<p>My D is a junior trying to get into some top schools and has an ugly schedule conflict in her upcoming senior year. If she takes 4th year orchestra she cannot take AP Physics, only regular physics. Which is more important? Possibly she could try for a community youth orchestra outside of school hours, but it requires an audition (no guarantees). One other option might be to take Spanish 4 instead of AP Spanish 4. She doesn't plan to go into the sciences. What would you do?</p>
<p>Investigate if she can take AP Physics at another high school within your school district that works with her schedule.</p>
<p>Thank-you- we’ll check it out. The other high school is about a 10 minute drive plus parking so it’s not clear how that will work, but I know students do this kind of thing in many places.</p>
<p>If your D auditions for the youth orchestra only in order to take AP physics and is successful in getting in, then she’s going to have to juggle additional constraints on her time due to outside of school rehearsals. How’s she feel about that? </p>
<p>Whether to take AP Physics instead of 4th year of orchestra also depends on what your D is tentatively thinking of majoring in and whether she plans on continuing playing her instrument in a (serious) fashion.</p>
<p>If she’s really NOT planning on majoring in science, engineering, or math, and does plan on continuing to play her instrument in college, then I’d say 4th year of orchestra is the better choice. While she’s sacrificing a bit in rigor of high school schedule in her senior year, she’s also demonstrating real commitment to an EC she enjoys and is important to her.</p>
<p>If she’s thinking about majoring in science, engineering, or math, then it’s a whole lot muddier about what’s the best thing for her to do. How important is orchestra? Suppose for instance, that she didn’t make it into the youth orchestra or finds out the rehearsal schedule for it is too time intensive — how much would it bug her if she didn’t have a chance to play for a year?</p>
<p>I can barely imagine a situation in which 4th yr of high school orchestra is more important than AP Physics. And I say this as the mother of a major-conservatory-acceptee. I assume that the interest in AP Physics is for purposes of having a ‘most rigorous’ academic schedule (and possibly because the student actually wants to learn a lot of physics), in order to improve the competitiveness of her application to selective colleges. Important as EC’s, arts, passions, blah blah blah all are, surely academic achievement has to be the primary factor for selective college admissions!</p>
<p>Furthermore, if she’s a serious musician, then it’s unlikely that making it into an auditioned community orchestra will represent much of a fearsome challenge. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if she doesn’t want considerations of ‘how to be most competitive for selective colleges’ to rule her life, then she should decide based on other factors.</p>
<p>^^ memake:</p>
<p>OP says this about the youth orchestra: “but it requires an audition (no guarantees)” so it’s not at all clear how advanced her D’s music skills (or interests) are. OP also says D is not likely to major in science–and there’s absolutely nothing in the post that indicates the D is interested in physics at all.</p>
<p>Given those statements, I still think that it’s a tough choice for the OP’s D. And I think the OP’s D needs to decide how important playing the instrument is to her before quitting orchestra to in order to take AP Physics. I may be mistaken, but I really doubt that the “most rigorous” rating is solely dependent upon taking AP Physics. [One exception is if “most rigorous” is defined as “at least X AP courses” and the student won’t have X unless she takes AP Physics.]</p>
<p>Are you by any chance a helicopter parent?</p>
<p>Just let her do whatever she’s passionate about. I think you’re losing sight of what’s at the end of the road - don’t have her simply do what “looks good” to the college admissions officer.</p>
<p>I agree with robinsuesanders’s first post - take whichever one is more important to your daughter, the one in which she will have more accomplishments. I had a similar problem last September with my scheduling as well: I wanted to double science, but in doing so I had to drop language and orchestra, neither of which I wanted to do. I ended up arranging orchestra as an “independent study” class with my music teacher, which has never been done at my school before but because of scheduling issues, it was allowed as an exception. </p>
<p>Advice of a high school senior: Let your daughter choose whichever class is more important to her, and everything else will all eventually work out in the end. If I were her, I would take AP Physics then audition for the youth orchestra, but only because I’m more of a science person. Keep orchestra if it is one of her major activities.</p>
<p>If she takes regular physics, she can self study for the AP test. My daughter sat in the regular physics class and did the honors physics homework and tests her junior year. The AP did fit senior year.</p>
<p>Also, if she goes the youth orchestra route, be aware of the night of the week it meets. My daughter also did youth orchestra one year after transferring to a new school with no instrumental music. The orchestra was Monday night and she spent the rest of the week trying to catch up. It was a real bummer because she wanted to keep playing her instrument but with her heavy courseload and commute, it wore her down.</p>
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<p>I wanted to suggest that too, MD Mom, but then I realized that the OP’s daughter is going to be senior, so any AP test she’ll take will not be factored into admissions and she’ll mostly likely be considered as taking regular physics even while she’s doing the AP work. Also, I would think that it will be very, very hard to self-study Physics C without any prior knowledge of the subject and only taking the regular level course.</p>
<p>You are right, xrCalico, it depends a lot on how much difference there is in the physics courses (whether the same teacher teaches both, how cooperative the teacher is, etc.) and the purpose for taking the AP (whether it is for the higher level of class or the grade bump). It would probably be easier to self study the Spanish and most colleges have a language requirement that could be partially fulfilled with AP credit. As for the AP designation on the transcript, the GC can explain that the student had a scheduling conflict with the higher level science.</p>
<p>Thanks to all the posters for your advice. My D is not an extremely accomplished musician, though in the last year she has made good progress with a wonderful private teacher who has worked with her to reverse some “bad habits” she had developed since she started her instrument in the 5th grade. She has played for the school’s more advanced orchestra for two years-now she’s 5th chair. She may not have a big future as a musician but she LOVES being in the orchestra, for the music but also for the social cameraderie. Her better friends are not going to be in AP classes with her.</p>
<p>On the other hand, she is a strong student and her dream (not necessarily mine) is Stanford. She likes history and philosophy best, but she wants to maximize the strength of her application and wants to continue her strong performance in an honors science. I have discovered the the physics class in question is honors, not AP. Sorry that I wrote AP earlier. (She is taking 4 other truly “AP” classes- we apparently don’t have “AP” physics.)</p>
<p>Helicopter is a strong word. I wish she didn’t put so much pressure on herself. I have perhaps a little more time to research the pros and cons of some choices and inform her. She’s so busy, and her GC has NO experience with admissions into top schools. I hope she comes on to CC herself when she has more time after the June SAT2’s</p>
<p>^^ It really sounds to me like your D will “miss” orchestra more than she will “miss” AP Physics. She may want to talk to her GC about how competitve she’ll be for Standford—particularly as a potential NON-science major. She could ask her GC straight out: If I take Honors Physics instead of AP Physics, will that mean the “most rigorous” box for HS schedule won’t be checked?</p>
<p>And your D also needs to consider whether she wants to try to continue playing the instrument in a non-music major ensemble in college.</p>
<p>In the end, I’d let your D decide. I’d also suggest that you ask her to provide a couple of reasons for justifying the decision—for herself—so that if she has regrets, you can point out to her why she made the decision she did. Note that this only works if you make NO JUDGMENTS concerning the quality of her reasons!</p>
<p>Around here, the very nicest kids are involved in music regardless of their talents. That is worth a lot senior year. And I think a young person can answer the questions about not taking AP science with the fact that she had a scheduling conflict and wanted to continue music, and music is a wonderful way to break up the day.</p>
<p>If your daughter still wants to take physics though, she might want to check out EPGY classes, or maybe take classes at a local university.</p>