I am going to be a junior next year and I am not sure which courses to take. My classes this year are:
AP Computer Science A
AP Chemistry
AP Physics 1
Band
Precalculus Honors
German 2 Honors
English 2 Honors
I got all As this semester, and I plan on majoring in something chemistry/physics related, or possibly medicine.
I have not been doing as great in physics and chem as I had imagined, though - I’ve gotten a B on two physics and two chem tests, and I have never gotten below an A on a science test before this. Second quarter I was 0.4% away from an A- in physics. I am doing really well in math and computer science though - high As on every test, ended the semester with 96% in computer science and 97% in math.
I plan on taking these courses for sure next year:
AP Language and Composition
German 3 Honors
AP Calculus BC
AP Microeconomics
AP US Government
AP Biology
Gym
I have one more slot available. I am not sure if I should take band, AP statistics, or AP Physics C. Band means a lot to me and I have been taking it since fourth grade. I am currently second chair in the second highest band (out of four), but I have a large chance at making it into the highest band next year. However, I am also extremely interested in taking physics, but that will for sure cause a lot more stress considering I have not been doing extremely well in AP Physics 1 so far. Statistics is a very useful class and I imagine it is not as stressful as physics and will look better on my transcript compared to band, however it is not a topic I’m very interested in. I struggle with reading and writing, so I think my courses next year will already be pretty challenging even without one of these classes considering it is a lot less STEM heavy than this year’s. I also will need time for my extracurriculars - dance, figure skating, work (as a figure skating coach), school’s poms team, science olympiad, and JETS team (junior engineering technical society, a competitive STEM team). Extracurriculars might change next year, but right now I plan on continuing with all of them next year, with the addition of NHS. Which class should I take considering my course load?
Oh, also to clarify: I won’t be taking AP microeconomics and AP US gov concurrently, they are each only one semester so I will only have one of those classes at a time.
Take AP Physics C and/or AP Stats as a senior (although @ucbalumnus is correct that a calc-based stats class in college is better than AP Stats). Take band next year.
Take band. Taking the other classes won’t “impress” colleges and they’ll like the consistency + possible achievement if you continue with band.
if you like Physics, taking Physics C senior year (after calculus BC) would make sense.
Have you taken US History?
Your Senior year could be:
AP Language and Composition => Honors English
German 3 Honors => German 4 Honors
AP Calculus BC => Discrete math? Linear Algebra? Diff Equations?
AP Microeconomics
AP US Government => AP History?
AP Biology => AP Physics C
Gym =>?
Band => Band
But stand back and take a look at your ECs. Skating coach, eg, may count in hs as volunteer hours, but the tippy top colleges may not agree. (And you’re a novice, so I suspect this has to be for little kids.) Former dance competitions aren’t a tip into Ivies or NU. Nice but not an it, by the time you get to senior year.
I suspect you need to learn more about your targets.
AP stats is a simplistic course that won’t be viewed by colleges as rigorous but also won’t contribute much to your knowledge base. I’d go with band probably. 2nd best physics
It means that you need to read carefully your target colleges’ websites and infer their characteristics, their personality, what could be a “good fit”. what students can you predict would attend? what would they mostly major in, enjoy doing on weekends, hope to do after college… What do they want from you? What are they expecting in terms of preparation? What do admissions emphasize?
For practice, you can start with four that are different: Dartmouth, Reed, UChicago, Washington&Lee.
Write down what you think would be characteristics, personality, “fit”… See if you can answer the questions above. Do 2 have a few common traits? Which would you say are polar opposite, and why?
Then read the Fiske Guide and the Princeton Review’s Best Colleges about each: did you infer correctly? Were your answers corroborated by the guides?
@Groundwork2022 It’s not uncommon for the class after Pre-Calc to be either AB or BC. The AB-followed-by-BC progression is less common in my experience.
Another vote for band. 4 AP classes per semester / 5 tests is more than plenty for one year. Spend some time enjoying your high school years - you don’t get them back, and life is about more than a race to the grind.
@allyphoe Thanks. I didn’t realize that. Our high school requires a lot of prerequisites, and kids can’t skip ahead on the track. Kind of glad for that. Going from pre calculus to BC is a skip at our school and seems like a recipe for trouble. Glad DD isn’t under that kind of pressure.
The traditional way of math progression is to take pre-calculus and then either AP Calc BC if you get As (perhaps B+) in pre-Calculus. AP Calc AB for the remaining who wanted to progress to Calculus.
Forcing kids to take both calc AB and Calc BC in successive years robs the smarter math kids out of one year of Calculus and is a waste of time for them.
@Groundwork2022 It’s not a skip or pressure if the BC teacher starts where the pre-calc teacher leaves off. Basically, every school has their own course setup, and as long as the kid is following the normal / expected path, they’ll be fine. Doing what’s normal at some other school can be a recipe for disaster if it’s not in line with your school’s method.