I go to a pretty prestigious high school in California 9 graduating seniors going to Berkeley and three ivy leagues and 60 or 70 kids going to a UC. I just wanted to see if my schedule is solid enough for UCI UCD, and UCSB. English 10, Algebra 2, Spanish 3 honors(UC weighted) chemistry honors(UC Weighted) and WHAP(UC weighted). Do you think I should take English honors because it prepares me for lang AP a and the SAT or spanish 3 honors because it’s UC weighted but uc’s only accept 2 honors each year for honors credit. I have a 1650 currently on the SAT no study assuming I can get up to a 1950 do you think my sophomore rigor is strong enough(plan to take 4 AP’s junior year) to get into the schools I just mentioned as a business major
Talk with your own guidance counselor about this. Since your HS sends students to so many UCs, your counselor should know whether or not you are on track for the ones you are targeting.
I try but she just tells me the standard generic just take the classes you are interested in and work hard, I just wanted to know if my schedule is rigorous enough and if I should take English honors or spanish 3 honors and about what scores I need for the schools I mentioned as a business major
@happymomof1 thank you for your input though
Your counselor knows that many students aren’t particularly goal oriented yet at the beginning of 10th grade, and even those that are often change their goals significantly between then and the time they do start college. That is why she is giving you general advice.
Since you want more specific advice, you need to be very specific with her. Tell her what you want to major in and the specific universities you want to know about. Ask her to show you the information that she has on admissions to those universities. What GPA did students have? What were their SAT/ACT scores? Can she give you the name of anyone who had your major and was admitted to any of these places? If your school has Naviance, ask her to show you how to use it to learn more about what might be required to get you into your target universities.
I will do that probably, but I have to decide between spanish 3 honors and English honors I can’t take both scheduling conflict and English honors might prepare me for SAT English but is not UC honors credit, Spanish 3 Honors is UC credit but UC’s only weight 2 courses, and I already have two honors courses would a third UC weighted honors course look better than a third non UC weighted but school weighted honors course
My counselor won’t be back by the time school starts and I have to decide which one I have to take
Well then speak with whichever counselor it is who will be signing you up for those classes. Someone has to be in the office to take care of this!
I have to wait for my counselor to come back In the middle of August right before Registration which is when she’ll be super busy so she wont answer my questions, she’ll just place me in spanish 3 honors becauuse that’s what I mentioned before i just hope it isn’t the wrong decision
Have you tried asking this question in the California sub-forum? It is at the top of this forum under the State Forums heading. Be sure to make a very clear title along the lines of “Spanish 3 Honors or English Honors for UCI/UCD/UCSB” so that people who might be able to help you will notice it.
One class will not make or break your admission anywhere, provided you fulfill any specific admissions requirements for the places that you are targeting. What will damage your application is a string of bad grades. In other words, in this particular situation there is no truly “wrong decision”. Either option can work for you. But since you are so worried about it, you should make an effort to discuss it with your counselor or another counselor at your high school. If necessary, get one of your parents to come to registration with you. Sometimes counselors respond better when the student has a parent along.
Take as many Honors as you can handle, rather than what will count for your UCGPA, since curriculum rigor will also be factored in. Plan to take as many APs as you can handle, too. (Keep in mind that no one’s impressed with a C in an AP class though. A and B = good though.)
Taking both English Honors and Spanish Honors would be best. However if you have to choose for scheduling reasons, meet with the Spanish teacher and see whether you can do the Honors work as extra work, to keep the Honors designation. And absolutely take English Honors - there’s nothing you can do that’ll improve academics as well as being a strong reader and a strong writer. AP Lang is a very good class to have, too. That should be prioritized over Spanish, but Spanish “regular” may not be very rigorous.
Did you take the SAT as a freshman?
Sorry I meant PSAT and yeah I took that as a freshman and got a 165, and yeah I am leaning towards english honors right now I’m just really edgy because I want to take the class which I think I will do better in and last year English honors was supposedly a much harder class than spanish honors, but there are new teachers coming-in for both courses, and I hope I don’t end up choosing the hard course that I will get a B in
Last year I did better in english honors than in spanish honors but thats because for english 1 honors the teacher was BS and 75 percent of the class ended up getting A’s so I’m not sure which subject I’m truly better at
English seems far more important since it prepares me for the SAT more and AP lang more, I know writing is a really important aspect of college, so I’ll probablly ended up choosing english honors