Senior year schedule based on my previous schedules?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

I’m a junior right now and we’re starting to plan our school schedules for next year. I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how much of a workload I could take for colleges to be impressed, yet be able to not have an abysmal senior year.

I’ve been trying to work hard these past few years in all my honors classes, but I could barely keep up with the work. My mom passed away during 1st semester my freshman year, and my grades became total crap. In middle school I had a 3.8 GPA (with that B+ in math, lol) and I was really hoping to keep my GPA higher than a 3.5 all 4 years in high school. My freshman year teachers knew what was going on, and my sophomore and junior English teachers (very close to all 3 English teachers). They’ve been really impressed that I somehow managed to come to school everyday and get decent good grades. These have been my classes/grades so far for both semesters:

Freshman year:

PE: A/A
Spanish 2 (took Spanish 1 in 8th grade, a year ahead of everyone else): B/B
Honors Geometry: B/B
Honors Biology: C-/B-
Honors English: A-/C+
Honors World History: C/F

History wasn’t required for freshman, they’d just continue to AP Euro in 10th, then APUSH in 11th, etc. I went through depression during 2nd semester, and I knew that when I failed history, I wouldn’t be behind on credits since I was already ahead. My GPA was a 3.0 and a 2.5

Sophomore year:

Computers/World War 2 (semester electives):A/A
Spanish 3 (considered as honors): A-/A-
Honors Algebra 2: B-/D+
Honors Chemistry: B/B-
Honors English: B+/C-
CP World History: B/C+

My GPA was really good, but dropped 2nd semester. The holidays made me feel upset, and my grief just continued until the end of the year, even though I started counseling after winter break. GPA was 3.3 and 2.6. I retook Algebra 2 as a CP class in summer school and got a B.

Junior year, now:

PE: A
Art (elective): A
Honors Precalculus: B
AP Biology: C
CP English: B
CP US History: D

GPA: 2.8

I don’t want awful grades, but I don’t want to be in CP classes. I want to get into a UC school, my 1st choice would be UC Irvine. I’ve been through a lot, I had to ask my freshman English teacher if I could do Honors English as a sophomore since I got a C in her class, and she let me continue I asked my honors Algebra 2 teacher if I could take Honors Precal since I got a B in regular Algebra 2 (I had my Honors Geometry teacher in the summer, and they both talked it out and allowed me to continue on the honors track). I asked my sophomore English teacher if I could take AP English this year, she said she would, but with what I’ve been through she said it’d be best if I took CP English.

I’ve always preferred math and science vs. English and history, but I’ve just been struggling with everything. I planned to take more AP classes as a junior and then chill with less APs as a senior, but that’s not gonna happen. I’m not really sure if I should do AP or CP classes for my senior schedule, so far I have:

AP Spanish
AP Calc AB
AP Psychology
CP English
CP Gov/Econ (semester classes)

5 or 6 classes?

PALS (leadership class)
AP Art History
Teacher’s Aide
Or free 6th period

I’m still really unsure about everything. For AP Spanish, I’m not in a Spanish class this year, not a native speaker either, but I’m good at it and I remember a lot of it.

English: I’d love to go up to AP like I initially planned, but I honestly don’t think my writing skills have improved due to me not doing homework when I was going through depression. The CP class I’m in right now, we’ve written 4 in class essays, 1 at home, and the AP class has written about 13.

PALS: it’s an elective, Peer assistance leadership. I also need extra curricular stuff for college apps, but I also do Link Crew, helping the freshman.

AP Art History: I was gonna take this as a junior, but my teachers didn’t want me to stress out with another AP.

Teacher’s aide is fun or a free period, but what would colleges think? I don’t want to be overwhelmed again, I just want a schedule that’s good. I’d love to go to a UC school. I apologize for this being too long, but what should I do?

2

Based on what you explain and what I saw in this thread, don’t take AP Art history. Take PALS. You can take AP Lang only if you truly believe you can do well, but it may hurt you if 13 essays are too much for you. Keep XP /Gov/Econ. Hopefully you can do well in senior year so that college can see an upward trend. From what I noticed, you do worse in the second semester than in your first semester.

3

It’s actually AP Lit, but should I still stay at CP level? I know for sure I’lll just take CP Gov/Econ. That and English are the only required classes I need to graduate for credits, the rest go into my elective category.

Is AP Lit different than AP Lang as far as work? Lang is more essay writing, while Lit is reading old pieces and more analytical, right? What about college credit? If I’m not in AP Lang but I take AP Lit as a senior, would the credits count for college sophomore English and freshman English or just sophomore English? What’s it called in college, English 101 for freshman, right?

How would that work?

4

it depends on the college, generally ap lang and ap lit cover the first two semesters of english.

5

Alright, I’ll look into it. I don’t wanna waste my time taking a class if I won’t get college credit for it. Thanks for your advice. :slight_smile:

6

Some colleges give 1 semester for AP Lang and 1 semester for AP lit. Many others give only 1 semester. Look at the policy at universities you’re interested in.

7

Would it still be worth taking AP Lit even if I won’t get collect credit? I feel like I’m at a disadvantage from everyone else since they’re continuing on the AP track. English is not my favorite subject, therefore I don’t really care for it much. I’m really good at it when I put in the actual time and effort, but senior year, I feel like that probably won’t happen, with the senior paper and research papers during the time when you apply for college.