (maybe)–see above
AP English IV vs honors english IV–AP eng lit takes a lot of reading, but isn’t bad if you actually do it. if you dont have time, then i’d say it’s not worth it since you’re looking at MIT.
AP Physics I (maybe)–id say do this instead of band. for junior year it’s kind of borderline but i’d say senior year AP physics would be better. you have time to decide though.
AP Calculus–easy, good for MIT. take BC if you can.
AP Psychology–not hard. stats/CS/bio would look better but it doesn’t really matter.
Latin IV Honors(or latin II honors)–good</p>

<p>Why do you want to go to MIT?
MIT is a highly science/math/nerdish school; is it the concept of those two objective studies that fascinate you, or is it just the concept of going to a high-tech college full of geniuses?</p>

<p>The thing with MIT is that it’s a school for those greatly interested in math or science- as I stated before.
My advice is that you need to fill up your high school classes with courses that display this genuine interest- of course 4 years of bands will help in the running for ECs, but in order to get considered for MIT, you need to have a strong math and science foundation first.</p>

<p>From what I see from your schedule, you’re just taking the ordinary Biology, Chemistry and Physics classes along with a senior year or Calculus. Does your school offer AP Physics C or post-Calculus studies? The majority of MIT applicants will have already finished calculus by senior year and have started some form of physics. My suggestion would be to do some summer work and advance ahead in those two aspects; skip a year if possible. And then with the ECs, yes, the 4-year band is nice to show that you aren’t an automaton in the end, but it would be good if you also entered some math competitions, science events, etc. </p>

<p>I visited the MIT last summer and just absolutely fell in love with it. My school does offer AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics 1 and 2 but you have to have previously taken the non-AP version of that class. Biology Honors for AP Biology and Chemistry Honors for AP Chemistry respectively. AP Physics 1 is a prerequisite for AP Physics 2 and the only requirement for AP Physics 1 is Pre-Calculus. Not sure how I would fit any of these in to my schedule though. </p>

<p>How does my sophomore schedule look? My dream college is also MIT</p>

<p>Honors Physics
Honors Pre Calc
AP Macro Econ
Spanish II
Honors English
AP American Government
PE/Health
Study Hall</p>

<p>@tigerman333
H physics–easy, just plug in formulas
H precalc–hard, I got about 7 pts lower than my H alg 2 grade. Harder than AP calc
AP macro–not too bad
Spanish II–easy
H English–easy
AP gov–not too bad but very time consuming</p>

<p>Overall good and fits MIT</p>

<p>Thanks</p>