IMO, a senior year filled with challenging courses (especially courses geared toward their intended major) shows that a student is preparing themselves for college and looks much better rigor-wise on a college application than an “easy” senior year. Don’t know specifically how senior year classes affect the grading of an applicant, but believe it matters since asked for on the application.
FWIW, Mays students typically take math 140 and 142 (business calc). Sciences will also require some level of calculus.
For sciences in Mays, you can take so many easier science courses like Physics for future Presidents, Kine 223 with a sport, geology, etc. doesn’t need to be math heavy.
Take precalc senior year. It’s not that hard and will be a good foundation for college. They have to take the MpE regardless to get placed in Tamu math as mentioned (140 and 142). All majors require 6 hours of math minimum.
Senior year grades won’t be used for admission, so taking more difficult classes will better prepare your student for college. Just don’t take too many.
@Eggscapgoats nope, my Mays/Business Honors kid has fulfilled her sciences with Poultry Science, Animal Science and Physics For Future Presidents. They don’t require anything special.
Math 140 and 142 are required, and Stats. Mine made a 5 in AP Stats, still had to take Stats at A&M.
@52AG82 so sorry my mention of sciences was confusing. I should have said science majors - didn’t mean to imply that Mays students had to take science classes with calculus emphasis. OP mentioned that engineering was out of the question but I wanted to point out that if any type of science major was it possibility, then calculus may be required. Sorry for the confusion
Poultry Science is no longer available for non-science major. My freshman D was registering during NSC couple weeks ago and got the pop-up. A&M is always updating.
Getting ready to get my rising senior son for the college application season again. Hoping this year is calmer.
Ok new dilemma/scenario we are working on here. I know everyone says only grades through junior year count toward admission. I have already filled out the entire SRAR, including all currently selected senior classes listed as “In Progress”. I thought I had heard or assumed, that the rigor of the senior classes does matter even though they won’t have grades. True? Untrue?
Here’s the catch…son decided to take AP Gov and AP Macro over the summer. Well AP Gov is kind of turning into a disaster. It’s so crazy fast paced, the teacher is unresponsive and unhelpful and grading pretty hard, and at the moment I see a real possibility of him getting his very first C. He could still drop the class up till this coming Monday. Then he would have to either take AP Gov or the standard Gov during the year, and either give up his study hall/early release or give up another elective, such as AP Computer Science.
I’m feeling pretty strongly about not letting him do AP Macro anymore, that would start July 5th and run through Aug 3, overlapping with our beach vacation and full day summer marching band (he’s a section leader) and of course, TAMU application time. He could still do standard Economics over that time and I’d be willing to be it’s 100x easier and doable. Or he can do AP Macro during the school year.
If you’re still following along…thanks LOL Anyway, since those summer classes will appear on his transcript and probably should appear on the SRAR, wouldn’t that hurt him a lot to show a C? How much would dropping down to standard Gov/Econ hurt him? Or giving up the elective AP CompSci?
His other classes will be AP Calc AB, PreAP Data Science, Dual Credit English, Forensic Science, and Band. The AP CompSci and Data Sci classes are both electives that count as extra math credits. He’s still not sure if he’s applying to Mays or Engineering. Top 15%, feels likely his last SAT score will be over 1400.
One way to keep student academics up is enrolling to local community colleges summer classes with equivalent TCCNS, for Macro/Micro Econ, the TCCNS is ECON 2301/ECON2302.
Classes in local community colleges are not as tough as real TAMU classes, however it gives your student preview of whats to come. The advantage is, you don’t have to report it, even if you get A and report it, you don’t necessary have to skip that once enrolled in TAMU. Another advantage of “previewing” course content in local community college is you can search for a professor/instructor that has good feedback from students.
High school AP classes are hits and misses, even taking a year-long AP some high school teachers can be very bad and many students likely learn more from self-pace Khan Academy than from the teacher. Personally I don’t recommed taking AP classes in summer as the chances of not finishing the cirriculum is very high.
I would not think you would want a C as it relates to grade trajectory…. I also think there is so much randomness to the admissions process that I wouldn’t skip a family vacation to try to somehow gain a perceived upper hand on admission. It seems like so many kids right around this range were hit or miss on acceptance Without a ton of rhyme or reason to it.
The reason he’s taking these are Gov and Econ are required for graduation. Taking them at a community college doesn’t help that. So he either has to take them through his school over the summer, as planned, or fit them into the school year by giving up another elective or study hall.
Since you only get college credit for AP classes if you pass the AP exam (and both of those will count at tamu), I would drop those AP summer classes, take them during the school year (they are one semester each, right?) and then pass the AP exams in May. If the government class finishes before Aug 1, that grade needs to be put in SRAR, I think. Plus, the application is very time consuming.
Yes, you can take AP Gov and Econ in the Fall and Spring (very common senior schedule). In the summer, if you prefer students to keep up their academics, enroll in local community colleges classes as preview (even through you are repeating in the fall).
He wasn’t even really planning to take the AP exams since he doesn’t likely need the college credit. The only reason he chose the AP versions was for the added “rigor” and gpa weight. But they won’t changed his gpa much at this point and certainly won’t help if he doesn’t get an A. I really think I want him to drop them. Now to talk him into it.
Yeah but I’m thinking about ETAM if he goes for Computer Science. And he’ll already have credit for US History, Psych, English, CompSci, Calc and Physics if he accepts his credits for those.
Its good to take only 12-13 credits per semester and get the etam auto gpa, especially for comp sci which in the past only takes auto admits. He will still need Tx Gov and creative arts and speech/technical writing. Which physics does he have credit for, phy206? He might consider just retaking that to get the easy A
If he comes in with credit for calc 1 and 2, he needs to take calc 3 and diff eq for ETAM
Just a side note, although these aren’t required, if you choose to fill out the scholarship applications there are separate short answer questions as well
Sorry for the delay in response, but thank you to all who weighed in on the precalc discussion. My student has decided to take it his senior year. I appreciate all of your insight and help.
In our district, online classes did not count towards gpa. They are pass/ fail only. I only have experience in our ISD but are you certain they will count for gpa?
