Hi everyone :), I am currently a junior in high school with a 3.4 gpa. I had a personal circumstance freshman year but received straight As my sophomore year of high school. Until now, I have not taken any honors/AP courses. My current schedule is:
AP Psychology
Chemistry (College Prep)
Honors English
Honors Spanish
Algebra 2 (College Prep)
Honors History
I am very interested in science, particularly biology. I would also like to apply to NYU and am doing well in my classes as of now. My main question is, would it make much of a difference in my schedule if I were to switch from college prep-level chemistry to honors this year? I would have missed a lot of coursework and material, but I am willing to make the change if it’ll “boost” my application. Is it all worth it or should I just stick to CP chemistry and receive an A? I would most likely end with a B+ in honors and do not want to further sacrifice my GPA. Will colleges really care that I am taking one more honors class my junior year? I am worried that there is a lack of “rigor” in my schedule.
I wouldn’t recommend switching this late in the year. At my kid’s school, you wouldn’t even have the option of switching at this point as they are a couple of weeks into the 2nd marking period already.
I understand completely. However I do not think it would be a huge challenge to make up the missing coursework. Would it make a big difference to selective colleges if they saw honors chemistry on my transcript as opposed to cp as science is what I want to major in? I doubt it would make or break my application but I want to make up for the poor freshman year I had.
Agree, I think it is a terrible idea to switch levels three months into the school year. I don’t think it is worth the risk of moving from a situation where you are doing well to a situation where you will have to play catch-up to even stay afloat. I don’t think one level difference in one class will make or break any college application. Have you asked your science teacher what he/she thinks of the idea? Have you asked your guidance counselor if it is even do-able?
Thank you for your advice. The science supervisor of my school and guidance counselor both think that I should stay as well though it is possible to change even at this point. My main concern was that my schedule was not “challenging” enough as I am currently in my junior year ugh.