Senior Schedule?!

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>My story:
Unlike many people on CC, I haven't taken ANY APs and I am in my junior year. I did, however, take on Russian in addition to Spanish in my sophomore year and am now taking College Russian in addition to Spanish. I am currently in Honors English and Alg/Trig H, and, well, that is just how complex my schedule gets. My school offers a ton of AP classes, but there is a big competition to get into them and the only ones really available to me were US and Euro, and I wasn't accepted to those. </p>

<p>Most people at my school take the most APs in their senior year, except for me taking, say, 4 APs senior would be a big change in a schedule difficulty and while I am not bad of a student, I am not sure how I will handle the workload. At the same time, I feel a need to make up for my lack of APs throughout high school. </p>

<p>At my school, if we're in Trig H in junior year (yea, yea, most are above that at this point), we're allowed to skip pre-cal and go straight to Calc. I was accepted to AP Calc BC based on my application (grades, teacher rec), but will take a mandatory placement exam in May, and based on its results will either remain AP Calc BC or move to a lower level - AP Calc AB or regular Calculus. I was also accepted to AP Gov (don't want to take), AP English Lang, AP Spanish, and AP Chemistry.</p>

<p>This is what I am thinking it will look like</p>

<p>AP Chem *
AP Spanish Lang*
AP Calculus (hopefully BC) *
Regular Senior English
Regular Senior Economics or Regular Senior Psychology (a required history course)
Epidemiology * (want to take, for some reason)</p>

<ul>
<li>Definitely want to take</li>
</ul>

<p>Should I drop one of the APs? Should I add on AP English? On one hand I love English, on the other hand I will never do anything related to it in college. Yes, English is always useful, but will it make me workload unbearable? Also, APs in my school are very intense, so most students get fours and fives. Eighty percent of last year's class got 4s and 5s in AP Calculus BC, for example. They DO take up a lot of time and they ARE difficult classes.
Also, what's the best schedule in terms of what I am thinking if studying? </p>

<p>I am concidering majoring in Pharmacy, yet am having thoughts of doing something like Public Health or International Business.</p>

<p>Any further suggestions?</p>

2

<p>You might as well add AP English-4 is a good load for a year, with only a required course and and elective. If you want to be a pharmacist then AP Calculus BC, AP Chem, and Epidemiology fit in very well. An AP course in an unrelated area helps. Besides, there is the possibility of never having to take any English in college if you do well enough on the exam.</p>

3

<p>I was thinking of doing that since I know I will enjoy the class and it is the mere number of APs that scares me. I am still confused, however, as to why colleges like to see courses unrelated to what we're going to study in our schedules.</p>

4

<p>Anyone????</p>

5

<p>Personally, the kind of student you seem to be (as much as I can glean from your post, anyway) could probably handle the AP English class. Don't get "stickershock" from the number of APs you would be taking. That would only lead to you psyching yourself out. Especially since you might me taking AB Calculus, which is intrinsically easy as compared to the other AP courses, the combined course load will certainly be tolerable.</p>

6

<p>I think you can handle taking AP english. I take AP chem, calc ab and spanish language this year and personally I have found AP Spanish and AP Calc AB to be the easiest class im taking(including my non APs)... on the other hand, I have heard BC is incredibly challenging. Every year at my school practically half of the original BC Calc class ends up dropping down to AB calc. I would recommened you take calc AB especially since you have not taken precalc. I know many people who took honors precalc who failed out of BC calc, but are doing fine in AB calc. AP chem is not hard as long as you are a stong math student.</p>

7

<p>Thanks a lot for all of your suggestions. I just might add on AP Comp to my schedule, but take AP Calculus AB instead of BC since I have a feeling I might not even be accepted to BC. I was partially persuaded by the students from AP Comp who said that they don't get an immense amount of work but still have interesting class discussions due to the high-caliber kids.
One more thing - the teacher who teaches AP Comp is my college mentor and will go through the college process with me and in the end write me a detailed rec, so if I get on her good side and/or do well in her class, more power to me. If, however, she starts disliking me, I am basically screwed. I still want to take it because math/science APs are full of my-parents-said-I-have-to-be-a-doctor-and-no-one-else kids. Actually, my school is full of them, but I won't go there.
I am not too worried about AP Chem since I got a 730 on the SAT II, and am somewhat familiar with the subject.</p>