Hi cc! I moved from a state on the west coast to a state on the east coast this summer. I am now a junior and I’ve realized q quickly that in relation to the students at my current high school I’m slightly behind in my course progression. This school is much better funded, in an upper middle class neighborhood, etc. In contrast, my old high school was in a small town and was considerably under funded. AP classes were only offered to upperclassmen (and there weren’t many offered to begin with). My current course load exuding electives is as follows:
pre-cal honors, ap bio, ap lang comp, apush.
I have two more premed centered honors electives and one unweighted elective. Sophomores at the school I’m attending now are taking classes such as pre-cal honors (to be taking ap calculus b/c by senior year, a class that wasn’t offered at my previous school) and ap bio. I plan on applying ED to Columbia next fall. Will my current course load hurt my chances by any margin or is it a pretty regular load for a junior?
Thanks
In 11th grade, precalculus is a year advanced in math from the normal progression. AP English language and AP US history are the typical honors options for 11th grade English and US history.
What level of foreign language will you complete in high school, and will you complete all three of biology, chemistry, and physics (not necessarily AP)?
No, except potentially for the lack of a foreign language (unless that’s your unnamed unweighted elective)
It’s not an atyipcal courseload for an above-average student.
But we don’t know your stats so far, possible major, activities, and the rest of what will matter to a top college. Lots of kids take precalc honors now and an AP math in sr year.
What I’d be concerned about is two premed electives and whether they’re what matters to top colleges.
ucballumnus , I’ve taken 2 years of foreign language, Spanish (freshman year Spanish 2, sophomore year Spanish 3 honors). I plan on taking another foreign language class over the summer to fulfill the 3 year requirement for Columbia.
I’ve taken 2 years of foreign language, Spanish (freshman year Spanish 2, sophomore year Spanish 3 honors). I plan on taking another foreign language class over the summer to fulfill the 3 year requirement for Columbia.
The premed related electives are anatomy and physiology honors (a class I feel is necessary to have somewhere on my transcript since I hope to major in bio or neurosci) and principles of biomedical sciences honors. The other, unweighted elective is sociology/holocaust (which I’m taking more as a pleasure class)
Try to take Spanish 4 as it’ll be expected (unless you attend a summer intensive program in another language such as the ones run by Middlebury or Penn State, or the foreign language summer camps run by Concordia and somehow anage to reach level 3 in one summer, then take level 4 at your High school - I’ve seen it done by a very gifted student but it was rough for the first month ).
Your next foreign language course should be Spanish 4, not level 1 of some other language.
Many high schools do not have the elective sciences you chose. The basic sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics) should be a higher priority anyway, especially for a prospective pre-med who will have to take the college versions of those courses. Taking the college versions of those courses without having seen them in high school will make them more difficult, and that is not a disadvantage you want to have when competing with other pre-meds for the limited number of A grades in those courses.