Senior Course load too much?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I am currently a junior and I took these AP classes plus two honors electives my junior year:
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics 1
AP Seminar
AP U.S. History
AP English Language
These are the two course loads i am debating for senior year:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Biology
AP Government one semester AP econ the other
AP Research
AP English Lit
One honors elective

OR

AP Statistics
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Biology
AP Government one semester AP econ the other
AP Research
AP English Lit
One honors elective

For careers, I am currently considering Dentistry, Pharmacy, and engineering (either aerospace, petroleum, chemical or mechanical)
I would like to get into Rice for college as well, so which course load is the better option that is rigorous yet still manageable with good grades?

2

The first schedule is better for someone considering engineering.

3

Neither. One of two things will happen: either your grades will tank, or you will be studying 24/7.

You also forgot to list the invisible class for Fall semester - colleges applications and essays. Rising seniors always seem to underestimate the amount of work this will require.

4

What should I drop to make the course load possible?

5

I would do schedule 1, but drop AP Bio or AP Lit or both. Talk to students currently in those classes to find out how much work each class entails; that could be a deciding factor.

6

@skieurope but wouldn’t dropping AP Lit look unusual considering that he took AP English Language? because I’m kind of on the same boat here

7

@Darknez not necessarily. Many students opt to do something other than AP Lit, in part because many top colleges give AP credit for Lang or Lit, but not both. Part of it also has to do with what other options are available. If the school offers electives like Modern Drama, the Short Story, Creative Writing, etc., these are valid reasons not to take AP Lit. However, if the options are AP Lit vs. CP English 12, then maybe AP Lit is the better choice.

Bottom line, just because a school offers X AP classes, does not mean that a student has to take them all.

8

I don’t think I want to drop AP Lit because English is a subject that comes to me rather easily.

9

I was originally planning to take schedule two with an off period instead of physics c, but after speaking with my physics 1 teacher (he also teachers physics c) he told me that most of the course work he had physics 1 do was the same as what physics c did (indeed, he made physics 1 more challenging than the actual ap exam)

10

@skieurope “However, if the options are AP Lit vs. CP English 12, then maybe AP Lit is the better choice.”
Because I’m in that situation are you inferring that I do take AP Lit? considering my schedule? o.0

11

@Darknez I answered on your question on your thread; don’t hijack this one.

12

The first schedule is better. AP Calc BC looks much better than AP Stat. Good luck!

13

I would say do the first schedule. I don’t think it will be too hard. I am a graduated senior and I finished with an unweighted 4.0 with a similar course-load. This year and it wasn’t too bad. I guess it really depends on your school, but if you really do enjoy learning and you handled your APs fine last year I would say the increased difficulty will be worth the effort. Rice will appreciate your rigorous schedule, especially the STEM schedule. Rice is no walk in the park as far as material goes so having a strong STEM background before you get there will be very useful and a significant portion of the AP curriculum in STEM subjects translates well to Rice. The AP humanities/lit/history courses have a purpose too, but I don’t believe that the material they cover will be as helpful at Rice. Good Luck!

Ps. If you like math, defiantly do physics C: mech! I didn’t do Phys AB before C mech, but I don’t think anything in it was overly difficult as long as you have a strong background in algebra and trig and can pick up the calculus pretty well.