I am an upcoming senior and I am thinking if I should take 6 full class schedule or take a free 6th period.
My parents and counselor are recommending me to take 6 because they say taking only 5 classes will look bad to colleges but a lot of the seniors are taking 5 or 4 classes.
I want to take a free 6th period and use that time for college app. And I still have 4 AP/IB classes even if I am taking only 5 classes so my schedule is still academically chellenging…
Would taking only 5 classes look bad to the colleges that I am applying to? (UC schools, Chapman, etc).
What classes have you taken so far and what does your Senior year schedule look like currently?
What is your intended major and which UC’s are you targeting?
What is your current UC GPA’s and unweighted cumulative GPA?
I have taken all honors schedule since my freshman year and I took 6 AP classes so far. For my senior year, I am taking 3 AP classes and one IB class and 2 regular classes.
My intended majors are psychology, business, or education and I am targeting UC Irvine, UC San Diego, and also the other UCs.
My UC capped gpa is 4.0 and my cumulative unweighted gpa is 3.5.
Other top students at my high school have very similar to my schedule as well
The UC’s you are targeting will be tough admits based on your capped weighted UC GPA. What is your Uncapped Fully weighted UC GPA?
| Campus | 4.20+ | 3.80-4.19 | 3.40-3.79 | 3.00-3.39 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berkeley | 30% | 11% | 2% | 1% |
| Davis | 85% | 55% | 23% | 10% |
| Irvine | 60% | 31% | 14% | 1% |
| Los Angeles | 29% | 6% | 1% | 0% |
| Merced | 97% | 98% | 96% | 89% |
| Riverside | 97% | 92% | 62% | 23% |
| San Diego | 72% | 25% | 2% | 0% |
| Santa Barbara | 73% | 28% | 4% | 1% |
| Santa Cruz | 91% | 81% | 46% | 9% |
If your rigor is in-line with other students, then it is really up to you if you think a free period would be beneficial. Could you TA for one of your teachers instead vs. having a free period. Is your Senior year schedule more or less rigorous than Junior year?
My advice is do what is best for you and usually 1 more or less AP/IB class will not tip the scales for UC admission but the # of AP/IB and Honors classes taken is one of the 13 areas of criteria used by the UC’s in the application review.
Best of luck and enjoy your Senior year of High school.
Is this perceived as a positive by the UCs (and other universities)? My son is thinking about being a TA for AP Chem because he thinks it would be fun, but he is not sure how it would look to colleges.
Being a TA is not necessarily a positive or a negative but if any student has a full rigorous schedule, it helps to have a bit of a break. My older son TA’d for his Pre-Calc teacher and it allowed him to catch up on his homework in other classes and work on some college applications if the teacher had no specific duties for him that day. He enjoyed his time as a TA and interacting with his teacher and the other students.
As I stated above to @roundglasses74, a student needs to do what they think is best for them and I would not worry “how it would look to colleges”. High school should not just be focused on getting into a college but an enjoyable learning and social experience.
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In my opinion, the key part of your opening statement is that your counselor is recommending you to take 6. I think you should follow that advice, if your primary concern is how colleges will evaluate your rigor, as they know how your schedule works and is perceived at your school.
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