too much of slacker senior schedule for swat

<p>Hi:</p>

<p>Swarthmore is my first choice school. I am a senior this year and am struggling with my schedule.</p>

<p>My concern is that this schedule that I have planned, especially in contrast with last year's AP mania, will make me look like I have a bad case of Senioritis.
Here's the deal: With last year's AP physics and AP calculus (and 5s on three physics AP exams, and the calc one), I am poised for an engineering class at Smith college and would really like to take ENG 100 ("Engineering for everyone"). Since I am trying to figure out if I want to pursue engineering in college, this class is very important to me. </p>

<p>Here is the problem. In order to take the engineering class at Smith, I can only take standard (gasp!) level history instead of AP. The only other AP History class offered, is during my second passion, BAND!! I can't possibly consider dropping band.</p>

<p>So my schedule went from what my guidance counselor wants:</p>

<p>AP US
AP Chem
AP English 12
Marching Band</p>

<p>to:</p>

<p>History
Marching Band
AP English 12
Engineering at Smith</p>

<p>The upshot of this is that I've lost two AP classes: AP Chemistry (my initial AP science) and AP US History (it's only 4th period, conflicting with ENG 100's lab). With a standard history class and Marching band, I fear that admissions officers will think I'm slacking off...
What do you guys think? I would be taking hopefully calculus III at smith in the spring but by then my college applications will be in.</p>

<p>I am hoping to hear happy stories about others who got into Swarthmore without taking every AP under the sun.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Ben</p>

<p>Ben,
Your guidance counselor should be able to explain the apparent scheduling conflict in his/her write-up. Do you only take four courses each semester? Congrats on the 5’s on those tough exams, by the way. </p>

<p>I have a son who graduated from Swat and one who just started as a freshman.</p>

<p>Ben,
Try to interview at Swarthmore. In your interview, you can discuss your schedule conflicts at that time and let them know why you are taking regular history instead of APUS and APChem. Is your engineering class only one semester? If so, maybe you can add a college level science or history class the other semester. I think taking a class you are passionate about (ie: band) will mean more to an admissions counselor, than just taking another AP class. All these things you can talk about during your interview.</p>

<p>Interesting quesion. I think that the various considerations are far too complicated to even hazard a guess about how your senior year schedule would impact odds at Swarthmore. I’m pretty sure that Swat admissions people would advise to you follow your passion and let the chips fall where they may. Offhand, I would think that taking an engineering course at Smith could be pitched effectively in a college application. Maybe even in an essay, I don’t know.</p>

<p>Generally speaking, Swarthmore goes for kids who play outside the lines a bit over a textbook AP grinder.</p>

<p>I tend to agree with ID. I think it will look interesting to take the Engineering class at Smith on your transcript and if you took “regular” other classes, it won’t matter that much. Some students come from schools where there aren’t too many APs and they get into Swat anyway.</p>