Hello. I’m a current junior at a medium competiveness high school. I want to potentially major in political science, history, or international relations. I have to pick my classes for next year soon and wanted to hear your opinions on my classes.
GPA: 4.00 UW and 4.63 W
Freshman
AP Human Geo
Honors Written and Oral Comp
Honors Geometry
Honors Biology
Honors Spanish 4 (Native Speakers)
PLTW Intro to Engineering
Art Survey (Summer)
Sophomore
AP World History
Honors World Lit
Honors Pre-Calc
Honors Chemistry
AP Spanish Language
PLTW Computer Integrated Manufacturing
3D Art 1 & 2
Junior
AP US History
AP English Language
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics 1
AP Spanish Literature
AP Economics (Micro and Macro)
Criminal, Civil, and Constitional Law
Senior Year
AP European History
AP English Literature
Calculus 3 (Duel Enrollment) or AP Stats
AP Environmental Science
AP US Government
AP Psychology
AP Art History (Independet Study)
What do you guys think of this schedule? I used to want to be an architect, but I know want to go into politics. Do you guys think that the sudden shift in classes is weird or alarming? AP Stats or Calc 3? Should I bother with a harder science or is APES okay?
AP Stats and APES would be okay but I’d you can dual enroll, see if you can replace AP psych, AP gov, and AP art history with 2 college political science classes, one semester of art history, one semester of psychology, one semester of Philosophy (perhaps political Philosophy if there’s a freshman version) and one free slot for the Fall when you have college apps
If you like math, perhaps calculus based statistics if available for college / dual enrollment courses?
Great idea!!! ^
Or a Statistics for Social science class (those typically use examples from Economics, psychology, geography/urbanism, sociology, and political science.)
Another option, if you want to take a more quantitative path in political science (e.g. analyzing polls, elections, and political behavior in an aggregate quantified sense), is to continue with multivariable calculus (and/or linear algebra) in preparation for more advanced statistics courses (or even a second major or minor in statistics or data science) to complement your political science major. Social science research papers are often heavy with statistics, so strength in statistics beyond the AP statistics level (that many social science majors stop at in college) may be helpful if you work in or go to PhD study in the field.