<p>I will be senior next year, and I have changed my schedule a lot. As a junior, I took 4 ap classes: chem, english lang, u.s history and stats. As a senior I am trying to have a schedule that is impressive but not an awful workload. It looks like this:</p>
<p>Accounting 1 (Dual enrollment)
AP English Lit
20th century Germany/ Constitutional law (electives)
AP Microecon/ AP macroecon
Intro to digital technology (Dual Enrollment)
AP Calc BC</p>
<p>How hard do you think this schedule will be because i dont want to over load myself , and how impressive will it look? Colleges i am shooting for are emory, umich, and a stretch for northwestern. </p>
<p>Also how hard is dual enrollment compared to ap and how impressive is it? </p>
<p>Also need an answer quickly finalizing schedules in just a few days.</p>
<p>I would say the rigor of the schedule is comparable to your schedule this year. I would also say that you should focus on maximizing your educational experience viz a viz potential college major/future career goals, and not focus on what colleges will view as “impressive.”</p>
<p>I know I want to go into a finance, marketing, accounting, or economics major. That’s why I’m doing AP econ and dual enrollment accounting and dual enrollment digital technology. I do also know the importance of rigor when applying to a university. That’s why I am throwing the question out there. Any more responses?</p>
<p>These questions are really difficult for us to answer. How difficult a course is depends entirely on the school and professor. We have no way of knowing that.</p>
<p>Assuming you get good grades, colleges certainly like to see that you can perform in college-level classes. That said, you’re probably attending a local community college, which isn’t exactly on-par with the universities you’ve named, and the credits will likely not transfer. It’s really not clear which colleges prefer to see, though APs are more common and standardized, which is helps colleges accurately evaluate you.</p>
<p>Overall I would recommend only doing dual-enrollment if there’s some topic you really want to pursue that’s not offered at your highschool, or if you’ve exhausted all APs you’d be willing to take-- otherwise it is simpler to just take another AP instead.</p>
<p>Looking at your schedule, Accounting sounds good and “Digital Technology” sounds like a waste of time, IMO.</p>
<p>Emory and Northwestern are both stretches:) </p>
<p>Actually, choosing these two Dual Enrollment classes in addition to AP Econ, taking AP Stats junior year, shows your commitment to your chosen field/major and an ability to think through academic choices, something valued by colleges (unlike the “everything but the kitchen sink” process applied to APs that many overachievers take, without much critical reflexion it seems at times).
Are you sure you can handle Calc BC? Because for Econ majors, Calc AB is fine, too. What will matter most is that you get grades of B or more in all these - do not take an AP class unless you’re sure you can get good grades, colleges aren’t impressed with a C+ in an Ap class :).
Aren’t you supposed to take a 7th class? Also, why no foreign language?</p>
<p>No, my school only does 6 classes. And i took Spanish 4 during the summer because i dont really like foreign languages and my school has one of the worst spanish departments. And the reason I take BC is because math has always been my best subject so I was recommended for BC. I am taking the econ ap and accounting for my major. And I hear from many high school graduates that AP Lit helps a lot with writing assignments in college. Would you recommend a potential econ major to take ap lit?</p>
<p>Okay, excellent - everything makes sense. So your schedule is good! 
Take AP Lit if you love reading but if you don’t, since you already took AP English Language, I’d say take English Composition and Freshman seminar in college. So it’s really whether 1° you think you can get at least a B+ and 2° you think you will enjoy it. If the answer to both is “yes”, then take it.</p>
<p>No science class?</p>
<p>You’re only taking 3 (if you count econs together) or 4 core classes.</p>
<p>Yes, my only core are ap lit, ap econ, and BC calc. The reason I’m doing the DE electives is because I think it would be helpful for my major. I took ap chem and on level physics last year- would not taking a science this year look bad?</p>
<p>SInce you doubled up in science last year, it’s fine.
It also depends on what colleges you plan on applying to and are competitive for.</p>
<p>The top 3 I’m hoping for are Michigan, Emory, and maybe a stretch for northwestern. I have a 3.7 UW GPA and will have taken 10 APS 2 DE and 9 honors classes. What do you think my chances will be if I end next semester with the same GPA for those 3 schools. Also got a 2250 on the sat</p>
<p>Michigan, Emory and Northwestern are all reaches due to their low admission rate, although I grant you that if you live in Michigan and apply early in the cycle you should have a more than decent shot at admissions :). Have you run the NPCs on all these schools?
What are your match schools (admission rate above 30%) and safety schools (admission rates above 40-50%)?</p>
<p>Match- UNC Chapel Hill, UVA, Carnegie Mellon
Safety- Georgia tech, UGA, Penn state</p>
<p>Are you in state for UNC CH? Because otherwise it’s insanely difficult to get into since OOS admits are capped (are you a legacy perhaps?)
UVA and CMU can’t be matches regardless of stats due to their low admission rate - of course it depends on the program at CMU; a match would have 30 to 40% admission rate. UVA is more predictable than CMU (some programs have a 5-6% admit rate at CMU) so it’d be likely due to your stats but 30% is still on the low end for a match.
You’re good with safeties. So essentially you have to work on your matches. Look into Tulane (its admission rate is low but its stats for the top quarter are slightly lower than yours), UMiami (true match). How about Fordham?</p>
<p>OK cool, thanks for the advice!</p>