<p>I need some help from those who are going through college and hopefully they can give some heads up.</p>
<p>I have already taken 4 ap test and by the end of this year [Senior] I will have completed 11 AP Test and 8 AP Courses. What should I expect when I come and talk to my academic advisor on regaurds to classes I will be taking next year? Are these some things to watch out like being told to enter as a sophomore or retaking an class I passed through an AP Test? I'm serious about my future and I don't want an advisors advice screwing up college for me...</p>
<p>Here is the list of AP test I will take by the end of this year.</p>
<p>Chemistry
Physics B
Biology
Government and Politics
Comparative Government
Human Geo
World History
US History
Euro History
Psychology
Calculus BC</p>
<p>Also I plan on dual majoring in Biochemistry and Political Science.</p>
<p>Another HUGE question I plan to ask my advisor but I would like all your input. What would seem like an appropriate courseload for me? At this time I have no idea.</p>
<p>Why do you want to double major? Why not just take poli sci classes that interest you?</p>
<p>Anyway, the advice to give you depends on your career aspirations. Since you’re still a high school senior, there’s no reason for you to have that decided this soon. You should probably not skip your introductory college science courses; just use the APs as preparation. Unless you are extremely strong in the sciences and plan on going for a PhD or something, then starting out with upper level sciences might be a good idea as you can get more advanced coursework in later in your college years. But even then, it’s not necessary. If you want to go to med school, it might be better off taking the intro courses again. If you just want a better GPA, you may want to take the intro courses. If you want to do anything else, it might not hurt to take the intro courses.</p>
<p>You can safely use AP credit, generally speaking, to get some humanities and social science gen ed requirements out of the way, though.</p>
Most colleges have an add/drop period of a week or two. Since you are a high-achieving student, you might start with one course above the normal course load (e.g. 18 credits or 5 units or whatever) and see how it goes. On the other hand, two or more lab science courses will keep you busy anyway because you will be spending so much time in labs that it might be hard to even find a 5th class that fits into your schedule.</p>
<p>A few things I learned about advisors:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Try to find out what your advisor is like before you talk to him or her. Some advisors are extra-cautious and will tell everyone to retake AP classes and take an easy course load first semester. Others are better at inferring your abilities from your high school transcript and giving more appropriate advice. In general, advisors tend to err on the side of safety. Take what your advisor tells you with a grain of salt, and if possible try to talk to two different people.</p></li>
<li><p>A general advisor is good for just that - general advice. Talk to them about your course load, transferring AP credit etc. If you need subject-specific advice that goes beyond the information in the course catalog, talk to someone from that department.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I tend to disagree with others about whether or not one should retake AP classes in college. In my experience strong students who don’t mind filling in little gaps as they go along in a course are much happier when they skip the intro classes. I personally am completely miserable in a class where I know 70% of the material already because I keep wondering why I am there. Students who need more guidance learning new material might benefit from retaking the intro courses though to catch up on the 20-30% of the material that’s not on the AP exam.</p>
<p>I also found out how many perks one gets starting out in upper-level courses. My freshman year in college I took courses in my major that are typically taken by sophomores and juniors. That didn’t only get me attention from the department, but also a “research” position for the summer after freshman year that usually goes to a sophomore. Now as a sophomore, I just got accepted into a few extremely competitive summer programs (acceptance rates < 5%) that are targeted at juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>There are a lot of “thinks” to look out for. Advisers’ raison d’etre is to screw up unsuspecting boys like you. That’s why they’re hired in the first place: to prepare you to deal with sharks in the real world. The best way to go about this is to write down all that you’ll hear, and then create a separate thread for every piece of info that you’ll get.</p>
<p>Double majoring is worthless. Let it happen organically, but no worries if it doesn’t. I don’t understand the obession of graduating with 2 majors, 3 minors, and a concentration/certificate/etc. The WSJ published an article about how double majors make no more money and do no better than their single major counterparts.</p>
<p>Well, then if you genuinely want to take the requirements for both majors, that is fine. I’m just talking about some of my classmates who are more of the resume-whore types who just think it will “look better” to do two majors. If you just like taking the classes, then by all means do it, but if you have to force it, why put yourself through classes you don’t want to take, just for a double major?
You seem to have the right idea though.</p>
$20 says you probably decide against a double major by the end of first year. $40 says you definitely decide against it by the end of your sophomore year.</p>