Hello, this is my first post, so i’m not exactly sure how to format it, but here I go. My freshman year wasn’t great for me as I underestimated the rigour of highschool, & allowed myself large amounts of procrastination, which led to less than ideal grades 1st sem, 4 A’s, 2 C’s, & a withdrawal on a DE course at CSULB, this served as a wake-up call for me, so I made sure to focus more on my schoolwork, & ended up with 5 A’s, 2 C’s 2nd sem, ending freshman year with ok grades, but putting my chances of getting valedictorian into the stomach of a racoon living in a communal dumpster in rural mississippi(I attend a public high school in south cali), i’m okay with this, because I don’t really care about valedictorian anyway(or that’s what I say to make myself feel better). Over freshman summer I took two classes, a dual-enrollment class at Cerritos College, & an introductory chem class at my own high-school, both online, & I ended both with A’s. Now onto the main thing, i’m a current sophomore & my schedule isn’t killing me too much right now, so i’m thinking that if I were to get all A’s this fall semester, then spring semester I’ll take a course at cerritos, should I?. some other issues I have are as follows:
- If I were to take a course, which one?
- Cerritos College only allows for a high-school dual-enrollment student, who is not a junior or a senior to take 1 course per semester, should I dual-enroll at multiple community colleges(like Rio-Hondo, & Fullerton), so I can take more dual-enrollment classes this coming summer?
Some clarifications:
- My goal is to get into UC Berkeley’s LSBE program
- My school works where you are allowed to take 6 classes per semester + a possible 0 period
If anyone has any further questions just ask.
Here’s my current course plans for high-school for clarification:
I think you are a motivated student who will be able to rise to the challenge of taking additional DE classes. However, I would advise against this. When I was your age (lol), I had the same thought process as you (more classes → better chances at college). I was at various schools (HS + CC) from 7:45 AM to 8:30 PM. This left very little time for extracurriculars.
In hindsight, I wish I would have taken fewer classes and focused more on my extracurriculars. I did manage to get in to a very solid UC OOS, however, I was rejected/waitlisted at my dreams schools (Berkeley amongst them).
I’d recommend you learn from my mistakes – don’t overburden yourself with additional CC classes (your HS projected courses are more than rigorous enough). Instead, focus on developing your interest in life sciences and business through your ECs. This will be much more rewarding (both admissions wise and for your own enjoyment) than just taking more classes.
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Thank you for the reply, i’ll make sure to keep it in mind in the future, i’ve been trying to find inspiration, & time to work on my ECs.
So this is a pretty aggressive schedule, esp for math. Is it typical in your high school to take precalculus for credit over the summer and then take two years to take the AP calculus classes? Maybe find a different way to spend your summer before junior year and take the math classes over the two years in school. Also to plan two AP science classes and APUSH and AP lang and AP calculus is very aggressive, think about how many hours of homework you will have, and sleep is so important!
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I think that you should focus on what classes make sense for you, and do not focus at this point on what you might or might not need to get into UC Berkeley or any other university.
Also, in mathematics, I think that you should be cautious about jumping ahead. Math is an area where what you are learning now is based quite a bit on what you learned last week and last year, and what you are going to be learning next week and next year will be based on what you are learning now. You want to understand each step before you go on to the next step. You also want to understand the concepts very well and not just focus on formulae.
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Of course! Best of luck on your college journey, and make sure to have some fun too!
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In my school the only way to reach AP Calc BC is by starting out on the advanced math track, & taking precalculus at community college, as our counselors are quite strict on jumping ahead of the math track. Though it is somewhat uncommon(there are 9 kids in AP Calc BC this year), our school has a partnership program with Cerritos College that makes it relatively common knowledge that this is an option.
Secondly, while I understand your worry over the rigour of my junior year, from my own understanding my school puts most of the more experienced teachers into the advanced classes(I’ve heard lots of good things about the APUSH, & AP Physics teachers especially), along with the small, & more intimate class sizes(My AP Chem class has 10 kids including me), I feel i’ll be more supported even in the subjects I do not excel in(such as math).
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Good luck! Seems like you have thought this out and are following the path suggested by counselors.
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Thank you, for your input either way!!
I apologize for taking so long to respond, & not to be derisive, but I don’t think I understand? I don’t believe I’ll be jumping further ahead in math at any point, other than the accelerated track I took in middle school. And of your first point I can assure you every class I will be taking throughout high-school, I will be taking because I am genuinely interested in that subject, or because it is a requirement of my
high-school or the UC system, in order to graduate, or to stand a chance of being admitted respectively.
Different students can handle accelerated math at different rates. I do not think that I could guess whether this is appropriate for any particular student without knowing the student very well.
I was just suggesting that a student should in general be cautious.
If you are doing well in your classes, and if you can say “I am genuinely interested in that subject”, then this sounds like a good choice.
Years ago I attended a high school where it was not possible to jump ahead – my high school did not even offer calculus at all. I have always suspected that I could have handled something like the progression that you are doing, but I will admit that I have wondered how this would have gone. As it was I took calculus as a freshman at MIT and it went fine (and I graduated as a math major).
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Thank you for your advice
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