Slightly lighter load for senior year

Hi everyone. My son is trying to find one more class to fill his second elective. For the time being, he chose AP Statistics. He wants to major in engineering. We dicussed taking a third year of a language, taking a second engineering course and so forth. His other elective is a band class and now we’re considering choir.

We are thinking that it won’t make much of a difference right? All the other courses are AP, 1 advanced and the band class (doesn’t get advanced weighting). The GPA that’s reported in the applications is the end of junior year one correct? I would imagine that his GPA and rank will probably go down but will it affect anything except perhaps scholarships (since he’ll apply for them after the first semester when rank and GPA comes out again…

Thanks!

Colleges will ask for a transcript to include first semester senior year grades, and some will also request a mid-year transcript…

if your son has so far taken just two years of a foreign language, then a third year of foreign language should be a priority.

Other than a few early action and rolling admission schools, my daughter’s midterm transcript went to every other college well before they released decisions. Also, some schools asked for the list of senior year classes during the application process. You may also want to check with your school’s guidance counselor to see how they report rigor. At my daughter’s school, students needed to take a minimum number of AP/honors courses to get the “check mark” for most rigorous schedule. Many of her peers missed that check mark by one class. I feel crazy even saying that, but admission is getting so competitive it could make a difference.