I am a freshman in high school, soon to be a sophomore. My high school does not allow for AP Bio to be taken during sophomore year but in junior year. AP Chemistry is notoriously hard as a class in my school so I wanted to take that in my junior year as well. I could take both AP Bio and Chem in junior year but my schedule is too full to take both of them. Which AP is more important to take, AP Bio or AP Chem for a molecular biology course?
Also my deciding schedule for sophomore is:
AP World History
English 10
AVID
Human Body Systems
Algebra 2
AP Bio/Art
One year of art needs to be taken to graduate from highschool.
Graduation Requirements are:
4 Years of English
3 Years of Math
2 Years of History
2 Years of Laboratory Science
2 Years of Physical Education
2 Years of Foreign Language
I would not recommend taking two lab courses in the same year. Put one off until senior year. If you want to double up on science, take a physics course. For STEM students, most colleges want to see bio, chem, physics and one AP in one of those disciplines.
Look into some of the college requirements. They are more rigorously than the minimum HS graduation requirements.
Many colleges want to see 3 -4 years of foreign language so I would encourage you to continue on with your FL.
You don’t need a bunch of electives. You need to focus on your core classes.
– I agree that it is generally not a good idea to take two difficult AP science courses at the same time (unless you truly are a science whiz).
– The top colleges often look for coursework in excess of what is needed for graduation - they typically look for 4 years of English, Science, SS, Math, and Foreign Language. You can look at the common data set for some colleges (google common data set XYZ University) and look at section C to get a sense of what they want. Most people who apply to these colleges meet or exceed the recommendations for HS coursework. Your application will be at a disadvantage if you take electives instead of core classes. The time to specialize is in college, not in HS. I agree that you should continue with foreign language.
–Most colleges look for a sequence of biology, chemistry, and physics to be taken in HS. Not all need to be at teh AP level.
What science did you take in freshman year? When are you taking HS level Chem?
I wouldn’t take both AVID and Human Body Systems as electives when you have PE and foreign language requirements to knock out, and still haven’t taken all the 3 core sciences.
What classes did you take freshman year? I would suggest looking at some college admission requirements since they might go past your high school graduation requirements. For instance many colleges may be looking for 4 years of math and may have plenty of applicants that have 4 years. Three years of lab science, foreign language and history are also pretty common for colleges.
Electives are great but not at the expense of core classes. Perhaps map out all 4 years (tentatively) to see what elective space you really have since your schedule seems very elective heavy.
AVID is a class that really helps me with my classes. Human Body Systems is one of the three classes I need to take for the next three years as an “academy” class. At my highschool, students are divided into specialized groups called academies. These academy classes are required to take at my school.
AVID is a class that really helps me with my classes. Human Body Systems is one of the three classes I need to take for the next three years as an “academy” class. At my highschool, students are divided into specialized groups called academies. These academy classes are required to take at my school.
Take Bio, CHem, Physics and then at least one of those as an AP. You are not expected to take AP Bio and AP chem…there is time in college for that. You just want to have the back ground for it.
If you need to take these academy classes you may not have time to take both AP Chem and AP Bio. Make sure you have physics, chem and bio and then take whatever AP science you like better.
I thought more about a rough draft for my future plans and decided to go and plan out my four years just as @momtogirls2 suggested. I have also decided to look up recommended courses for a college that I plan to apply to later on like what @happy1 said. The reason I decided to do AP Physics instead of AP Bio is that, my juniors and seniors have told me it was an amazing class and that I wanted to complete the three important sciences. The reason it’s AP is because the GPA boost is always a plus for reaching top 10 to 20. I also could take classes over the summer for classes that I think cannot fit at a specific time period. So my four years are these but not confirmed to:
Freshman
English 9
Geometry
Biology
Filipino 1
AVID
PE
Sophomore
English 10
Algebra 2
Filipino 2
AP World History
AVID
Academy Class
Junior
AP Language
AP Stats
AP Chemistry
Filipino 3
AVID
Academy Class
Senior
AP Literature
Government and Economy
AP Physics
AVID
Academy Class
PE