Senior Year Schedules

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello! I’m currently a junior, and I need some help with my senior year schedule.

There are two courses I’m definitely taking: AP Computer Science and Government/Economics (no AP, which is sad because I love government).

However, I’m at a loss for what the rest of my schedule should be.

My current schedule is:
Honors English 11
US History
AP Physics 1
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP World History
Marching Band (first semester)

We’ll get our first semester grades next week, and I’m confident that I got As in all my classes.

1: My English class. There are three available English classes for seniors: AP Literature, an expository writing class, and English 12A (CP). I'm only looking at AP Lit and the expository writing class, since I do love English and I would never take CP English. AP Lit is considered one of the most difficult classes at our school: the teachers have a rule that they will only give out ~3 As per class. I'm good at English, but I don't think I'm *that* good at it, especially since increased enrollment in the expository writing class has ensured that the people enrolled in AP Lit are usually very good at English. People from the expository writing class still get into top schools (I know one from this year who got into UPenn early, and I don't know many seniors). However, I love English and many of my extracurriculars are English-related, so a) it may look weird if I don't have AP Lit on my schedule, and b) I like the books they read in AP Lit a lot. If I am either deferred or rejected from my EA school (Stanford), colleges will be able to see a "B" in AP Literature. Will that pose a huge problem? I got 3 (semester) Bs freshman year (UW GPA of 3.75), but I had a 4.0 sophomore year and I should get a 4.0 this year as well. Which English course should I take?

2: Everything else, to be honest. I still have three elective courses, and I have way more options than I have space. They are: AP Statistics, AP Physics C, AP Biology (I may take this at a community college, though), AP Environmental Science, Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra, AP Human Geography, Creative Writing/Public Speaking, and Ethnic Studies. If I choose to take AP Lit, I can also take the expository writing course as an elective.

The only easy courses on that list are AP Statistics, Creative Writing/Public Speaking, and Ethnic Studies. The expository writing class is also pretty chill. The rest are considered pretty difficult courses at my school. I don’t want to overwhelm myself senior year, but all the classes also seem very interesting.

I will be applying to Stanford, Brown, Princeton, MIT, and the UC system (I’m a California resident), so my list is full of competitive schools that may want more difficult schedules, but they’ll also want a 4.0 first semester senior year.

Thank you!

2

Bump I need major help

3

Since you’re going to go in Humanities, take AP Lit. Even if you get a B, it’ll be okay. Add either Creative Writing+Public Speaking or Expository Writing (or both) + Linear Algebra+0/AP Stats + either AP Human Geography or Ethnic Studies.(I’d pick Ethnic Studies. Sounds interesting - although AP Human Geography is interesting too, since it studies the world as it is - population, migration, cities, etc.)

This would result in this schedule:
AP Lit
Linear Algebra/study hall (if you think you can handle Linear Algebra) or AP Stats
AP Human Geog or Ethnic Studies (disregard the “AP” for Human Geography in terms of difficulty or college consideration)
Creative Writing/Public Speaking or Expositary Writing
AP CS
Government

This way, your schedule would be balanced with two difficult classes (AP Lit and Linear Algebra), two relatively easy classes (Human Geog/Ethnic Studies and CW/PS), and two medium classes (CS and GOv).

The competitive schools want a rigorous schedule, but this schedule would be fine, especially considering what you’ve taken so far.
If you have close to straight A’s (ie., 3.8 UW) in such a schedule, they know you can do the work. The selection will then be on your essays, LORs, and EC’s.

At this point, look for two safety schools and 3-5 matches. You already have your dream schools, but as you know, 90% qualified applicants are denied. So now the REAL work of creating your college list begins.

4

Thank you for the feedback! Actually, APCS and AP Human Geography are both very hard at my school–the only “easy” APs we have are AP Stats and AP Psychology. I also plan on applying as a STEM/interdisciplinary major (I want to double major in Computer Science and something like Urban Studies), so will it look weird if I only have two math/science classes? (Also, MVC is a prereq for Linear Algebra; I’m not sure if we can register for one without the other because people are already rejected from each class. I’m relatively good at math; in fact, one of my college recs will definitely be from a math teacher since I tend to have the best relationships with them.)