What Is Your High School Plan?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Yay! Another boring thread to enlighten up this forum!

What is your guy’s high school plan? What classes you will be taking? Any particular ECs you’re interested in doing? Just whatever you are looking forward to do in high school, and to give advice or ask for some.

(Please forgive any typos, gramatical errors, etc. I want to make this as short as possible for you guys.)

My 3-year schedule:

Sophomore:

AP Chemistry

AP European History

Pre-AP Lang 10

P.E.

Spanish I

Honors Geo/ Algebra II

Junior:
AP Physics I
AP Biology
AP Lang/Comp
AP U.S. History
Pre-Calculus H
Spanish III H

Senior:
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Calc AB
APES
AP Psych
AP Lit/Comp
AP Gov

Any advice on this potential schedule? I’m definitely taking AP Chem and Physics, but not sure for Bio. I dislike English and History, but it’s pretty much a necessity.

As for ECs, I’m currently a board member for the biggest club at my school and I hope to be for all 4 years as it is enjoyable, but other than that, I’m not really sure what else to do. I would much rather focus on my classes, especially the fun science classes, but as ECs are pretty much essential, I will have to do a couple of them.

One question is, is one required to do ECs related to their major? I want to major in either Biochem or Chem, but plan to just serve as board member and maybe volunteer at libraries, etc, over the summer. Advice on this would be appreciated.

Now, what are you guys’s plan? I’m interested on what other people will be doing.

(And this is definitely not to scout out for potential competition…)

2

@Chemical100 wow 7 APs senior year nice. Does your school offer calc bc? its not much different from ab and is worth taking.

Here’s mine for 11th and 12th grade
11:
ap lang
ap physics c
ap chemistry dp
multivariable calc
german 3
ap world
12:
ap lit
ap bio dp
ap economics
ap stat
ib german 4
ap human geo

ECs: debate & math team

3

It’s actually 6 periods. My school does offer AP Calculus BC, but generally, the students who took AP Calculus AB Junior year take it senior year, so I’ll most likely self-study that concurrently with AP Calculus AB.

Is it Physics C: Mechanics and/or E&M? Either case, AP Physics C, along with AP Chemistry earns you a bravo! By “DP”, I’ll just assume it means double period. My school does not have a double period for AP Chemistry or AP Biology. Your senior year schedule is pretty balanced as well. Have you taken Linear Algebra? Continuing advanced math would be beneficial.

Nice extracurriculars. Are you planning on getting a job and working over the summer, or even throughout the school year? Would this count as an EC?

4

in my school you can’t take both ap calc ab and ap calc bc exams in the same year, and you are required to take the ap test for the ap class you’re taking, so that’s why I said that calc bc would be better. though things may be different at your school.

ap physics c is both mechanics and EM and unfortunately ap chem and bio are both only offered as dp so i had to discards ap psych junior year to take it.

as to ECs i think you can put almost any summer job to be an internship - no one is checking anyways. that’s why i’ll just add some bs clubs to application like chem or physics

5

Hi!! I’ll send my plan -> this is subject to change I guess but I have my sophmore year for sure since I had to register for those haha

SOPHMORE:
Honors Alg II/Trig
Honors English 10
AP US history
Chemistry I
German II
Creative cooking/painting (electives)

JUNIOR:
Honors Pre-Calculus
AP Government
British Literature (we have two junior English options junior year, this is the honors one)
Honors German III
Physics I (might take AP, but not sure yet)
AP Statistics

SENIOR:
AP Calculus (not sure AB or BC yet)
AP Economics
AP Psychology
AP Literature
Honors German IV
Honors Anatomy

EC’s
I am a swimmer (varsity) and I’ll continue that all through high school. I’m in key club and I’m going to apply to be on the board. I am joining German club next year, and considering founding a Model UN club/team. Going to apply to national honors society junior year. I am also technically in letterman’s club but we don’t really do anything.

My dream job is to work for the CIA/government and I’m hoping to go to a prestigious university.

6

Hold up, hold up, hold up!

First of all, you don’t need to take BOTH AP Physics classes since you don’t want to be a physician.

Second of all, if you hate English and history with a passion, then don’t take the upper-level classes of those subjects. If you have no motivation, you will not do well. You need to take classes in areas you don’t hate. If you’re taking all these AP science and math classes, colleges will NOT care if you take regular English or history. Unlike what you may think – even the most prestigious colleges do NOT require you to take 15 APs, get an A in all of them, be the best athlete in your school, have 50 volunteer hours a week, and cure cancer. Take what you can manage. Which brings me to my next point…

All AP your senior year??? Keep in mind, AP is similar in rigor to a COLLEGE class. But you don’t take college classes every day. So really, you’re taking a schedule that would be HARDER than a college schedule. I just think you really need to reevaluate everything and think: Can I handle this? Do I REALLY want to take this class?

7

It’s not that I hate English or History, however, in general, I prefer more science-oriented classes, such as AP Chemistry and AP Physics. The only reason why I am opting to take English is because I need to seriously hone my writing skills for college applications, and just uses for daily life. For History, not much of a reason, but I think I would enjoy history, besides, AP History classes are practically a standard AP class in my school, so not taking them can mean I can lose potential opportunities to take other classes which might require them as pre-requisites. I’ve been thinking of cutting AP European History just so I can focus more on AP Chemistry (the only AP class I genuinely want to take Sophomore year), however, as stated above, it might not be possible.

For Senior year, I might cut down 1 or 2 AP classes (although this is unlikely to happen if I want to remain Top 1-3% in my school by Senior year). I was taking of cutting out AP Biology since Honors Biology is easy and pretty boring (pure memorization), and replacing it with AP Psychology.

What are your recommendations?

8

Honestly, do what you’re passionate about. I love history/math, so that’s why I’m planning to take those higher level classes.

9

Thanks! At the moment, I’m currently leaning towards Honors World History and AP Chemistry, however, I might just take AP European History as well just for the fun of it.

10

My hs plan is to have fun and keep my 4.0.

11

and do good on the SAT

12

For me, AP classes + Enjoyable EC like volunteering = Fun

13

I agree with the users above that you should not be taking an AP history class. You pretty much said in your post that you do not like history, would you go to college and take a history class (if it wasn’t required)? If your answer is no you shouldn’t do it in high school. I’ve looked at your other posts and saw that you will be taking AP chemistry as a sophomore with no prior knowledge. AP chem is known for its difficulty and will be very difficult to do well with no prior class. I understand that you are a freshman and have all of these goals (i’ve been there). But some of these goals seem very unrealistic. Many people underestimate AP classes- I’m taking one at the moment and it is a lot of work (AP Bio). The last thing I would want to do is take an AP level class in something I hate. APs are bad enough, why make them worse? You should definitely reconsider your future schedules.

14

@Chemical100 You haven’t taken all ap classes so you can’t really say. Some english or history classes might be brutal. That’s why I’m leaning towards doing DE rather than taking a ton of AP courses.

15

@studying4seoul Thank you for taking your time, and I realize that I’m a bit carried ahead. For AP Chemistry, I intend to read through a honors level textbook then through an AP Chemistry textbook to reinforce my knowledge and make sure I’m absolutely prepared. The main reason I’m doing this is because I’m genuinely interested in learning Chemistry in an advanced environment, and a regular (no honors available at my school) would be a little bit too slow (considering that some of the basics like stoichiometry is fairly simple). I realize that I must not underestimate AP classes so I will probably cut out the history classes, and other potential future ones.

@Bobbybob444555 Some colleges prefer AP classes over DE, besides, going from school and walking miles to the nearest community college soounds a tad annoying.

16

DE classes are taught at a much higher level than AP @Chemical100. It would be crazy for a college to penalize you for doing DE.

17

I stacked AP World History into my heavy schedule just to get another AP in. I’ve never liked history. #1 most hated class in my entire schedule, I just don’t enjoy it. Sure, I’ve gotten As every quarter, but this doesn’t mean I enjoy it. Now I’m rushing to study for an exam on a subject I don’t even enjoy. I have multiple other APs and the workload isn’t bad for me, it’s just the content of the class that makes it so frustrating and boring.

Never take an AP in a subject you don’t enjoy.