What Courses to take in Senior Year?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My S is in senior year and taking following courses</p>

<ul>
<li>AP Lit</li>
<li>AP Chem</li>
<li>AP Stat</li>
<li>US Gov</li>
<li>AP Phys from Community College.</li>
</ul>

<p>The question is whether he should add another course to this list given his profile and his target schools. He just dropped Spanish 4.</p>

<p>Here is his profile.</p>

<p>SAT II Biology: 750
SAT II Math Level II: 790
SAT II Chemistry: 790
SAT II U.S. History: 760
SAT : 2150
ACT: 35</p>

<p>AP Biology (5), AP Computer Science A (5), APUSH (5), AP Calc BC (5). </p>

<p>All of those tests have only been taken once.</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA is 3.92.</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars:</p>

<ul>
<li>President and Founder of successfull non-profit organization: (Had 10 summer volunteers)</li>
<li>Captain of my Cross Country and Track Team, while on the team for all years so far</li>
<li>President of UN Club at school</li>
<li>Member of National Honor Society, California Scholarship Federation, Mock Trial Club

<ul>
<li>Played Soccer for 9th, and 10th grade and will play in 12th too.</li>
<li>Volunteered at AYSO VIP Soccer</li>
<li>Volunteered at about 6 or 7 other organizations that focus on helping people with disabilities</li>
<li>Went to COSMOS at UCSD for Bio-Engineering Summer 2011</li>
<li>Taking physics at a community college</li>
<li>Official contributor to India West and Cupertino Patch, two newspapers</li>
<li>Scholar Athlete for two years</li>
<li>Working on creating a mobile app for non-profit</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>I want to double major in General Computer Engineering and Finance or Economics. If that major is not provided at that college, then I would major in General Computer Science.</p>

<p>List of schools:</p>

<ul>
<li>Stanford (Early)

<ul>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>UC Berkeley</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>UCSD</li>
<li>UC Davis</li>
<li>UC Irvine</li>
<li>UC Santa Cruz</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

2

<p>I or He? Not that it matters. The schedule is rigorous enough. If it were my kid I’d encourage them to take Spanish 4 instead of one of the APs. I don’t really know the UC system, but I am assuming that some of those are guaranteed safeties? It looks like too many activities to me, but my kids took the approach of doing only a few things well. (They also liked to have time to read and play computer games.)</p>

3

<p>Course loads vary so much from school to school that no one on CC is going to know enough about your son’s particular situation to offer direct advice.</p>

<p>Mostly, you’ll have to ask yourself some questions: How many classes do the top students typically take per day? Is the curriculum set up so that virtually no one takes more than a few APs, or is it somewhat common for kids like your son to be taking 3+? Is there a commute involved with the physics course, and if so how much space does this take up in his schedule? How many periods does your son’s school have per day? (etc.)</p>

<p>Then you can consider responses from CC. Since a lot of colleges like to see 3-4 years of a language, I’d recommend keeping Spanish 4 if you do decide your son can/should add one more course. If there happen to be any other courses he really wants to take, or the school offers something else related to his interests (e.g. econ, business, a programming language), you might also consider one of those. But no college should fault your son for just sticking with the 5 courses he already has. </p>

<p>Lastly, you might want to talk to someone in the school’s counseling department. How schools perceive your son’s course load is probably going to come from the ranking your counselor gives to your son’s schedule on the common app. If it seems that your son has already done enough to get the “most rigorous” designation, and there isn’t anything else he has a great interest in, he should probably stick with what he has. You want him to have some fun his senior year, too. ;)</p>

4

<p>"If it were my kid I’d encourage them to take Spanish 4 instead of one of the APs. "
I totally agree, especially given the colleges he will be applying to and the fact that he already took a far harder math AP Class. Why did he drop Spanish 4? Having 4 years of FR language is going to “look much better” than taking an “easy” AP class such as AP Stats.</p>

5

<p>Your son will get into the safety schools on his list. But to have a shot at the reaches, he needs to demonstrate that he continues to challenge himself in the senior year, and I don’t see it in this plan.</p>

6

<p>P.S. I just noticed that your son is from a Silicon Valley school. So you and he must surely know that he will be compared to other students from his school who are taking a schedule that looks something like this:</p>

<ul>
<li>AP Lit</li>
<li>AP Chem</li>
<li>Multivariable Calculus from Community College</li>
<li>AP US Gov</li>
<li>AP foreign language</li>
<li>6th course of some sort</li>
</ul>

7

<p>I agree with CalAlum. The level of difficulty seems to have decreased from 11th grade. I think a harder math and the next foreign language would be good choices.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for all the responses. Let me check and see how difficult will it be to add Spanish back.</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

9

<p>Given his desire to study engineering, a more “serious” math class is probably better than AP Stats. If he has the opportunity to take a multivariable calculus or linear algebra at college level, that would seem to fit the profile better than an “easy” math class senior year after completing Calc BC junior year.</p>

10

<p>Agree about AP Stats. It’s not regarded as highly as other classes your son could consider.</p>

11

<p>I also agree with CalAlum. For STEM or finance, AP Stats isn’t considered rigorous. It’s what some kids will put in when they can’t quite hack AP calc. At this stage, MV at cc would be far better received. Not just academicaly, but as an indicator of his motivation to continue to challenge himself, some sense of drive and vision.</p>

<p>Kids can often get away without the AP foreign lang, but there has to be a good reason- usually, at a competitive hs, it’s a sched conflict with the highest math. See the thinking?</p>

<p>For most of the schools on your list, you’ve got to show involvement in engineering- creating apps is pretty common. The summer program is good, but can’t replace hands-on, continued involvement- or the ongoing competitive team experience in math-sci, in hs. Especially since he is only just now taking college physics. </p>

<p>You need to pull a copy of the Common App and any school-specific supps, including any that relate to an engineering interest.</p>

12

<p>Let him take courses he wants to, not just those that look good on the college apps. My son took both AP calc and AP statistics his senior year at an average WI HS- the two are different (he got A’s in calc but not stats because of zeroes on required stats homework despite 100%s on tests, calc teacher didn’t require homework to be handed in). Never took any more statistics when he majored in math in college. Good for him to have that course in HS.</p>

<p>A 4th year of HS Spanish can meet BA degree college language requirements at some schools. Also- how about a fun course he would not plan on taking in college? Last chance to do something he can’t do later. Let him enjoy his last year of childhood.</p>

13

<p>Added Spanish. His school counsellors were nice enough to let him add it this late.</p>

<p>Just realized that Princeton requires 4 yrs of foreign language.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your comments and recommendations.</p>