Which high school courses look good to colleges?

Applying to College
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Okay guyz, im having a little trouble with choosing classes. Right now im a lowly sophomore in high school, but i want to have the best chances to stand out to college admissions, ya know?

Anyways, i go to a pretty competitive high school with a lot of multifaceted courses, and i mean like a lot of courses like woah. Since i am chinese, along with 50% (asians) of my school, I need to take some exceptional classes. My problem here in lies with school not having enough periods for me to take said classes. I have 8 periods a day, including mandatory lunch and gym. And therefore, i am conflicted.

You see, i really want to go to ucal berkeley. Its my dream school. I want to either major in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, or chemical engineering. I know they are way different from each other, but theyre quite similar actually and fits what i want to do with my career. At any rate, berkeley isnt the easiest school to get into, however compared to my classmates whos safety school is stanford, i hope to be at least admitted. Competition in just my school is pretty ridiculous, as my friends have the intelligence and the work ethic.

So far, ive been contemplating the benefits of continuing orchestra through junior year. I know that it shows dedication and such, but i really dont have time for it in my schedule. I play the cello btw. Also, people in my school tend to double up subjects so they can take as much as possible in the short span of 4 years. Btw, in terms of science, i took ap physics 1 and honors chem already.

My junior schedule ideals are as follows: (key: * = honors, / = per semester)

  • Advanced health/adventure (gym) 1
  • Intermediate advanced orchestra (<-- tsk tsk, not even the highest level T-T)
  • French 4*
  • Ap micro/ap macro (econ)
  • Ap lang*
  • Ap calc bc*
  • Ap bio*

While my senior year plans are:

  • Adventure (gym) 2/senior wellness
  • Senior foods (lol just cuz, plus it counts as a tech credit)/computer programming 1
  • Humanities 1/advanced chem (<-- a step down from ap chem, only 1 semester long)
  • Ap us history*
  • Honors senior rhetoric/advanced speech
  • Multivariable calc
  • Ap physics 2*

Any opinions on my current schedule plans would be greatly appreciated. Like legit, help pleaassee. I am conflicted whether to take ap stats or multivariable calc too, as well as either taking ap phys 2 vs ap phys c or just not doing phys and taking ap chem instead of advanced chem. I was also thinking of maybe taking ap environmental science, but i dont know about the benefits of that class as it isnt a core science subject. I honestly need some advice and recommendations. Feel free to totally change my schedule plans.

In any case, thanks for reading this long and desperate plea for help. And thanks, for any advice given. Im totally stressed about life right now, i cant even imagine what the coming years will be like.

Once again, thanks ya’ll!!

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http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1995563-faq-high-school-college-prep-base-curriculum.html

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  1. Don’t have a dream school; this distorts your high school experience.
  2. Take the courses that interest you the most, in the subjects that you enjoy the most.
  3. College and career should be driven by interests and strengths, not preconceived ideas.

    If your don’t pause and consider the above advice, your “coming years” are very possibly going to be frustrating, distressing, and unfilfilling. Best wishes to you!

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Ask your GC what to be considered most rigor by the time of college application. Note that you still need to perform well in that class, so it depends on your ability. Having high rigor but getting all B would not do any good.

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Generically speaking I’d think you’d be better off taking AP Chem instead of MV Calc. Getting 3/4/5 (depending on the school) on Bio, Chem, Phys, and Math AP Exams will get you 8 credits each whereas might get you out of Calc 3 but you’d probably be better off taking it at whatever school you attend. Those intro science classes will be huge and sometime at crappy times so avoiding them can be helpful.

That being said there are plenty of people on this site that have great info on UC admissions that might be more useful.

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On the math, taking multivariable would make for a more competitive transcript than AP stats. In addition, if you don’t take multivariable but plan to continue more calc in college, it may not be a great plan to take a year off of calc (AP stats will not use calc).

Physics 2 or C vs AP Chem, I would take the one that interests you most. As you noted, APES would be less competitive for your transcript because it isn’t a core course, but if you are more interested in taking it than the others, it may be worthwhile.

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I agree with @Dolemite about AP Chem. If you really have interest in those fields that feature chemistry so prominently then it might behoove you to take the higher chemistry offering. UCB is ridiculously difficult to get into, so cutting corners in your desired field is not going to do you any favors. Is there a particular reason you aren’t taking AP Chem (eg scheduling conflicts) ?

However I really agree with @snarlatron about starting your college search with an open mind and a longer view. Most people don’t get into Berkeley, a ridiculously low number really, so perhaps put it up on the Reach or Dream shelf and get your head and heart around some matches. If you get in, then terrific, but if not you’ll have done a real search for a place you feel comfortable at.

As a soph you have plenty of time for all of this. Relax, enjoy your time in high school, leave some classes in that bring you joy (like music for example). You can’t do everything, so do the things you love very well.

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If you end up the ChemE route this has info about what credit you can get with APs:

https://engineering.berkeley.edu/2016-17-undergraduate-guide/2016-17-exams-ap-ib-level-and-transfer-credit-information

So Physics 2 doesn’t help much so you might consider Physics C but that schedule might be a bit overwhelming.

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Chemical engineering at UCB is in the College of Chemistry, not the College of Engineering. The College of Chemistry AP credit policy is at https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/academics/current-undergraduates/exam-credit-info . Note that College of Chemistry students take a more difficult general chemistry course than those in other majors, so AP chemistry credit is not allowed to exempt from it.

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I didn’t see an English class in your senior year list - AP Lit?

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Junior schedule: don’t worry about level of orchestra. Presumably you’re not applying for a music major so you’re good.
Essentially, your junior schedule is excellent, except that you should only take orchestra of you like it’s if you don’t and want to show continued interest, take another form of music. Or, if your school offers various ‘culinary arts’ classes, take them one semester each junior and senior year.
Senior schedule is perfect as is. :slight_smile:

Get yourself a Fiske guide and find ten colelgues you’d never heard of and like. Run the NPC on them to see if they are affordable, as well as on UCS and call poly SLO. Bring the results to your parents and ask them which of these colleges they can afford from savings and income.

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Thanks guys for the advice, tips, opinions, and external links!! Very much appreciated, and plus its really making me think harder about my decisions and concepts of college too. @MYOS1634 @ucbalumnus @Dolemite @StPaulDad @evergreen5 @billcsho @snarlatron

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So far, im planning on taking honors senior rhetoric and advanced speech for english my senior year. And honestly, i heard that rhetoric in my school is harder than ap lit. Though would you recommend taking ap lit instead? @Mom2BoysCA

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Rhetoric would be considered less hard than AP English literature. Or you could take a DE English (freshman composition…) class?
Depending on what you prefer - literature or writing& revising?

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Honestly, im much better at writing than literature. Il probably stick with rhetoric for my schedule. Though i do have ap lang down for my junior year, so hopefully that would be decent enough to not cause any complications (maybe). Also, thanks! @MYOS1634

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“my classmates whos safety school is stanford” that’s pretty funny tbh

Current senior here, so take my opinions with a grain of salt (especially since we’re not in the same school district): it would be nice to see the 3 AP sciences (chem, bio, APC) if you’re thinking of majoring in a science-y field; APES is generally considered a pretty low-key/“easy science” class (at least at my school), so unless you’re actually interested, I wouldn’t recommend taking it in hopes of impressing colleges; and finally, I really do recommend taking class you’re interested in rather than ones you think would look nice on your app. gl

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^ for stem majors, the expectation is some form of calculus+ bio, chem, physics at any level+ one of these at AP level.
The law of diminishing returns applies once the student has 6-8 APs (total). These have to be well chosen and shouldn’t replace a core class (ie., taking APES rather than French4). But for top schools, once you have that, what will matter is what you accomplished in your ECs.

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Slightly more experienced, so don’t take my critique personally.

There is no expectation from any college that an applicant take all three as APs. Nor is there any benefits, from an admissions perspective, from doing so. @MYOS1634 sums it up well in her post above post.

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I do think the University of Cambridge expects it as part of its 5 AP in relevant subject requirement. All others don’t seem to.

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Mea culpa. I was referring to US colleges specifically. That said, even Cambridge does not expect it AFAIK. The 5 relevant APs can be fullfilled without all 3. As much as I try to discourage anecdotes masking as data, I never took AP Bio (or any bio for that matter) in HS, and was accepted to Cambridge.