<p>Hi, I'm only a freshman in HS, but Harvard has been a dream of mine for years. (Like you haven't heard THAT one before.) I know most people will tell me to forget about it now and wait to start thinking about it for two years, but getting in these days takes a lot more than a few months' planning-- I mean, there are people whose parents have been scheduling things to help their chances since they were in kindergarten! But anyways-- I was wondering if the class schedule I hope to follow sounds about right. (Competitive enough? 6 AP's senior year feasible?) I'm a good student, and I'm willing to work as hard as I can to get in. I mean, I know that in the end everyone's got spectacular scores and EC's and they might as well be picking names out of a hat, but whatever I can do to increase my chances, however slightly... I'm there. And I know I've got a while before I have to seriously think about it, but I want to make sure I'm doing everything possible now. So, after that little digression, here's what I wanna take:</p>
<p>Freshman Year
Honors English I
Honors Geometry
Honors World History
Honors Earth/ Environmental Science
French II
Spanish I
Health/ Physical Education
Symphonic Band I</p>
<p>Sophomore Year
Honors English II
Honors Algebra II
Honors Civics and Economics
Honors Biology
Honors French III
Honors Chemistry
Honors Pre-Calculus
Spanish II</p>
<p>Junior Year
AP English III: Language
AP Calculus AB
AP United States History
Honors Physics
Honors French IV
AP European History
AP Computer Science
Honors Human Anatomy and Physiology</p>
<p>Senior Year
AP English IV: Literature
AP Calculus BC
AP United States Government
AP Biology
AP French V
AP Psychology
Empty-- either a study-hall type class or something EC-ish (I'd love to get on Student Council, and the student body president, VP, secretary, etc. all have to take a class, so definitely that if I could get elected; or Newspaper/ Yearbook/ Lit Mag/ something)</p>
<p>If anyone could give me any feedback on that, it'd be great. Thanks!</p>
<p>Six APs as a senior seems crazy to me, though I know there are schools where it is not unusual. My son took more APs than most students in his school - 1 as a freshman, 1 as a sophomore, 3 as a junior and 3 as a senior (though one senior year course was post - BC Calc.) In our school you take either Calc BC or Calc AB, but not both. He and his friends got into schools like Caltech, Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Every admissions officer I've heard talk on the subject have said you don't need to take every AP available. You should take the ones that interest you. My son skipped AP English and only took AP US History, but he did three science APs, Calculus and Comp. Sci.</p>
<p>I'd have to say....nothing works out the way you think it will. Do well in your classes, take APs, but don't take an extra course that takes so much time out of your schedule that you can't focus on anything else. If you want to lessen your course load for Junior Year, I recommend you drop the AP English Lang course and just take the AP exam in May. I did that, forgot to study for the exam, and got a 4.</p>
<p>There are only six AP classes total offered to students at my school (one of them being art, two others being economics), and I am taking two this year. I think that admissions officers want to see you take as challenging a schedule as possible, while still doing well and having a life outside of AP classes. They want to see passionate, well-rounded students, not perfect SAT scores and a 5.7 GPA</p>
<p>Why drop band? That's a solid EC if you're really committed to music and the like.
It's a tough schedule, but if you're committed, you can pull it off. I've got 6 AP's this year and I'm not dead yet! ;)</p>
<p>Well, at my school 6 AP's is not at all uncommon... 7 and 8 can even be found, but I'm definitely not about to do that, haha. So I think that 6 is something I could definitely at least try-- I mean, I know it's crazy hard but I'm ready to commit and do my best to pull it off. As for dropping band... I don't know. I've kinda had a love/hate relationship with it for the past 3 or 4 years. I play the oboe, which is definitely not a common instrument, so I was able to make All-District 2 years in middle school without putting much effort into it. (1st chair 8th grade-- I was supposed to try for All-State but couldn't make the audition because of a tennis tournament.) The whole time I've played I've pretty much just glided on through and really not practiced much-- actually, at all sometimes, haha-- and it really kind of bores me, but I think if I focused on it I could actually be quite good. I'm just not crazy about the instrument, though-- like, it's definitely not one of my passions. I'd planned to quit after this year for the past couple months, but I've been reconsidering recently-- I've got a lot of friends in the class and I love music (I play piano, too), plus I kind of do enjoy it to a degree. So we'll see about that... I'm still not sure. But yeah, 6 AP's at my school isn't really that much of a rarity, and although it's definitely hard and time-consuming, I really think I would like to try it. Nothing's set in stone or anything yet, though-- I mean, I've got three years, so whatever happens, happens, right? :)</p>
<p>yeah, band can definitely help b/c it shows a non-academic side (especially if you become really good at it; then that'll have more potential to impress the adcoms)</p>