Very Conflicted, Need Opinions

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’m very conflicted. I have a passion for both music and science. Take a look at the two schedules I am deciding on for next year (junior year).

  1. AP World
    AP Language
    Pre-Calc (H)
    Physics (H)
    Spanish (H)
    Band
    Gym (Half-Year) and either forensics or robot technology for other half year
  2. AP World
    AP Language
    Pre-Calc (H)
    Physics (H)
    Spanish (H)
    AP Chem
    Gym (Half-Year) and AP Chem (lab spot)

I don’t know which one to take, I love both. If I take band, that means that I can only take 2 AP’s next year and then like 3 my senior year which is only 5 total, which to me, is not ideal to my liking. What can I do/should I do. Any possible ways to do both or any recommendations. I just need to resolve this.

2

Can you take gym another way? Online, through a sport at school, marching band? My daughter did hers as an online class and it was a breeze. She just had to keep logs of the things she played, runs, etc.

3

I’m not sure, my school makes everyone take P.E/Health every year! It’s ridiculous in my opinion. My school makes it seem impossible to do those kind of classes outside of school on your own (they said I couldn’t take Spanish 3 online and take Spanish 4 next year). I don’t see how it makes sense and how they can limit my learning that way.

4

Are you required to take Spanish? I didn’t take a language my junior year but I’m from NJ

5

Yeah, it’s required

6

Can you drop Physics and take it senior year?

7

I would keep band and take only one science at a time. No need to have two lab sciences. I assume you have taken Bio and chem already…take AP Chem next year.

8

Band! And one science at a time.

9

Many states have PE requirements but allow many roads to get the requirement done. Marching band, varsity athlete, dance team, online health course.

If you can’t, don’t worry about it and just take the courses your school requires. Back in the stone age I had to take PE every semester, every other day. School also had no AP courses and only 1-2 honors classes (not even called that and no extra gpa boost, just moved faster and covered more chapters). We all still went to college.

10

Schedule 1 is better.
Take AP chem senior year, along with AP calc and one more.

11

Physics is required for juniors and I want to take it so I can take AP physics C my senior year

12

Do you want to major in engineering?

13

Yes I do, I want to do a double major in science/engineering and also music performance

14

If you are interested in applying to a music major, will you have other music EC’s if you drop band? Around here, the regional youth symphony and other programs require students to also participate in their school music program or they are not eligible.

Doubling up on science plus a music-major-track EC might be a lot of work, too. Honors Physics and AP CHem are both challenging classes.

15

Hi, thanks for the feedback, yeah, we have a very good youth orchestra and jazz band in the neighboring town, you do not need to be participating in the school band in order to join, so I will do that. Also, my school has a full orchestra which meets weekly (it’s a club, not like the in-school ensembles), not to mention two jazz bands. There is Jazz l and Jazz ll, this year I was in Jazz l (the more advanced ensemble); however, next year I can still try out for jazz, but am only eligible to make Jazz ll. Also keeping in mind that I will pick band back up my senior year. As an addition to that, I take currently am taking private lessons. So I’ll still be very much involved. I know I can handle the doubling on sciences, I’m very interested in the two, so I’ll have no trouble keeping up with the work.

16

It sounds like you’ve made your decision. If you think you can handle doubling up on sciences, go for it! It’s good that you’ll still be very involved in music. How will you have space for band senior year in you don’t have space junior year? Could you move one of your sciences to senior year so that you can take 3 years of school band in a row and then devote your senior year to outside of school/extra-curricular music activities? You evidently have a passion for music, so if you’d prefer to pick band back up senior year and your school allows that, there’s nothing wrong with that, either!

17

In senior year, there are less required classes, the only classes required are english and math is required to go to any college in MA. I’m thinking that my schedule for senior year would go a little like this:

AP Literature
AP Calc BC
AP Spanish
AP Physics C
Band
Economics, Gym
Intro to Engineering

I’m thinking that I’d rather not do band my junior year because I would like to have my last year doing the ensembles I want to do like Jazz l and Wind Ensemble. In general, I prefer to get the things I’m not a fan of over with first, so then I can enjoy myself after whatever the is has been gotten over with. Also, I know that AP Physics C is very rigorous so not taking both the sciences then would be more ideal. What do you think?

18

That would still be very rigorous.

However, I don’t think you can double major in Engineering and Music, even with a BA in Music with the BS in Engineering.

19

Yes and I’m quite excited actually, but it’s not as bad as all that and also AP chem. How come a double major in those two fields cannot work?

20

I just looked it up, I believe what I’m talking about is a dual degree, do you know if I can do both with a dual degree?