<p>I did pretty good my freshman year of high school. All A's and two B+'s I believe. Sophomore year I did awful. Mostly B's in my core classes but no C's. Next year, I don't plan on lowering my course rigor. I am taking:</p>
<p>AP human geo
AP economics
AP lang
AP us history
Advanced computer math
Functions Trig</p>
<p>I got recommended for pre AP spanish 4 and I was thinking of taking it. I don't have much interest in spanish and I'm done with my 3 years, but do you guys think it would be worth taking next year? Especially if I did bad sophomore year and only got a B average? I plan on applying for UVA, Virginia Tech, and JMU. If I could get into Virginia Tech I would be happy.</p>
<p>Usually colleges like to see the fourth year of a language. You could take it junior year and drop it your senior year if you really dislike it. But if you really have no interest, make sure your schedule this year reflects your interests and rigor. I see no harm in taking the language this year unless there is scheduling issues or that you won’t be able to take a certain class the following year. You could always see what Virginia Tech recommends in terms of languages.</p>
<p>Haven’t really thought of my career interests yet, but atm it seems to be something in the computer field. Programming, computer engineering, computer science, stuff like that. </p>
<p>Advanced computer math I heard you learn some basic programming. I guess that would be better for someone pursuing a career in the computer field, but I’m afraid its one of those “fluff” classes colleges don’t care about. I really want to get accepted into Virginia Tech or UVA, but considering my awful sophomore grades I feel like they’re getting out of reach. I’m trying to maintain my course rigor for junior year while improving my grades to make up for this awful year. </p>
<p>Since you got recommended for it, take it and try to do well. (Does your school allow you to drop a class after a certain period of time - if so, that’s what you could do if you see you’re getting less than a B in it?) Selective colleges like to see Language up to Level 4, even if they don’t require it.
However I am more concerned with your choice of classes, that doesn’t reflect a “tech” orientation. Your course rigor would be good for UMW, JMU, VCU… but for VTech, I think you should replace AP Human Geo by Honors Chem or Honors Physics, if one of those is offered at your school.
UVA is a big reach at this point, but you still have two years to prove you can get within reach.</p>
<p>Can your schedule look like this:
Honors Chem
AP economics
AP lang
AP us history
Advanced computer math
Functions Trig
Pre AP Spanish 4</p>
<p>My school doesn’t have “honors” chemistry. I took pre ap chemistry because thats the closest they have. I also did replace AP human geo with pre ap spanish 4. </p>
<p>I still don’t know if I should’ve taken ap human geography. If its an easy 5.0 gpa class, why not take it? Will colleges just factor that class out? Literally everyone at my school is taking it because it is easy.</p>
<p>I don’t like to bandwagon though, so I assume there is a good reason not to take it. If everyone takes it, it won’t look so unique i guess. </p>
<p>Human geography is seen as a freshman/sophomore class for ambitious kids preparing for “real AP” rigor. It brings no college credit and isn’t really considered “rigorous”, so if your concern is to have a rigorous schedule, keeping in mind that Pre-AP followed by AP Foreign Language is considered one of the most rigorous classes (few students go up to AP FL), well, the choice is clear. Also, remember that most colleges recalculate GPA and look at unweighted (except some state colleges, so it depends what colleges you’re aiming for.) If you’re concerned about your GPA and planned on taking Human Geo for “GPA padding”, AP Econ is the one that should go.</p>
<p>The college office at my son’s private school told him that it was okay to drop the 4th year of language, since he really disliked it, in order to double up on sciences, which he does like.</p>