Are seniors expected to take six or seven courses their senior year if they’re applying a University of California?
S3 has already completed four APs and would likely take at least four more senior year. But would it be bad advice to tell him he could take just 5 courses senior year and just kind of enjoy the ride senior year? He’ll be done with AP Spanish, taken Mandarin to 3rd year, completed AP Bio and AP Physics, AP Calc AB. A Senior year with five courses would look like" AP Calc BC, AP Stats, English CE, Econ (AP?), AP Physics C. Would UC’s see that as slackin’? He’ll be a likely data science or comp sci major.
Does he have a lot of ECs or a part-time job?
He has scouts and works at hw store.
Too many tough courses Sr year has derailed many so, you are right to tread carefully. AP Calc, in particular is brutally difficult - my son’s HS had 70% of the students fail the class his Sr year so, my advice to most people is to avoid it. In my experience, 5 AP courses is an almost unmanageable load for a 17 year old with all the distractions of Sr year, Add scouts and a job… i think you might be setting him up for failure. How about 2 APs and 3 regular classes? Sr course rigor won’t make up for below average stats.
What are his current gpa and target campuses?
Is AP Econ a semester course? My younger son did 5 AP classes Senior year, but AP Econ and AP Gov were each a semester course so really on 4 AP’s each semester.
I agree with @NCalRent, Senior year is a busy time with college applications along with balancing a job/scouts. UC’s do consider HS course rigor in the admission decisions, but dropping 1 AP Senior year will not have a significant impact on his chances since the UC’s will focus on his 10-11th grades and course rigor.
My son’s counselor would always tell her students that for the UC’s, 10-11th grades and course rigor will get you into a UC, but 12th grades will keep you in…
Thanks much for the ideas. Calc BC probably won’t be a problem as he’s sailing through AB with a high A. And the first half of BC is a lot of review of AB. Now he’s chomping at the bit to do five APs and two CE. And here I was getting ready to encourage easy does it. His older brother boths went for maximum AP burn. So right now it’s looking like AP Calc BC, AP Stats, AP Psych, AP Phys C, AP Gov (sem)/H Econ (sem), English regular, Engineering Tech.
Maybe I can get him to back off something. Hmm
I don’t think he needs to take AP Stat if he’s taking AP Calc BC.
@Mom2BoysCA The thought on taking stats is that he leaning toward a Data Science major (else comp sci). Calc BC will count as a course at UC. Stats will be a head start to see if he really wants to go down the data science major. He’s taken an online course in data science and liked it and we have friends who make a living in that space. But it is a thought that he could hold off on the stats to college.