<p>hey guys im supposed to report my senior courseload for next year this week and heres what im thinking</p>
<p>ap chem
ap physics b
ap calc bc
ap us govt
ap english lit
C++/Adv Java
French 5</p>
<p>And then maybe a couple of electives</p>
<p>oh and this is presuming that i have all the prerequisites and have taken similar courseloads in previous years.</p>
<p>I would really like to go to cornell...so what you guys thing</p>
<p>must go to an easy school prolly</p>
<p>It really seems like a lot, but if you have done course loads like this before you should have no problem. I'm having a hard enough time deciding if AP Chem AP Physics C and AP Calc AB is too much for me senior year. But hey, if its going to make you happy to take all those classes go for it. If for some reason you don't have intrest in one of the AP's I'd probably try to lose one.</p>
<p>How can you take a couple of electives when you have already listed 7 courses?
Or are these just ideas? Is your gov. class a semester or year class?</p>
<p>But here's my take on some of your choices:
Eng Lit: Well...I think MY Eng. Lit class is an absolute joke, but it may be different anywhere else.
US gov: The best class I have ever taken...seriously. EVERY single thing I learned in that class I would want to know, and will use later. It really made me love learning again...but sadly it ended because it's only a semester class and now im taking AP macroecon...blech!
Calc BC: It is pretty tough, but at my school, we have an amazing teacher. I am not the best math student...so I got a B (99.43...so close) this semester, but everyone else got either A's or B's. Usually more A's, a few C's. It is easily do-able...only a few hours of work per week.
AP Chem: Im not taking it, but my friends are. One says it's pretty tough, but she got an A...and seeing by what you are wanting to take, I am sure you are pretty smart and capable of handling it. As long as you took Honors Chem before it, Im sure youll be ok.
Physics: Everyone at my school who is taking it HATES it, but like the teacher. They spend so much time working on this class alone. They do pull off B's and A's, mostly B's...but it's through hard work. </p>
<p>I love French and took it through Sophmore year, signed up for junior year, but not enough people signed up, so it didn't become a class...gr. </p>
<p>All in all, I think it is a tough courseload, lots of work, but I think capable....but just wondering about the whole electives thing.</p>
<p>AP Literature: I love it, but I hate the tests and quizzes where there is only one definite answer to all questions. There are countless questions where I usually see 3-4 possible answers using different approaches and interpretations when from the answer book or the teacher, there's only one. A mistake in syntax could be done on purpose, an object could have more than one meaning, and tone is hard to really describe in words since it's emotion; it isn't a problem if the answers vary widely, but if they have close related meanings (favorable, content, satisfied)...meh, kiss your lucky charms. Then again, it could be the stigma of English being my second language...</p>
<p>AP U.S. Government is probably the most underrated "core" class, at least in here it is. You learn a wealth of information about the government on topics you thought you already knew well about and realize it isn't simple as History Rock sings of. Because of this, many students will be overwhelmed from this enlightenment as it often contradicts the students' set beliefs of the government (such as how the president has full control over the bureaucracy...which is false). In my school, it's one of the hardest AP classes, I'm possibly the only one or two of the student(s) that has the possibly of getting A for this class of this semester. </p>
<p>C++: It was moderately difficult for me, I guess this class really depends on how the teacher lectures you. The one I had was a programming syntax Nazi. My tip for you is to grasp the programming concepts first, not the syntax; you'll passively learn to use the latter correctly as you go on, but concepts you can't unless you actually try to "learn" it. Because I used this approach, my first semester was a B while my second semester was an A.</p>
<p>fastMEd: my school is ranked in the top 100 in the nation, sends ~40 students(10%of graduating class) to ivies alone per year
christalena2: i have 9 periods in a day, this a rough estimate, and some of those classes are semester classes</p>
<p>and yea i took honors chem...so what you guys think</p>
<p>my school send roughly 10% (40 students) to Ivies as well, but anymore than 5 APs a year at my school is insane since the workload is just immense. Learning enough to pass the exam with 5 is easy. We just learn extra...</p>
<p>just cause your school is ranked high does not mean it is not easy.
If I remember correctly, the rankings that you might be referring to base it only on the number of APs taken by the student population, rather than their success.</p>
<p>i wish we had 9 periods in a day. we only have 8, and one is lunch and one or two are study halls. normally we can only be signed up for 5 or 6 classes at a time. anyway, your schedule seems similar to mine except im not doing any electives and you have an extra AP (english)...is french 5 not AP?</p>
<p>my senior year-
AP BC calculus
AP Physics (not specified as B or C, but we just decided to take the B exam)
AP Spanish V
AP Macroecon (1 semester)
AP European History
Regular English IV</p>
<p>yeah, so basically its very managable. i have a 4.0 from first semester. no my school is not "easy," only 3 people in my grade have perfect 4.0s out of about 97 (small private school)</p>
<p>for cornell you seem on track, and assuming you have an awesome gpa and test scores you might wanna consider harvard yale or princeton. unless you just love cornell.</p>
<p>oh yea, and im applying to cornell.</p>
<p>emilyequalsfun: french 5 is regular...im not very good at languages :...and i just love cornell =)
fastmed: you keep insisting that my school is "easy" but 40 students to the ivy league means that it is much more than "easy"</p>
<p>i meant that aps at your school are easy, as in not such heavy workload in comparison to aps at mine.</p>
<p>if students can juggle so many aps, it means that the aps do not require too much work.</p>
<p>I'm not saying it is a bad thing. It is good since you can get more variety and take more APs, thus boosting GPA and other stuff.</p>
<p>lol ok fastmed ;-)</p>
<p>9 periods?! lucky!</p>
<p>we only have 6 classes...</p>
<p>maybe they are as hard as yours, and beefs is just smarter.
beefs is taking 5 aps, and gov is only a semester long course. thats a reasonable ammount for students interested in the ivy league. and so what if the school is "easy"? it doesnt mean that the classes beefs takes are easy too.
rank does not equal hard in all cases.
my school is not known for being very hard, and ill admit most of the students are mediocre. however, there are about 5 or 6 of us who take almost all AP classes and there are 3 of us with perfect 4.0s. the AP level classes we are taking are comparable to those at other more rigourous schools (proven by our AP scores/SAT scores) although most other students are not in multiple advanced classes.</p>
<p>yeah kinda random...haha</p>
<p>im sure im not "smarter" than fastmed, its just that he does come across as a pompous ass =)</p>
<p>fastmed: "i meant that aps at your school are easy, as in not such heavy workload in comparison to aps at mine."</p>
<p>haha yeah.</p>
<p>so when you say your school is in the top 100 in the nation, where is that coming from?</p>
<p>the newsweek thing....i mean there has to be some truth to it no?
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7761678/site/newsweek/%5B/url%5D">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7761678/site/newsweek/</a></p>
<p>hm well #77 is known as a ****ty school around here.
and highland park (#7 i think, cant remember dont wanna open it again) is supposedly better, but still its very easy compared to my school (not even the best private school in the area--i know this because one girl went to HP and took lots of APs and thought they werent bad, and came to my school and thinks is very hard and gets bad grades)</p>
<p>so i dont think those rankings are very reliable...its only based on # of aps taken and # of graduating seniors. not saying your school is bad, but i wouldnt trust that source.</p>
<p>lol how bout research ?...we had 5 intel semifinalists 5 siemens semifinalists...and some more stuff</p>
<p>I think fastMEd was getting at: if you have that many AP classes, then either you don't do any extracurriculars (because you simply don't have time) or the classes don't require tons of work, like many AP classes.</p>
<p>In addition, it's different for each teacher. My AP Spanish class is the easiest class -- simply 'cause there isn't a whole lot of work required.</p>
<p>i do many extracurriculars and i can maintain my junior coursload which is almost as hard as the one that i posted...</p>