I am a junior in high school and I’m picking my classes next year for my senior schedule. The classes I’m definitely taking are:
Theology IV (catholic high school) --> 1 credit
AP English IV --> 1 credit
AP Calculus AB --> 1 credit
AP Psychology --> 1 credit
AP Latin --> 1 credit
AP Physics -->1 credit
With all that, I have 6 credits filled out of 8 credits. I am planning on going into pre-med after high school and plan on applying to some of the elite colleges and ivy’s including UNC, Stanford, Cornell, Yale, etc. What I am wondering is if I should take AP Government & Politics which is 1 credit or Honors Gov which is 1/2 credit? The reason is I want to be competitive but i also don’t want to kill myself senior year.
Right now, I take 3 APs (Bio, English, US history) and do fairly well in them (all low A’s). I also want to be able to do XC still in the fall and Golf in the spring while at the same time i still teach and train at my karate. Also, another question I have is whether or not if I do just take Honors Gov if I should just take stick with 7 classes (6 1/2 credits) and 3 study halls (1 in one semester, 2 in another) or take another class like piano (1/2 credit) to even out my credits and just have 1 study hall each semester. I plan on volunteering over the winter when i don’t do sports and I want to be able to have time to apply to all my colleges. Therefore, with all this in mind especially that I want to do pre-med and move onto medical school into the big leagues does anyone offer up any advice? Thanks.
One thing that you did not mention is the hidden class you have in the Fall, College Applications and Essays, which will consume a lot of your time. I’d say you’re fine with honors gov and with 2 study halls in the Spring, as long as your GC still rates your schedule as “most rigorous.”
@skieurope Yeah your right about college apps and essays but i plan on starting them during the summer and thanks for the reply and my GC said that i do have a rigorous course but that it would be nice to see AP gov on there too…thanks again
any other advice from anyone?!?!?
It’s your guidance counselor you need to talk to. He or she will evaluate your academic transcript and rate it compared to that of your peers in terms of ‘rigor.’ If he or she feels your proposed schedule meets the criteria for ‘most rigorous’, which is what you want for the schools you are interested in, then you are good to go. If he or she feels that your schedule, compared to your peers, is not in the ‘most rigorous’ category, then you have a negative to overcome.
By the way, there is no ‘pre-med’ major in college. You know that, right? You can major in anything (and 40% of medical school students didn’t major in a STEM). You just have to make sure you take the pre-reqs for med school and are adequately prepared to do well on the MCAT. Medical schools don’t care about school prestige. It’s about GPA and MCAT score, followed by letters of rec, so if you are serious about medical school, find a school where you are confident that you will get top grades and a solid grasp of the material you need to learn. It can be done just as easily at a small LAC (and maybe more easily), a state U, or a highly selective school like the ones you’ve listed.
just to add if this makes a difference I am also in the line for getting valedictorian at my school so should i get another ap to help my gpa or just focus on getting good grades on my 5. P.S. my competition is taking 4 aps senior year
You don’t seem to have read post #4, which helpfully and accurately answers all of your questions. If your goal is Med School, you don’t need to kill yourself with a brutal high school schedule to get into some fancy elite undergrad school. Your hard work should be in college, any good college. I get the feeling that you have been letting other people do your thinking for you. Good luck.