Hi- I attend a very competitive, wealthy public school in NY where the kids/parents will do anything to get into top schools
I m trying to decide what classes to take for the fall of my junior year because I do not know what is best for the colleges i wanna go to. i would like to get into a top 30 school but idk if thats possible because of the competitiveness from my public school. Examples are Villanova, JHU, NYU, Boston College, Vanderbilt, UVA, UNC, Georgetown, Columbia (bc my dad went there), U Southern california, Duke, Colgate, Emory, Amherst, & others- I have really not thought to much about exactly what I am looking for I have only been to one school before (Princeton and that is way out of my league for sure!)
Here are the classes I have taken that are on my transcript & the grades (also my regents, ap scores and sat i/ii scores, if that helps)
8th Grade:
French 1-B : B+
Living Environment Honors: B+
Regents: LE- 93
9th Grade:
English 9H: A-
Pre-AP World History: C+ (I know this looks terrible, my teacher screwed me over with my final and I originally had a B+for my final grade but i did so terribly on my final exam that was worth 20% of my grade because he forgot to tell us that he switched our time slot when we took it so…i was literally in tears when I arrived 30 min late & social studies is one of my fav and best subjects)
Algebra I Honors: B
Earth science Honors: B+
French II: B+
Art : A+
Social Science research : A+
Regents Exams:
Algebra I- 100
Earth Science- 90
10th Grade:
Chemistry Honors: B
English 10H: B+
Geometry R: B+
Ap World History: A-
French III: B+
Health: A
Business: A+
Regents:
Chemistry-93
Geometry- 89
French- 89
Global History- 94
AP Score: World History -3
SAT II Score- World History 590 (I know, terrible)
PSAT Score- 1220 (this is not for national merit yet)
This is what I have planned to take for my junior year:
Ap English Language
AP Us history
AP Psychology
Pre-AP French (this is considered an honors course but it is the first half of the AP curriculum…kinda scared for it cuz i suck at french but the teacher for french 4 is so so so bad and the AP teacher is amazing)
Algebra 2 R
Physics R (my biggest dilemma is whether i should take regular level physics since I am terrible at math base sciences or ap biology. i do not remember much from when i took it in 8th grade but i do remember enjoying my class, mainly because my teacher was amazing, but it was also my first hs level class ever so i was not mature enough yet to meet the demands or understand what an hs class was yet, part of the reason why i ended up with a b+. my mom wants me to take regular physics but my dad thinks i need more AP classes so i should do the bio again but idk which i will do better in. also if i take ap bio i can’t drop out of it into a lower class if i do poorly. i am not even considering ap physics at all because chemistry was so so hard so i can only imagine how terrible physics will be)
Idk what electives i am taking yet
I am preparing for the SAT and I am aiming for at least over a 1450 on the real thing, I really wanna go for a 1500 though. I also know i need more sat ii exams because i did bad on the world history so if i take ap bio i can take the bio sat but i heard that the physics one is super hard and even the kids that take ap physics don’t do as well on it s thats out of the picture. i am def planning on taking the english and history sat and possibly math 1 or 2.
I am currents out my girl scout gold award project and all my advisors think that my project is amazing so far and what it will accomplish is great- it deals with water cleanliness near my town.
Another issue is that i am not eligible for national honor society at my school. The national requirement for entry is like a 3.4 or 3.5 gpa- i forget which. I currently have a 3.65 weighted and a 3.5 unweighted but my school recently last year made the new requirement for entry at only our school to be a 4.1 unweighted since too many people were eligible for it.
I also row o the school’s crew team as well but am not looking to get recruited. My times are not near what you need to be if you wanna go to a top 30 school so i do not want to only use that as my edge. but crew is ow i got the idea for my water project for girl scouts,
I am also involved in breast cancer coalitions and i organize events in my town for the committee.
I also am a tutor for 7th grade students who struggle in english and social studies since those are my strongest subjects. I also assist in math too but my teachers all recommended me to do the english tutoring committee because i am a strong writer.
I also enter many writing contests. I paced in many during middle schoo and I won only one so far in high school that was an interscholastic contests. I know that its not that big a deal but its something.
I am not that great at french since my teacher is terrible and cries during our class periods but I always do exceptionally well for some reason on the National French Exam each year. I have gotten silver award (90th percentile) every year except for last year when i got the Gold award (95th percentile) and this year I only got an honorable mention.
So basically my question is whether or not I need to do AP bio. Should I focus on balancing my rigor or should I focus on trying to get my grades up? i am not doing any sports first semester because of the SAT and I need to focus on school so I will have some time in the beginning of the year but I am doing crew starting in the winter again. Idk whether its necessary or not. I do not mind either. I will have to take physics eventually so its either this year or next year. i only want to do ap bio this year mainly because of the sat subject test. If i end up doing physics this year then next year i will prob do ap environmental science because its easy and i need to balance to my senior year since everything will be all AP.
THANKS!!!