Senior Year/ College Help?

Applying to College
1

I will be entering my senior year this fall, and I am lost schedule-wise and college-wise. Here is what my high school career looks like:

Freshman Year:
Wind Ensemble/Marching Band
U.S. History GT
Algebra II GT
Health & P.E.
Spanish II Honors
English 9 GT
Biology GT
GPA: Unweighted 4.0 Weighted 4.64

That summer I took Precalc at the University of Maryland because I received a scholarship from Johns Hopkins for testing a 30 on the math ACT when I was 13. I ended it with an A.

Sophomore Year:
Wind Ensemble/Marching Band
U.S. Government AP
Calculus AB AP
Computer Science Honors
Spanish III Honors
English 10 GT
Chemistry GT
GPA: Unweighted 4.0 Weighted 4.76
AP Scores: Gov 5 Calc AB 5

Junior Year:
Wind Ensemble/Marching Band GT
World History AP
Calculus BC AP
Independent Research GT
Spanish IV Honors
English 11 AP
Chemistry AP
GPA: Unweighted 3.86 Weighted 4.78

I independently studied Psychology AP and Microeconomics AP and took the tests.

And here is what I plan on taking this fall:
Wind Ensemble/Marching Band GT
Comparative Government AP
Differential Equations GT
Music Theory AP
Aiding (for Band but colleges won’t know that)
English 12 AP
Physics C: Mechanics AP

Independent studies (tentative): Computer Science A AP, Physics C: E&M AP (or Stats AP?)

One of my dilemmas is that I really want to take Chamber Choir, but that would replace Comparative Government. I’m stuck between trying to look good for colleges and doing something that I enjoy; however if I take choir I will have 4 music-related things on my schedule. All I know for college is that I want to avoid anything history related. I’ll most likely go into STEM (maybe they’ll want me because I’m female)…

My final GPA as a junior (for my entire high school career) will be 3.95 Unweighted and 4.73 Weighted. I’m unsure about class rank. If I want to get into a school like MIT or Princeton should I avoid choir? I don’t know if my leadership positions
(President of Interact Club, President of Marching Band Music Selection Committee, Tech leader for theatre, Historian Model UN, Trumpet section leader, Brass section leader, Vice President of Music Honor Society) or my participation in other activities (National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Math honor society), English Honor Society, World Language Honor Society, Jazz band) would make up for the weird schedule. I’m also afraid that bad AP scores (probably Chemistry) will force me to take Comparative Government instead of Choir so that I can prove myself with other AP tests.

Additionally, I got a 1440 on the SAT without studying. I will be actually studying and taking it again this August with a goal of 1500, but if colleges superscore I can use my new English score and my past Math score of 750. I got a 760 on the Math II subject test. I just retook the English subject test (because I got a 690 the first time) as well as the Chemistry and World History subject tests… so we’ll see about those.

I’m half white half Korean if that counts for anything.

Should I take choir or comparative government? Do I have a chance of getting into MIT or Princeton or Yale with this resume? Do my clubs/leadership/SAT scores make up for dropping Comparative Government and taking Choir? or does my schedule for senior year look way too musical? My friend got accepted to MIT with 5/8 classes being music classes but he advised me maybe to not take choir.

Some people tell me to do what I enjoy in high school while others think I should try to impress colleges with history classes or science classes. I don’t know what to do, and I don’t even know what to major in! I love math and music equally, please give me some advice on what to do here.

Thank you

(P.S. here is a list of colleges I am currently looking at but will narrow down to 10 schools: Princeton, UPenn, Boston College, Boston University, Duke, Washington & Lee, U of Richmond, U of Virginia, U of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, William & Mary, U of North Carolina, Yale, MIT, Georgetown)

2

I don’t think any adcom will doubt the rigor of your schedule and if you would enjoy choir more than comp government then take it. It is odd that you list freshman year AP scores but not the others. If you didn’t take/do well on the later exams don’t self report the earlier ones on the common app. It would have been nice to have four years of foreign language or at least through the AP level but it looks like you are full. Your college list seems reasonable with both safety, match, and reaches. Be wary about people suggesting you should take more science classes. You already will have two AP science classes and BC Calc as a junior which is fine.

3

Take chamber choir. :slight_smile: Your schedule is plenty rigorous already and your admission won’t turn on one class senior year. In fact, adcoms like to see the premices of an 'academix profile '.

4

Thanks for the advice! I listed my two AP scores from sophomore years and I haven’t listed the other 6 scores because they aren’t coming out until July.