Regarding UCM and space availability. I have only seen a few popular majors that had space restrictions and students were offered an alternative major instead.
For the HS’s in my area, most only have a few UC approved Honors classes such as Chemistry, Physics and Pre-Calc. Usually Honors English 10 or Honors Biology are not UC approved Honors courses even for top HS’s like Troy so a schedule listed above with 7 UC Honors would most likely not be possible.
Even Foreign Language 4 Honors wouldn’t count? I saw it existed on their list but it sounds like very few courses are really counted as “UC honors”. 
So, few approved Honors courses, hence the death race at the most competitive schools to reach 15 with AP/DE/IB starting in the 10th grade (assuming 9 AP/IB/DE would represent the less competitive schools): if UC approved Honors basically only encompass 3 classes, ie., Precalculus, chemistry, physics, that would mean students would need 12 APs+DEs or the full IB Diploma for UCLA/UCB.
One thing @beyeu107 could do is get a hold of his son’s school’s approved A-G and approved A-G HONORS courses, in order to map out the ideal UC Honors+AP combinations.
A possible strategy for that system that also doesn’t drive a kid insane would be something like:
-summer after 9th grade: easiest, known mickey-mouse DE course at the local CC to serve as a “gateway” course (it’ll be compressed thus very fast paced and challenging) that also counts for UCs - basically what is known as an easy A for college students will likely be a shock to a 9th grader and will teach him bout college courses.
-10th grade: a schedule such as: Algebra2H, English 2H, Chemistry H, Viet 2 (these would not count toward UC# but would be pre-req for future UC-counted units), AP World History, Band, and if offered something like AP CS Principles
-Summer after 10th grade: 2 DE classes (perhaps College Viet 2 and Environmental Science)
-11th grade: UC-approved Honors Precalc, UC-approved Honors Physics, AP Bio, AP English Language, APUSH, UC approved Viet 4H if College Viet 2 taken/Viet3 otherwise, Band
-Summer after 11th grade: 1 DE class (+ big summer project)
-12th grade: AP Calc AB or BC, AP Chem, if it exists: UC approved Honors Viet 4 otherwise 2 semesters of DE Viet (check CC to see if offered), AP Gov/Econ, Band, AP Psych
That makes 14-16 possible APs and he’d be in the top 25% for UCLA.
@beyeu107: I checked several CA HS’s regarding Honors Foreign Language courses and most HS’s offer FL 1-3 and then level 4 is AP so not Honors.
I would have OP check with their GC and see what kind of schedules top students are taking at the HS. I would personally advocate to take courses of interest especially the AP’s and not make it whom has the most AP wins as you have stated before. The student should challenge themselves but within reason and should not have a “dream school” mentality.
They have a matrix indicating how many AP/IB/DE you need to take for each GPA. Basically the higher your grades the fewer you need to take, about half as many if you have 4.25+ than if you have 3.6 (I didn’t calculate exactly how many for each GPA level) but I assume it’s achievable.
The kid who was taking 9 in a year was WAAAY overdoing it though 
and what a stressful environment it must have been.
@Gumbymom : thank you for your patient explanations. Since UCs don’t provide financial aid to OOS students, it’s for my personal enlightenment as none of my advisees would apply but it’s such a big system, often used as a model, and UCB/UCLA are so well-known, that I value all the details.
It’s unsustainable, is what it is.
Thank you for all the advices dearest parents. I am so new and I have always struggle with how to help my kid. He seems so bright, it is sad if I don’t setup it right so he would end up in community college. I think everyone else as a parent can also related.
With this forum, finally I can feel that I am not alone. Thanks for all the support. And ton of knowledge, information.
I can’t express enough thanks, from the bottom of my heart.
Please do not think of community college as a failure on your part. Some of my favorite colleagues started out in community college, sometimes more than one community college, for a variety of reasons. Community college to UC for undergrad to another UC for PhD. The great thing about the CA public higher education system is how well integrated and flexible it is. My youngest, who is a sophomore and very bright but will probably end up with 2 maybe 3 AP classes in high school because these are the ones that interest him, will probably head towards community college first. I’m happy he has that option! Good luck OP and don’t stress out. Your son will be fine.
Please don’t disparage our community college system. If your son ends up at a California Community College, he will be there with good company.
The California Community College system is very, very strong. There is NO SHAME in attending our community colleges. My Caltech son took local CC classes during the summer with Berkeley, LA, SD, Irvine, SB, and private college students. They took these classes to get a jump on requirements for their majors at their schools.
A large number of California students start at the CCC’s for a large variety of reasons. The UC’s give priority to CCC students. Your child may end up at a Community College and that would be okay.
Miss lookingforward 
@MYOS1634 thank you for the details. I’ll learn from your suggested schedule.
@MYOS1634
“Becoming Eagle Scout and having an interesting project would matter that you can discuss coherently+ 8 APs > just being a scout with 14 APs.”
I didn’t know about this. It is just an idea my kid has about scouting, which I fully support but never pressure. I don’t think many kids in my pack make it this far but we will try.
@Gumbymom posted this link earlier:
Type in a HS name, select Course List, then select ‘Show more filter options’. Click the box Yes under ‘Is UC Honors?’.
One local school I checked had quite a few (14-20) UC approved Honors courses, which surprised me, and about 17 APs. 3 other schools in San Diego, different school districts had around 30 or more APs, but very few UC approved Honors. So check your local school, it can be different than I thought.
The big project for making Eagle Scout is what matters: it shows involvement, commitment, technical/interpersonal skills, leadership, etc.
But no pressure: it’s just a conduit. Any big project, leadership, or role will do the same, and it comes from trying many many things as a freshman before settling for a few that one likes a lot.
Do look at the UC-approved course list for your HS to map out what’s possible in terms of scheduling and having at least 9 UC-approved courses (max needed for UCLA is 15, including UC approved Honors).
The schedule I delineated is just one example among many, so you have an idea and to avoid errors like not taking enough classes or not the right ones. (Typically, a student would have 6 classes, with 5 academic ones, for instance, and I noticed that your GC accepted your kid only enroll in 5 classes including band.)
@Gumbymom I like the idea of ‘what top student’ take at the highschool. Will send the question to the school counselor now. Thanks!
You can look up high school course lists at University of California A-G Course List
It does appear that math needs to be at least precalculus, and foreign language has to be at least level 3, for UC to consider giving it an honors designation.
UCs and CSUs (except CPSLO) will recalculate HS GPA without grades from 9th grade (CPSLO includes grades from 9th grade). Courses taken in 9th grade must have C or higher grades to count as fulfilling a-g requirements. While CSUs plug HS GPA into their admissions formulae and rank order applicants, UC admissions readers will see the academic record as well as HS GPAs.
Nothing compares to the in person sessions and live Q&A but UCSB Admissions has a ton of videos on their You Tube channel. If one scrolls down to the bottom, there are several videos intended for HS counselors.
@youcee thanks for the link. For my kid school, any AP is UC Honor. Nothing more or less! 
While I agree that the Eagle project shows commitment, leadership and dedication, it isn’t the only thing that matters. It takes approximately 7-8 years from the start of Boy Scouts to the point of earning Eagle. That’s a huge commitment in itself. Through those years, the Scout works through seven ranks with numerous leadership positions along the way. Those positions also show dedication, commitment and technical/interpersonal skills. Sometimes the greatest leadership challenges and the greatest lessons learned happen while working through those lower ranks.
so, no honors class (Viet 3H, Precalculus Honors, Chemistry Honors…??) “counts” as UC honors at your kid’s school? Because that’s where there is a difference between schools - AP’s are all UC Honors, how many does your school offer and are there restrictions to what and how many can be taken in a given year?