My HS recommends we take 5 academic courses as seniors.
Here are 3 options:
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AP English IV (required)
AP Calculus AB (required)
AP Computer Science Principles or AP Statistics
Honors Physics
Research in Science (work in a caltech lab)
AP English IV (required)
AP Calculus AB (required)
AP Statistics
AP Computer Science Principles
Anatomy and Physiology
harder (6 classes)
AP English IV (required)
AP Calculus AB (required)
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Statistics
Honors Physics
Research in Science (work in a caltech lab)
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My main ECs:
Yearbook (editor in chief)
maybe Science Olympiad
hospital volunteering
science mentoring
JV Soccer, JV Tennis captains hopefully
I intend to major in neuroscience or psychology, and don’t like physics but it’s the only honors/AP science course left offered at my school, and I think I should take a honors/AP science class senior year if science is my intended major, and I took 2 science APs as a junior (AP bio and chem) to continue the “science rigor”? Or not?
(The 2nd option has a non-honors/AP science class. BUT, it has more APs…)
Assume all classes interest me the same.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! any help appreciated.
I am surprised that AP English is required. I can see some English course being required. However, I do know students who never took any AP classes at all and still did very well in university. Personally I could have handled any math course that my high school could have thrown at me, but I would have died in AP English if I had needed to take it.
All of these course loads look quite challenging to me. It seems to me that you should take whatever you are more comfortable with. Thus anything that I could say is really only an opinion on what might have been a good fit for me, and might not be applicable to you.
However, that said, the opportunity to get some experience doing research in a lab at Caltech to me looks way more interesting and valuable compared to taking another AP class. To me the first option looks good. As a potential neuroscience or psychology major, you will eventually need to take statistics, but you can certainly wait and take this well after you arrive on a university campus and I would personally be more eager to get some programming experience rather than rush to take stats.
Again this is only an opinion. Any of these options looks good to me as long as you are up for taking a challenging set of classes.
You don’t need a history course? Have you had level 4 of a foreign language?
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I have the same question - no history/social studies or language class? A 4th year of a language or an AP (even honors) history/government class would probably be a better choice than either CSP or Stats.
Given the choices, I’d recommend the last one.
Are there non-academic courses you’re taking? At our HS, Seniors typically have 8 courses.
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Agree with the above on “have you completed a high enough level of foreign language, and have you taken enough history and social studies courses?”.
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Yes, taken ap chinese (this year). ive taken history freshman, soph (apeuro) ,and this year(honors us history) but thats it…should i take a history senior year? does that “look” better? i would think more stem-y classes wuld be more fun tho for me.
Since you have FL thru AP Chinese, you are covered there. What does your HS GC say about not taking a SS class? Also check your target colleges to see if any recommend 4 years of SS. I would definitely take physics, as it seems you have only taken bio and chem so far.
I probably wouldn’t recommend you take 6 core courses (I’m not sure all colleges will consider AP CS Principles a core…another thing to ask your GC) and be yearbook editor and work at CalTech and play two seasons of sports…that seems like too much.
Good luck.
If you are going to aim for top colleges you need a 4th year of history or social science. At my D’s school that was typically government. Talk to your guidance counselor.
See if there’s honors government, economics, or psychology at your school, and switch that for CS principles.
Keep English, calculus, science research, and honors physics.
Selective colleges will expect physics and a 4th unit of social science.
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