I want to drop it for regular English 3 which will make my junior year much easier. I plan on taking AP lang my senior year. If I don’t take it I would have taken 7 vs 8 possible APs. School has 11 APs in total yet I can’t take AP Spanish or art. How much would it hurt me if I drop AP lit?
My planned schedule is:
AP Computer Science Principles
AP lit (might drop for regular English 3) / English 3
Honors Precalc
AP Bio
Honors PLTW Anatomy
AP US History
AP Stats / Spanish 3 (want to drop it for AP Stats since I hate Spanish)
Depends which schools you are targeting. For many highly selective schools, rigor is critical and you will need your GC to tick off the “most rigorous” box. As any fyi, the total number of AP’s would not be the determinative factor. English is a core subject and not taking the most rigorous level will likely hurt. Also many competitive colleges want to see at a minimum through level 3 of a FL, if not level 4. If all you have is Spanish 2, you will definitely not check that box. I’d advise you to look on your target schools’ admissions websites to understand the type of courses they want to see on your HS transcript.
I do plan on retaking Spanish 3 my senior year. If my GC still check most rigorous without taking AP lit would that be ok?
Really depends on your GC and the schools you are shooting for and how their AO’s would view it. Honestly, I think it might be hard for your GC to tick off most rigorous if you took “regular” English junior and senior years, but you need to talk to him/her first.
I plan on taking AP lang senior year, but I will talk to her about it. I also plan on shooting for T10 and T20 schools.
It is probably better to take Spanish 3 immediately after Spanish 2. Or will you be practicing Spanish during the year when you will not be taking a Spanish course?
AP statistics is not all that useful a course for most prospective STEM majors, since those STEM majors which require statistics may require a calculus-based statistics course that an AP score for statistics will not fulfill.
Regarding English, the “T10 and T20 schools” probably get lots of applicants who took the most rigorous available courses in English and math, as well as high rigor in all other subjects (such as foreign language to level 4 or higher if available). So if you want to be competitive, it would be a good idea to take both AP English courses (as is common in high schools where both are offered and are the most rigorous options) and Spanish to level 4 or higher. This applies to applicants intending all majors, where engineering/CS applicants have both AP English and foreign language to level 4, and humanities applicants have AP calculus BC (or whatever is the highest math available to them) and all three sciences, including an advanced or AP science.
Honestly, I’m not confident in getting an A in Spanish 3, and I hate the subject. I’d rather just barely get a B- senior year where grades don’t matter as much.
Regarding AP Stats, there is not much else to replace it with. And It’s an easy class anyways.
Looks like you are asking a variant of a frequently asked question:
Q: Which would “T10 and T20 schools” prefer, all A grades in an easier schedule, or some A and some B grades in a harder schedule?
A: All A grades in a harder schedule.
That’s why I plan on postponing it until senior year since colleges won’t add that to my GPA. It’s not like I am going to take Spanish 4 or AP Spanish anyways. I might as well do the “easy” classes (AP Stats AP Computer Science Principles) junior year and put the hard ones senior year.
Even if you apply Early Action or Decision, most schools want first quarter senior year grades, and they count heavily. For RD, the first semester grades are usually submitted.
If you are applying to the most selective 10-20 schools in the country, it’s smart to get those core courses lined up. Stats is not a core course. Neither is Anatomy. Not going to take the place of them. Can you take an Honors English this year? Then schedule AP English Lit and Language senior year?
MYour attitude is not conducive to highly selective school admissions. The idea is to get the most rigorous core academics your school offers, and junior and senior year are key. What are you planning to take senior year?
The anatomy course is kind of required as it is a part of my academy and I would have to leave it to drop the class. We just lost honors english 3 this year.
Senior year I hope to only takt 6 courses instead of the usual 7
Planned Schedule:
AP Calculus
AP Lang
AP Gov / Regular Econ (no honors or AP)
Honors Physics
Honors Biomedical science (apart of the academy)
Spanish 3
I plan on getting an A in most the classes except for Spanish where I’d be lucky to get a B- or B
Warning you, dropping courses senior year is bad idea for your aspirations. You should be revviing it up.
Yeah I don’t plan on dropping an of my planned senior year courses since there is nothing else to take at my school lol.
I see other issue other than lit. Don’t drop Spanish if you are aiming for T10/T20s.
I also don’t see a chemistry class.
Definitely talk to your guidance counselor.
If you are shooting for T10-20, GPA management can only get you so far. Rigor of courses taken in the context of what the school offers is a major consideration for those schools. It is one thing to try not to jam AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, AP Lit and AP Econ/Gov plus a FL into 1 school year, It is quite another to downgrade one or more core subjects. BTW, most T10-20 want to see level 4 in FL. Also you should ask yourself if you feel you need to manage your GPA in this way whether or not you can handle the workload for most of these T10-20’s. What is often covered over an entire year in HS AP courses is covered in 1 semester or less, and much more in depth. MacBeth may take a week or 2 in HS, but in college you may well be asked to read MaBeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Richard III simultaneously to compare and contrast Shakespeare’s themes and characters related to fate, free will, heroes and anti-heroes over the course of a week or two.
I already took regular chemistry which is the highest chemistry class my school has. Also is 4 years really necessary / worth dropping AP stats for. Especially since only Princeton, Harvard, and some LACs want 4 years?
I guess I’ll see how the first week or two goes and decide from there. Is 4 years really that necessary? Most top colleges for engineering only recommend 3 years. Princeton, Harvard, and some LACs are the only schools that recommend 4.
There may be some situations for some students where an alternative course may be more useful than foreign language level 4. But AP statistics is unlikely to be an alternative course where this makes sense.
But do any of these colleges recommend high school or AP statistics?