<p>Hi, today I picked up a class change form, and I am thinking about moving down to Honors US History II.
The Classes I am taking: AP Calc AB, English Honors, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History, Latin IV Honors and Orchestra Honors.</p>
<p>Additionally, I am involved in peer leadership and peer mentoring. I am part of an orchestra outside of school; I'm on the varsity swim team. I am a shadow officer for a hunger awareness club at my school, and I also go to Chinese School on Saturdays (although I don't think this counts as an extracurricular unless I take the subject test or ap test). Oh, I am also in Academic Decathlon. </p>
<p>It doesn't seem like much I guess, but I just want to know if dropping down to Honors from APUSH would affect my chances of being accepted to a college?</p>
<p>A guidance counselor I talked to said it wouldn't be detrimental. My mom wants me to drop down.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention I get either 0,1,2, or 3 hours of sleep daily excluding weekends. I have a viral eye infection as a result of lack of sleep, and I am always exhausted and consume too much caffeine. </p>
<p>I should also mention that I have a B- this term in APUSH so far, but I have a D- in Calc AB and a D in English essentially because APUSH keeps me up the most (6 pages=7 hours for me).</p>
<p>I have talked to peers, friends, and my parents. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>It seems that you have time management issues if a 6 page paper takes 7 hours but…</p>
<p>It seems more important that you drop Calc or English, even if APUSH takes that long you should not have such a low grade in the other two if you truly belong in that level, though if you struggle to complete history work you should drop down for history as well…</p>
<p>The English and Calc grades will be probably (not definitely) ruin your shot at many top universities. Maybe they’ll like you so much that they don’t care about two Ds, but maybe not.</p>
<p>AP Calc’s issue is essentially the teacher who refuses to scale a test that everyone got a D or F on…it’s the only grade for the term so far, which is why I have a D-.</p>
<p>I think it’s more that I have reading problems as in I have to read everything twice to understand it? I think it’s the difficulty level…</p>
<p>babyaztec, so I should drop down to Honors History? and focus more on English and Calc? APUSH really consumes a lot of my time…which prevents me from doing english or calc hw/studying…</p>
<p>I would drop down to Honors US History because that’s still an advanced class and you really need to focus on raising the other two. No college will fault you for realizing your limits. If you’re really worried about it or have already submitted applications stating that you will be taking APUSH then call the admissions office to tell them you’ve changed courses.</p>
<p>“It seems that you have time management issues if a 6 page paper takes 7 hours but…”</p>
<p>Maybe if it’s a badly-organized paper taken verbatim out of the textbook or something, but six pages of actual good writing in seven hours is pretty efficient and I would expect that you’d get more than one night to do it.</p>
<p>halcyonheather, I mean 6 pages of reading from the textbook takes me 7 hours including rereading everything and notes; it’s not efficient enough for me to finish in the time I have.</p>
<p>babyaztec, I’m only a Junior, which I realized I had forgotten to mention; I am just worried that next year, a college will tell me that I’m not accepted because I withdrew from an AP class.</p>
<p>“a college will tell me that I’m not accepted because I withdrew from an AP class.”</p>
<p>Depends on where you want to go. The Ivy League might be suspicious. On the other hand, most average students never try an AP class at all.</p>
<p>Oh, if you’re a junior, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. All that matters is that it’s an honors class. You can always explain why you switched when you apply. Don’t worry!</p>
<p>halcyonheather, I plan on only applying to Brown haha; I just don’t want any regrets I guess. Thank you for the advice!</p>
<p>babyaztec, yes haha; I guess; but won’t colleges view my withdrawl (which will be marked on my transcript as withdrawn passing or failing) badly?</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll get rejected from a university because of this. That’s my honest opinion.</p>
<p>babyaztec, o.k… Many others have stated the same, thank you for the advice</p>
<p>Trim down on some EC’s.</p>
<p>Jelly wizard, I’m speaking as a parent and my daughter was in a similar situation later year as a junior. She had three APs and her dad and I encouraged her to drop from AP English to regular English (honors is not offered at her school). Not sure how it affects her academically since we are in the college application process right now…but at the time with her grades in her other classes suffering, we felt it was the right thing for her. She focused on her other APs and Honors which were all science and math related since engineering will be her major. Her GC surprisingly supported her decision though they are trained to encourage kids to not drop their APs since it affects the school’s ranking. I think your health is important… Do what you think is best! Good luck!</p>
<p>Drop APUSH. If you can reduce the amount of time spent on that homework, you can get more sleep to improve your health plus devote more time to the other classes. If you have a reading problem (very possible), you need to select classes accordingly. Honors or standard US History should require less reading. My middle D has similar struggles making English and History classes difficult - you’re not alone. It doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent or a good student - it means you have found something that is a challenge for you.</p>
<p>Wherever you apply to college, they might not even know you dropped down - ask your guidance counselor how it is reported on your transcript. Chances are the class you dropped won’t even show up, particularly since you are dropping down. You will also want to ask how you will be graded in your new class - my oldest D dropped AP World, and her first marking period grade in that class was incorporated into her final grade for the honors level class (I think she should have had a grade based on her work in that class, but that’s how they do it at her school). </p>
<p>I would worry more about what schools will think about the Calculus and English grades, than whether you took APUSH. If it does show on your transcript, your GC may address it in your recommendation/school report. They’re just as likely to note that you recognized the need to drop down a level there in order to balance your focus on your full slate of classes. BTW, your Calculus teacher sounds like the one I had many years ago. He gave almost everyone a D the first marking period, but it got our attention. Nobody finished the year with less than a C, and those with the C deserved it.</p>
<p>If you have 2 Ds and a C right now during junior year (when you do not have much time to improve), Brown is going to be unrealistic (a high reach, if the rest of your transcript is spotless). From my understanding you are saying that if you get a six page reading it will take you seven hours to complete. That seems like the biggest red flag to me (you are spending over an hour on each page). I can appreciate note taking and re-reading (I’m in APUSH right now as well). But at most that should take you an hour (1 page every 10 minutes). This will have a long term effect when you take other classes that have long dense readings. Improve your reading time, note taking skills and focus.</p>
<p>I think, before you drop, you should try asking your teacher for some help with studying.
APUSH is my absolute favorite class in school, besides AP Lit and Comp, and it’s really not that difficult, in comparison to other AP classes.</p>
<p>Writing the essays should take an hour to two hours, tops. Also, I found that listening to the teacher lecture is useless. I just do other homework in that class; the day before the test, I take about 1-2 hours and take extremely meticulous notes from the book. That’s been getting me an A on every test this quarter. It really should be one of the least time consuming classes.</p>
<p>If you find out a way to do good in AP US, it could really boost your grade.</p>
<p>ocmomof3, thank you for your kind words. I have talked to my GC today, but he called me lazy for dropping APUSH because I had not seen the teacher for help, even though I honestly have no time with ECs and other events…Thank you</p>
<p>CTScoutmom, thank you very much for your advice!</p>
<p>Artsygirl13, I think I will go to my teacher for extra help then; thank you for your advice though</p>
<p>renoverchat, unfortunately, I’m not like that :(…my skills in reading and writing are not strong; thank you for the advice though</p>
<p>Jellywizard, You didn’t mention your major that you’d like to pursue. If it is NOT history, why push yourself only to have your other classes suffer. My D fell into that trap, feeling that she HAD to enrol in every single AP and Honors class available. Its great if you are that well rounded of a student and can handle it. Don’t forget that when a school evaluates your application, GRADES are weighed first, not the number or quality of ECs. ECs are impt,but not at the expense of your GPA. If you can scale back your ECs, that might help so you can perhaps get tutoring after school. We found a fellow student who was willing to tutor my D, then about two months before the AP calc test, paid for tutoring thru a study skills center. Best money spent IMO, really gave my D confidence. She brought her grades up and scored a 5 on the AP exams. Please try and balance your heavy schedule…This is only my opinion…good luck!</p>