<p>D's had a rough year. A- average through freshman and sophomore year, hit a wall with AP Bio workload and now has around a B average junior year, but a C in AP Bio. The workload is just too much for her. Overall GPA will be around a 3.6, probably dropping out of top 20%. So far all courses have been honors except AP Physics B and AP Bio. </p>
<p>She excels in math, and plans a STEM major, maybe engineering even. Next year she plans to take AP Chem, AP Econ and probably AP Psych too. Chem and Econ are non-negotiable for her. </p>
<p>The quandary comes between math and English. She'd love to take BC Calc, but if she did, she probably couldn't handle the workload of Honors English, which is very heavy. There is a huge gap in workload between Honors English and College Prep (CP) English. </p>
<p>I know that some kids can handle both. She doesn't feel like she can. She needs A's in the fall to have any prayer of getting into a more competitive college like Tufts, Barnard or Northwestern. She can get all As too, but probably not if Honors English is in the mix. </p>
<p>How much would it really hurt her to take BC Calc and drop down to CP English, rather than doing AB Calc with Honors English. It's not like she can't handle the level of Honors English, just the workload along with 3 other heavy duty AP classes (BC, Chem, Econ). </p>
<p>I suspect that's the right move, but I'd love to double check with CC wisdom.</p>
<p>Why not take AB calc and keep Honors English?</p>
<p>OOPs, you asked that. I missed it. I’d suggest that if she is stressing about grades. I think she’d look better with an Honors and an AP. And I thik she’ll be fine for Barnard, btw.</p>
<p>Both my s’s are engineers-- took AB rather than BC in HS because they knew they’d end up retaking calc in college no matter where they ended up.</p>
<p>I know kids that have done Calc AB and Calc BC that are engineering majors and all recommend retaking calc in college, especially in a class for engineering students.
I think she would be fine to take Calc AB.</p>
<p>S1 took AP Calc.AB,AP Eng. and APUSH as a junior. Hated the AP Eng. (always a voracious reader, an A eng. student). For senior yr. he dropped back to CP English taught by the most beloved teacher in the school. Loved it. He also took AP Stats,AP Psyc. and AP Bio. as a senior. He threw in a PE class just for fun and two other unweighted electives. He really enjoyed senior yr.<br>
None of his course selections hurt him. He ended up with a full ride at our big state u.
He took Calc.II his freshman year of college.</p>
<p>I would encourage your D to make choices that will be compatible with her future plans but also keep in mind that it’s no good if she’s so stressed out that she can’t do well in any of it and ends up miserable.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the top math students who ace BC in one year in high school and got easy 5 scores on the AP test are likely to be fine taking the more advanced math courses as allowed by the college. Doing so shortens prerequisite sequences and opens up schedule space for electives later on.</p>
<p>But note that college math courses will cover material at about twice the pace of an AB course. This may be a shock to freshmen who thought that AB was like a true college level course (it covers college level material at a slower pace than a college does).</p>
<p>As far as AP credit or course value goes, English and calculus are usually the most valuable ones for college; chemistry, economics, and psychology are somewhat less valuable. But check each potential college to see what AP credit is accepted for.</p>
<p>It might be a good idea to leave out AP Psychology and take something at a lower level instead.</p>
<p>AP Psych isn’t a particularly impressive AP, and courses covering the same material are readily available in college and can often be used as a pleasant and interesting way to satisfy a general ed requirement.</p>
<p>Another point: Is AP English available? If so, is it harder or easier than Honors English?</p>
<p>I would also stick with the most rigorous English, BC Calc, and drop the AP Psych. D took AP Psych as a “filler” course sophomore year with AP Euro and AP Chem, the latter having extremely heavy workloads. While she received college credit for Psych, it has essentially been useless to her as it wasn’t required by her major. </p>
<p>Another plus to achieving a “5” on the BC exam- possibly placing out of the weeder engineering math courses if she decides to go that route.</p>
<p>It is better to have higher GPA than to go for most rigorous course load. It is especially a case where one particular course could pontentially drag down other grades, and if it is not her strength.</p>
<p>We made a decision not to have D2 to take HL IB math and physics because they would have taken a lot of time and effort for her to get A in those courses. D2 is not a STEM student, so she needed to show she could excel in English/History.</p>
<p>If your kid is a STEM student, I would focus on taking AP science and math, but back off on English and History.</p>
<p>It sounds as if she would prefer to take BC rather than honors English. If so, I personally don’t see a problem with that, given her overall rigorous schedule, even for very selective colleges. My son (2010) never took honors level English (took AP or Honors classes for everything else) – not because he couldn’t, but because he really hated English and literary analysis, and preferred to put his time into subjects he liked. He also dropped foreign language senior year to take a second science class, and he ended up at an Ivy. Particularly for someone who is headed for a STEM field, BC calculus is a plus.</p>
<p>Also, at a certain point, I think that there is a danger in selecting courses based on how a college might or might not perceive the choice. Your daughter is clearly taking a rigorous course load – it is rigorous in both instances – with honors English and AB calc, or with CP English and AB calc (in addition to all the other APs she is taking). So why not take the courses she prefers that are in line with her academic passions? </p>
<p>I also think your daughter is very wise to be realistic about her workload senior year. </p>
<p>I’d encourage her to consider University of Rochester when she starts looking at colleges – they excel in the sciences, are are very open about wanting to see that kids followed their academic interests in high school, even if it means that that didn’t perform equally strongly across all subject areas.</p>
<p>My older son took regular English instead of AP or honors and got into Harvard. He did have 9 other APs including a post BC Calc math. Younger son followed his path and also opted out of both AP and honors (he said the honors teacher piled on even more than the AP teacher did.) He took an elective in mysteries his senior year, thoroughly enjoyed the class, loved being top of the class along with his best friend. He frequently mentions what a good decision that was. He had so much less stress than some of his friends. He got into U of Chicago, Tufts and Vassar. He’s my history guy and had done AP Euro, APUSH, and AP World as well as Calc BC, AP Bio and AP Physics C.</p>
<p>So from our experience I don’t think skipping the most advanced English courses is a game ender. Both my kids got into the level college the rest of their courses, their GPA, rank and scores suggested was appropriate for them.</p>
<p>She should take the HS classes she wants and will work best for her now.
And then find colleges that will appreciate the course she chose to take.<br>
They will be the best “fit” for her.</p>
<p>If she’s interested in stem, then focus on those classes and downgrade on either/any of the econ, psychology and english. My thought was always to take the level class where you could get an A/B. If that’s ap great, cp that is okay too. No one really expects kids to be ap across the board in all disciplines. </p>
<p>For sure have her go to BC Calc - it’s really just a few extra concepts on top of AB, plus if she gets a 4 or 5 she could move ahead 2 classes in college. </p>
<p>BTW - my son will be going to Rochester next year for engineering, and took cp english all the way through. </p>
<p>Most engineering schools would love to have more girls so if she pushes the math/science she could also be looking at more merit.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about taking CP English vs AP. She has a pretty tough schedule and dropping down to the CP class, getting a A is going to look a lot better than another C on her transcript somewhere. Now, if she takes the CP class and gets a B or C, that might be an issue. DD opted to take CP Euro vs AP Euro because she doesn’t like history courses. Even with doing that all of the admissions people we have talked to have been very impressed with her schedule.</p>
<p>My thought, however, is if she is having a difficult time with the workload for these classes in high school, what is college going to look like for her?</p>
<p>Take the easier English class. If your daughter wants to take Calc BC, then that is fine. She should take classes she feels most comfortable with. I am sure she has talked to her friends in all of these classes to understand workload and difficulty of teachers. </p>
<p>My daughter is currently a freshman at an ivy school in nursing program. In her senior year she had to decide whether to take AP Calculus or Stats (not and honors or AP class) when she was touring schools she was told by admissions at a very selective school that if she didn’t take Calculus her chances of getting in were very slight. She took the chance and took Stats. She made the decision that she did not want senior year to be miserable. It was a great decision. She applied to 17 schools and got into 17 schools including the one that told her she didn’t have much of a chance without calculus. They really do look at the whole picture and I think that is what you need to keep in mind. Good luck.</p>