<p>My school is already making us pick our senior year schedules (what? It's only February!) and I'd like some help...</p>
<p>Currently I'm a junior enrolled in 5 APs and 2 honors (both honors being electives - with one of them being Spanish 3). It's a very intensive schedule, and I'm keeping up, but barely - I got 3 B's last semester, which kind of bothers me, especially since I have a lot of classmates in the same classes with all A's or only one B.</p>
<p>I go to a VERY competitive high school. I hate the idea of academics being such a competition, but it is what it is. So I'm kind of sort of stuck in the rat race at this point. Now, I don't want to base my senior year schedule strictly off of this whole idea of "competition," but I want it to be a strong schedule that'll get me into a) the top public college in my state and also maybe b) lots of scholarships to private colleges out-of-state (in addition to being accepted to them in the first place).</p>
<p>To keep the rambles short, I'll just list my scheduling ideas now... except I wanna throw in one more thing, since it really impacts my mindset on all of this and plays on my biggest fears and all:</p>
<p>There was a really bright girl at my school last year - excellent student, lots of APs and extracurriculars, great test scores, passionate, lots of community service, everything everything - who was accepted to a lot of top out-of-state schools, including an Ivy, but not to the top public school in our state. Long story short, she didn't get enough scholarships to those out-of-state schools, so her family had to send her to a small private school in our state last-minute, just so she wouldn't have to go to another one of our public state schools (which she was accepted to, but really isn't such a strong academic school).</p>
<p>As much as I love her, my biggest fear is ending up like her.</p>
<p>I'm determined to get the "full college experience" of living away from home in a dorm... something she didn't get to do, and who knows why? It doesn't seem fair, but so is life.</p>
<p>Anyway, here are the schedule ideas!</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC (currently in AB)
AP Government/AP Economics (taught as one class at my school)
AP English Literature (currently in AP Lang)
Debate Honors (elective; longstanding member of the team and opting for a leadership position next year)</p>
<p>^ Almost definitely taking those four.
We have seven classes, by the way.
Here are the courses/options I'm going to play around with for the other three.</p>
<p>AP Statistics (if I don't take it now, I'll have to take it in college)</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science (don't necessarily need it in college, but I've heard it's a fairly easy AP compared to most of the one's I've taken, and plus it's a science AP which is good)</p>
<p>Physics 1 Honors (We <em>do</em> have AP Physics but it's by far the HARDEST CLASS EVER at our school. I'm talking like, the top people all have tutors, this one girl who LOVES everything ever physics is struggling just to maintain a B, the kids that took physics at community college beforehand are suffering... it's a total nightmare. Hence why if I <em>do</em> take physics, it's going to be honors. But it's the same teacher, and some say he's not so great at teaching... then again, honors physics is much much much slower-paced, and a VERY good course to have on my record when applying to ANY college - expected out-of-state, and would make me stand out in-state.)</p>
<p>Marine Science Honors (extremely easy class, but it's an honors, so GPA wise it gives the same credit as physics would assuming I get an A in either course. But that A would be easier in marine. And as far as that state school goes, I've heard they look at GPA more than the actual specific courses, if only because they have soooo many applicants, but even then I'm sure physics would look better... hah, I know I sound terrible right now.)</p>
<p>Spanish 4 Honors (continuation of Spanish. Sounds logical on my records - it'd mean I'd have a Spanish course for each year - though at the end of the day it's not much of a boost on top of having gone up to Spanish 3, especially to the in-state schools, and I've heard that the class at my school gives a lot of busywork and it gets really annoying really fast. Also, it won't give me college credit in Spanish or anything. But, if I get an A, it's just as valuable GPA-wise as marine or physics, assuming I'd get A's in those.)</p>
<p>Dual-Enrollment (This can be substituted for one class slot - technically two, but - I don't have any transportation, so I'd <em>have</em> to take the class(es) online. It'd probably be an easier class, like art history or developmental psychology - I love psych by the way but I already took the AP class for it - but it'd give me the credit, class-ranking wise, as another AP class would. However, the in-state college doesn't consider it in its re-calculated GPA, though it still will see your class ranking. It's really complicated to explain. Basically, it'd give me another college credit or two - since I'd be taking one d-e class each semester - and wouldn't <em>hurt</em> my GPA like a regular elective would - and it'd look nice because "hey, she tried out dual-enrollment!" and almost all top graduates from my high school have dual-enrolled at least once. Also, I can pick the specific course later - I just have to declare right now whether I want to dual-enroll instead of taking another course at my school. Anyway, if you need me to explain anything else about this, just ask, haha.)</p>
<p><em>Note</em> AP Chemistry is a terrible course at my school because the teacher that used to teach it (who was excellent) retired, and the current teacher teaching it is basically a stand-in teacher from lower-level chemistry who doesn't teach very well at all. I'm considering taking a chem course as dual-enrollment this summer, though I'm not 100% sure because there might be transportation issues. So, it's a gamble to predict right now whether or not I'm going to end up having that course on my record when I start senior year... but under no circumstances am I taking AP Chem. Nope. Wish we had a great teacher, because then I definitely would want to take it.</p>
<p>Ideally, my schedule will be balanced like either
5 AP/1 honors/1 d-e
4 AP/2 honors/1 d-e
5 AP/2 honors
4 AP/3 honors</p>
<p>I guess technically I could also do
3 AP/2 honors/2 d-e
or
4 AP/1 honors/2 d-e</p>
<p>but dual-enrollment students aren't <em>technically</em> supposed to remain on campus, and I live very far from my high school and the only transportation I have home are my parents, who work (I don't have my own car and I won't be eligible for my full license anyway until at <em>least</em> halfway into senior year). Now, if I do just one d-e slot, I could probably help out my debate teacher or some other teacher and sneakily remain on campus anyway, or camp out in the media center to work on the online class that I'd be taking in that slot's place... heh. But with two slots, it'd be harder to do that... if this makes any sense to you.</p>
<p>I could just not do dual-enrollment during the year at all, especially if I get to take that chem course over the summer, or even take an online elective last-minute over the summer instead just so I can say I dual-enrolled in <em>something</em> if all else fails, but I'm scared that a) if I don't get to d-e over the summer then it'd mean I'd have <em>zero</em> d-e and b) many seniors at my school d-e (again with the competition argument, which is a lame argument, but it still needs to be said).</p>
<p>I could actually d-e on top of a full 7-class schedule if I wanted to, and in which case I wouldn't be obligated to if I choose not to, but in that case... what would be the point? That's too much.</p>
<p>Eh, sorry to lose you in all of these rambles... just start spitting out advice/ideas and if anything else needs to be said by me, I'll say it.</p>
(Now let’s just hope the colleges I applied to like it too!) Thanks for all the help, everyone!</p>