Senior Year Course Load

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello!! I’m a rising senior in Georgia, and I’m a bit concerned regarding how challenging my classes will be. Especially if you have taken any of these classes or do online school, pleaseee give me advice!

My first semester schedule is set to look like this:
AP English Literature & Composition
AP Research
AP Art History*
AP Statistics*
AP Computer Science Principles*
AP U.S. Government & Politics*
Chinese 2*
And my second semester will be the same, except AP U.S. Gov will become AP Comparative Government & Politics, and Chinese 2 will become Chinese 3.
(* denotes that the class will be entirely online regardless of the pandemic situation)

I think my schedule kind of makes it clear why I’m nervous. The biggest issue for me is that I go to a very small school in a super rural part of northwest Georgia, so I didn’t have many rigorous course options for my senior year unless I decided to do classes online (shoutout to Georgia Virtual Schools). But do you guys think that I’m overdoing it?

At my school, we take the same 7 classes all year, but because I have more flexibility with so many online courses, I will be doing Chinese 2 and 3 in single semesters (not to meet language requirements, but because I’m genuinely interested in the language.

And for some background on me, I have never made a B in high school. Last year, I took a pretty rigorous course load as well, especially for my school, with 4 APs: Seminar, English Lang, U.S. History, and Spanish Lang (the last of which I also did online), two Dual Enrollment courses online, and two Honors courses, on top of self-studying for a separate AP exam (Psychology).

Please please pleaseee offer me advice if you’ve ever taken a similar schedule, or had a course load as challenging as what I am about to take on. Even if you haven’t, feel free to tell me what you think you’d do in my situation. I can make schedule changes, like if I wanted to just take Chinese 2 all year instead of 2 and 3 together, but I can’t drop/add entire courses. I’m super anxious, but I feel as though I can do well as long as I maintain the high work ethic that I have had in the past. Thanks so much for reading this, guys!!!

2

Your schedule does look rigorous haha. Make sure that you keep the additional class of senior year into account: college applications. I assume that you are aiming for top colleges so make sure that these AP classes won’t bring you much stress when it comes to drafting your common app essays as well as your supplementals. I do think that your schedule is quite a handful but if you do well on them, it will look impressive so I say go with your gut! Personally, I think that 7 APs your senior is too much especially if you are going to take the AP exam for all 7 courses (I took 7 also and it was not fun). But after looking through your entire post, I think that you should be fine! Make sure to stay focused though to avoid senioritis lol.

The only AP classes I took that you mentioned are AP Statistics and AP Computer Science Principles. AP Comp Sci was probably the easier, if not, the easiest AP class I took in my entire high school experience. But this will depend entirely on your teacher for the course because they all will have different teaching styles. My teacher personally taught us through activities and projects which made the class fun. I wouldn’t stress too much about this class since many people just take it for a GPA booster and don’t even prepare for the exam with outside resources like a AP exam prep book. I took the AP Statistics while self studying for the AP Calculus BC exam and honestly, it wasn’t a bad class. It wasn’t too easy like AP Comp Sci but it wasn’t too difficult like AP Chemistry. The class just consisted of my class and I learning how to use the functions on our calculators properly while my teacher attempts to teach us. Although I basically self studied the course since the teaching wasn’t as effective, it’s all about using your calculator to your advantage. A prep book will also come in handy for this class if you don’t understand some concepts! But then again, this will depend on who you have, your experience with the AP course will be different than mine. To sum all that up, AP Stats and AP Comp Sci are classes that you shouldn’t stress too much about. Don’t slack off in these classes though, because they are still AP classes and it will bite you when it comes exam time.

I took a different schedule than yours in terms of courses but we had the same AP count so I guess that can be seen as similar(???). I took AP Comp Sci, AP Stats, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus BC, AP Econ (I took Macro first semester and Micro second). My regular classes were Spanish 2 (online), english (dual enrollment), psychology (dual enrollment), and theatre (dual enrollment to satisfy the UC fine arts requirement lol). Juggling that with my college applications and my job, it was definitely not an easy year LMAO. To make it easier on myself, I only took the exams for the classes that would count towards my major (AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, and AP Physics 1). It was rough, but I made it through with straight As so that’s a relief!

TL;DR: You will be fine with this course load as long as you have good time management and stay disciplined throughout the year. I wouldn’t recommend taking so many but if you think you can handle it, then go for it. College apps will take time also so take that into account. AP Stats and AP Comp Sci are classes that you shouldn’t worry too much about but still give your best effort to ensure the As. I had a rigorous schedule senior year also and I struggled but having good time management allowed me to excel that year.

Remember about your extracurriculars and other responsibilities as well as having a good senior year! Stay safe :smiley:

3

AP Stat was a pretty easy class for me, but I love math and I took it alongside AdvAlg my Sophmore year (they cover a lot of the same subjects). Though, after reading your post, it seems like you’ll do great!

Now about Gov…
At my school and many others AP GoPo is considered one of the hardest APs (I can attest) and from what I’ve heard Comparative Gov is fairly easy (I cannot attest)
so if you can change it, I’d recommend Comp first semester so you can focus on college stuff and GoPo later on when things have settled a bit

4

It seems like a lot, especially alongside college applications.

What colleges are you aing for? What major?
My guess is that lots of New england LACs would be interested in a straight A applicant from rural Georgia.

5

Sorry! I haven’t been on here much.

My dream school is Brown (I applied there ED), and pretty much all of the other schools I’m applying to are LAC in New England haha. I’m applying to all of my schools with an intended major in international affairs and secondary interest in Asian studies :slight_smile: