Trying to decide on High School Courses...

<p>I am currently a sophomore (and an aspiring doctor) in high school, and will be signing up for my Junior year courses. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, my school is very small (Pre-K through 12th grade and still less than a thousand students total!), and with such a small high school, the curriculum is pretty limited. Because of this, I am a little unsure if my course load for next year would be as challenging as those of other students - it's difficult to know when you don't have a college counselor!</p>

<p>In considering this schedule, do keep in mind that it is also the year for the PSAT, SAT, and the SAT IIs... and I have quite a few extracurriculars (most of them being "artsy", related to medicine, or in Speech & Debate).</p>

<p>Anyway, here it goes:</p>

<p>1.) AP Biology
2.) AP English
3.) AP Calculus AB
4.) AP US History
5.) Adv. Spanish IV (might be taking the AP Spanish Language exam that year)
6.) Honors (a series of philanthropy courses that cumulate into a senior project involving 250+ hours of community service, a 20+ page paper, and a formal presentation at the end of senior year!)</p>

<p>Before I end this, I would just like to say that I am NOT asking to be chanced, as there is guaranteed magic schedule that could get you in anywhere. All I would like to know is if this course load would be challenging enough to be viewed as competitive among the other students applying to college.</p>

<p>Please let me know what you think about my courses for next year. Any commentary is welcome - and would be appreciated if it was as soon as possible, as the course request sheets are due March 30th!</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I think it looks great! My only question would be why Calculus AB and not BC (if offered)? By the way, your entire school is probably about as big as my senior class (1000+ students)… Lol!</p>

<p>Kittystarr, I’m in the “big” grade, btw - we have 88 students! </p>

<p>I plan on taking BC Calc during my senior year, as that is the only year that you are allowed to take it… unless you are part John Nash or something.</p>

<p>Math at my school is pretty strange… (I’ve been attending the same school since Kindergarten, so I think I can vouch for it!)</p>

<p>7th Grade: Adv. Pre-Algebra
8th Grade: Adv. Algebra I
9th Grade: Adv. Geometry, Adv. Algebra II
10th Grade: Adv. Precalculus (so hard - mostly because our teacher doesn’t speak English!)
11th Grade: AP Calculus AB
12th Grade: AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics (most people don’t take it)</p>

<p>With this, I might as well post what I plan to take senior year!</p>

<p>AP Calculus BC
AP Psychology (or AP Chemistry… like I said, I want to be a doctor!)
AP English
AP Physics
AP Spanish Language
Honors</p>

<p>And I totally meant “there is no guaranteed magic schedule” in my original post - I’m typing on a cell phone, and have some truly awful vision (trifocals at 16, baby!)…</p>

<p>Take Calc BC this year and AP Stats next year, unless you are not confident that you can do well. Taking BC would allow you to opt for multivariable calculus / differential equations next year if it is offered at your local community college.</p>

<p>I would recommend BC as well - if you take AB first, half of BC will be extremely boring and redundant (although I suppose perhaps at your school they only teach integration etc. in BC and don’t reteach differentiation?). Have you tried petitioning to be allowed to take BC?</p>

<p>I agree, I’m in BC calc now (as a senior). There’s basically no difference between AB and BC at my school, other than the speed and amount of material. Even on the AP exam, there are specifically “AB” and “BC” sections which are graded separately.The only reason to take both is to be able to put an AP score on your applications, since the colleges won’t see the scores of any exams you take senior year until well after decisions come out. If you can, you shoud definitely take an AP class or two next year - in my experience, having some scores helped. But if you’re going to do Bio, English, and maybe Spanish, doing the AB isn’t really worth it.</p>

<p>Your plans look excellent. A lot of solid, core AP classes that will challenge you. Focus on doing well in those classes. Take the AP exams and get 5’s. </p>

<p>I disagree with the above posters about your math sequence. It looks like you are following the most rigorous math sequence available in your school. And you are not a prospective engineering applicant, so there is no reason to seek out higher level math classes. AB in junior year followed by BC in senior year is exactly what my daughter did. In her school, the BC was taught at a level far above the standard BC curriculum. She could never make more than a B+ in class, but breezed through the exam to get a 5 in the AP BC exam. Perhaps your school is similar. </p>

<p>If you prefer, for senior year you could drop down from BC Calc to AP Stat and upgrade from AP Psych to AP Chem. What you learn in AP Chem will help you in your pre-med chemistry classes. Plan to take Psych in college.</p>

<p>^Oh yeah, I also recommend AP Chem over AP Psych as a senior. I wish I had taken AP Chem (I didn’t really have the option because of the constraints of the IB program at my school), because that would have let me place into Freshman Orgo at Yale, which would have made my projected sophomore schedule a lot saner/opened up more slots for electives later on. Also, I don’t know if this is the case at most good universities, but Intro Psych certainly is very popular at Yale not least because there are two great professors who regularly teach it, and I’ve heard it is also one of, if not the, most popular course at Cornell (again, because of the professor). So even if you skip AP Psych, you may be able to look forward to a great Intro Pysch experience in college :)</p>

<p>ETA: man, that “honors” program at your school sounds so cool!</p>