I’m planning on majoring in International Relations or Poli Sci, and aiming for Georgetown… however, which of these theoretical courseloads would be most desirable?
A:
Freshman Year- Honors Bio
Sophomore Year- Honors Chem
Junior Year- AP Bio
Senior Year- Honors Physics
B:
Freshman- Honors Bio
Sophomore- Honors Chem
Junior- AP Bio
Senior- AP Environmental Science
C:
Freshman- Honors Bio
Sophomore- Honors Chem
Junior- AP Bio
Senior- AP Chem
<p>Hmm, you're not planning to major in science so I don't think this is too important. But then again, if you are not planning to study more that just high school sciene I would take out C. Try to take a variety of sciences. Also, what if you don't like bio or chem? I don't think you'd want to be stuck with 2 years each. But take what science you think you would like, don't worry about what the colleges will think. As long as you do well the actual courses shouldn't matter too much considering they are all honors or AP's.</p>
<p>I would consider taking Physics H. Even with option A you've done all the (important) high school science classes and have one AP class.</p>
<p>You should look at the Georgetown Web site to see what they want in the way of lab sciences (and look at other schools' sites too). At my children's HS the general expectation is that students applying to highly selective schools will take bio/chem/physics freshman through junior year, and then top that off with an AP science (or two). While your proposed schedule gives you three lab course credits it may not be the sequence and distribution that highly selective colleges are looking for adn may therefore put you at a disadvantage. Physics is hard, and skipping it until senior year may look like a copout if that isn't the norm at your high school. The solution I'm familiar with for some kids who are strong students but not especially intersted in or good at math and science is to take regular physics junior year rather than honors. They then generally take AP chem or bio senior year and in rare cases omit the AP science but take another AP or honors course in the history or social science area. This is the kind of question that an admissions Web site should be able to answer quite specifically, as should a competent GC, though you may not like the answer.</p>
<p>Take physics, I do disagree with Mattmom in that I don't think it matters so much when you take it (Physics First aside). Where we live , physics is almost exclusively a senior class taken with the highest math, although it is beginning to change. The sequence is kind of a regional thing, but to skip physics would be a mistake.
DD's schedule:
9th-Biology (no honors available)
10th-Honors Chem I
11th-Honors Chem II (took the AP exam, but isn't really an AP course)
AP Biology
12th-AP Physics
This was the hardest possible course sequence at the time she went through, they are changing the curriculum to something more like what Mattmom says</p>