Hello! I’m a current junior hoping to get into a top-tier U.S school or study internationally, and I’m experiencing quite a bit of anxiety about my schedule and grades for the remaining two years of high school. I’m still indecisive about whether I want to study zoology or anthropology/archaeology, but I hope that my courses will be enough to supplement whatever I choose during my applications. My stats seem a bit average (or even weak) for my goals and I’d love to have someone else’s input on the matter!
Here’s my current schedule:
IB English HL/ AP Lit
Pre-IB German 1
Art 1
Pre-Calculus (dropped from Pre-IB to on level)
IB Biology HL/ AP Bio
IB History of Americas HL/ APUSH
AP European History
AP Macroeconomics
IB Theory of Knowledge
Here’s senior year’s predicted schedule:
IB English HL
IB German SL
IB/AP Studio Art
IB Math Studies SL
IB Integrative Technology in a Global Society SL
IB Biology HL
IB History HL
IB TOK
Extracurriculars/Awards:
Student Council, Model UN, Gay-Straight Alliance, regular volunteer schedule at the SPCA, published and awarded poet, and hopefully more things to add soon
During sophomore year I took AP Human Geography and AP English Lang and scored a 4 on both of them, and I haven’t taken the SAT yet. My GPA is currently a 4.1 (3.5 unweighted) and I’m trying my hardest to bump it up! Do you guys think this is enough to have a spot in an ivy or other top-tier college? Thank you for any input!
Biology majors commonly need to take calculus and statistics in college, so a math track leading to math SL or HL (not math studies SL) would be preferable.
This looks like a good schedule for Anthropology, history, economics, or social sciences.
An excellent college for Anthropology is Beloit, look into it.
Have you taken the sat or act yet?
If you are leaning towards zoology which is bio heavy, you want to try to get to calculus senior year and have taken some level of bio, chem, and physics.
Also, how many years of foreign language will you have? Many selective schools want to see 4 years.
Keep working on getting your GPA up and study well for your standardized tests.
^IB German SL will meet the requirement (although it’s likely ab initio, IB students can only pick 6 classes and Language B SL is AP level, so students may choose ab initio if they don’t have the pre-reqs).
IB curriculum students generally can’t take all three of bio, chem, physics (but they have post-AP credit in the science they take HL) so, while it’s disadvantageous to college learning, it’s understood by adcoms.
Math SL would be better but I’m guessing Math Studies has been recommended if the student had to drop down to precalculus regular from pre-IB SL. It also foretells a low likelihood of a STEM major.
@elfruits: your schedule will serve you best if you apply for Social Sciences. You probably have a good shot at your flagship (assuming a decent SAT score, see question in #2), universities that like IB applicants (publics in VA and FL, UNebraksa - including Honors college), and LACs ranked 40-125. Top tier LACs may be reaches if you pick reasonably.
Your record doesn’t really indicate “Ivy” or top LACs (which would be 3.8+, 1400+, international or national-level EC’s) but there are LOTS of excellent colleges you’re qualified for that 90% students wouldn’t.
Get a Princeton Review’s Best Colleges, Fiske Guide, Insider’s Guide at your HS or local library. Look for colleges that you haven’t heard of and find a dozen you like, then run the NPC on them. (There are 3,700 colleges in the US. Most students only know a dozen at best. So… lots to discover).
Thank you for clarifying @MYOS1634!
Economics in college commonly requires calculus, so math SL or HL would be preferable to math studies SL in that case.
^True, but this student will have completed Precalculus before Math Studies, meaning they’d be ready to take calculus.
@MYOS1634 I’m not that familiar with IB language - is pre IB German 1 enough to go to an AP level German class
Yes, it’s got its own terms.
There are three foreign language levels, just like there are three math levels. However because most Americans’ Academic level in foreign language isn’t that great compared to other nations they sent IB, the effects aren’t the same.
FL B HL is similar to what would be a junior-year class in a US college 8
(300-level post AP). FL B SL is roughly AP level. Completing FL ab initio is roughly similar to completing HS FL 3. So students whose FL level sophomore or junior year isn’t up to the rigors of FL B take an ‘ab initio FL’ where they start from scratch and cover 3 years of HS FL in two years.
Unless I’m mistaken with the way this school lists classes, pre IB German 1 wouldn’t lead to German B SL -that’s why I said it’s probably ‘ab initio’ (just a guess).
The schedule is rigorous and should serve the student well for schools such as Colleges that change lives for instance.
I will be taking ab initio German next year. I apologize if there was any confusion! Over the summer I will be participating in a German language immersion program in Berlin that will technically put me at the level of German 3 and I am considering sitting the AP German exam next year to acquire college credit in the subject.
Also thank you very much for your advice!
@elfruits , re: acquiring college credit through AP exams, in case you’re not aware, the policy for granting credit varies greatly by college. State schools tend to be the most generous in granting credit to in-state students. For example, we are California residents and my S18 started UCLA with 46 credits due to his AP scores, but would have had maybe 6 credits at some OOS colleges (private and public).
I’m aware. I do have some state schools in mind, but if the exam doesn’t grant me credit it would still be an excellent way to improve my language acquisition skills.
@momofsenior1 I forgot to address this earlier, but I took two years of Spanish in addition to the German I’m taking currently. I moved from a school that only offered Spanish to one that offered German and chose to make the switch. I’m sure that colleges might view the language switch as a negative trait in my application, but I wanted to learn a language I was interested in rather than one that was forced.