Time for my yearly College Confidential Panic about my schedule, but this year it’s SENIOR EDITON!
I just want some advice on any changes/advice that might be useful for my senior course load to make me appear more competitive. I’ve listened and followed my guidance counselor’s advice for most of the schedule, but I know that they are not used to students who wish to apply to T50 schools so I just want to get some secondary advice!
A little bit about me: I’m a white male who’s from an upper-middle-class family(115k+ a year) who lives in rural Alabama. I attend an uncompetitive medium-sized school where roughly 50% of graduates attend college. I’m not dead set on any career path if I’m totally honest, but I do have interests in the Health field(Nursing/PA/Docter).
My Senior PLANNEDCourses:
AP Calculus AB
AP Computer Science
AP Macro Economics(0.5 credit)
AP Government and Politics(0.5 Credit)
AP Lit and Compisition
Concert Band
Health Science Internship with CNA(2 credits)
Summer DE & online classes before senior year:
Biology 103 (DE)
Health(Online)
Here are my Previous Courses(9th-11th grade) to see classes I’ve already had w/ grades:
9th Grade:
Adv. Biology - 90
Adv English 9 - 89
Adv. Geometry - 90
Adv. World History - 91
Career Prep. - 93
Spanish 1 - 86
Concert Band - 98
Marching Band - 100
10th Grade:
Adv Alg 2 W/Trig - 91
Adv Chemistry - 89
Adv English 10 - 85
Adv. U.S. History 1 - 94
Spanish 2 - 86
Foundations of Health -91
Concert Band - 100
Marching Band - 100
11th Grade and on track grade:
AP Chemistry- B+/A-
AP Lang - B-
Adv. Pre-Calculus - B+
APUSH - B+
Therapeutic Services - A+
Algebra W/ Finance - A+
Concert Band - A+
Marching Band - A+
I’ve done this before so I do have a few notes to add to help people understand my Schedule!
My school does not offer a Physics class and my guidance counselor advised us NOT to Dual Enroll it, but it’s a topic I need some advice on because multiple places online say it’s extremely important.
My school requires that all students be CTE completers which is why I am taking the Internship Class.
At the end of my sophomore year my Spanish teacher recommended that I don’t take Spanish 3 because I was struggling in Spanish 2.
See if you can find an “intro to physics for non majors” through Dual Enrollment. If you want to go into Health sciences, you’ll need Physics, and you don’t want your first discovery of Physics to be a college General Physics class. Can you take it during the day?
What colleges are you aiming for (beside UA Tuscaloosa of course)?
Due to Covid-19, I wasn’t able to take the SAT or ACT till this month so I haven’t been able to create a full-fledged list of the colleges I plan to apply to because I don’t have any standardized test scores yet! (I should be receiving both my ACT and SAT scores within the next week)
Right now my current list of (hopefully) match in-state schools is: UA(Tuscaloosa), UA(Birmingham), and the University of Auburn. I plan to apply for some of the smaller in-state schools as safties. I’m also hoping to do good enough on the SAT or ACT to be at least somewhat competitive in applying to the University of Florida, University of Georgia, and Emory.
Also thank you for the advice! I’ll look into the physics classes I can do as Dual Enrollment and talk to my guidance counselor about it more! I’m not sure about being able to take it during the day, but I’ll attempt to figure it out, would you recommend after school/during the day in the school year over doing it during the summer? The main reason I am looking at doing Dual Enrollment over the summer is that I’d like to take AP Computer Science my senior year and my school doesn’t count it as a Science Credit so I’d have to get my 4th science credit over the summer or after school. I’ve been selected to be a school representative my senior year which takes up a lot of time outside of school so I was just concerned that if I took the class after school I’d either not have enough time to study or have too many timing conflicts with the class.
I’m not sure what is best.
Summer classes tend to be much faster paced so I’m not sure itd be optimal for you to take Physics over the summer.
Check the Fall schedule: do they offer Physics for non majors on a TTh schedule ie., only twice a week?
Our Local Community College where I’d be doing dual enrollment at doesn’t release their fall schedule till around May/June so I have no idea when the class will be this upcoming fall, but last fall they only offered 2 General Physics classes and both required that the student already have a Mth-125(Calculus 1) credit to enroll.
Yes that’s why I said Physics for non majors (algebra based, perhaps taken by premeds). Could be called introduction to Physics, Conceptual Physics, or the description would include “algebra”.
General Physics is a calculus based class designed for future Engineering or Physics majors. It represents the next level after honors physics or AP Physics 1 in HS. It should NOT be taken as your first physics class ever.
Note that college courses taken while in high school and their grades will become part of your college record when you apply to medical or other professional school.
Any kind of algebra-based physics would be okay for OP since the idea is to provide a basic introduction so that s/he doesn’t start a STEM major in college without any prior Physics class. The bar is pretty low
