I’m a public high school freshman who really wants to get into some of the top colleges. (Most preferably Oxford or Stanford). I’ve created an academic roadmap listing the classes I will take and am taking currently. What I want to know is if these classes will be good for college. Thanks!
Freshman (lots of restrictions to my first year because school’s kinda stingy)
-Algebra 2 (fighting school to get honors of this)
-AP Spanish
-STEM Bio (double period)
-English 10
-AP European History
-AP Geography
Junior
-Pre-Calculus (if I get honors I’d move to AP Calc)
-STEM Chemistry (double period)
-AP Lang
-AP US history
-AP Computer Science
-Russian 1 (taking this at a JC)
As for senior I’m quite unsure of how to take it. Below are the classes I know that’s i will take
-Ap Calculus
-AP Physics
-Russian 2 (still at the JC)
As for extracurriculars I’m doing a ton of stuff with literature and writing (submissions to contests and publications) Finishing up my Eagle Scout and taking a Spanish immersion program to become fluent. I just wanna know what you guys think.
I also have to add that I’ve applied to honors society and I’m on varsity tennis. However I worry that the strict class layout of my school for freshman year is going to tamper with my chances.
You say you want to take all of those strenuous APs now as a freshman but just wait until you get to about junior year, AP Physics & Calc will make you miserable
It is better to have a handful of AP courses and a 4.0 unweighted GPA then too many and weaker grades. Taking 3 APs as a sophomore is unusual. Not sure if highly selective colleges would look favorably at junior college classes as you might think. Most applicants underestimate the importance of extracurriculars. Not 10 different ECs but significant achievements like raising a lot of money for a non-profit, winning competitions at the state, national or global level. Your proposed curriculum would have sufficient rigor except for schools like CalTech or MIT
DE Russian is going to be brutally fast. If your family’s Russian, do you already know a little bit (basic sentences, sounds, etc?) However if you do well you can take levels 1&2 junior year, level 3 spring senior year.
Sophomore year:
Is going from Spanish 3 to 4 normal at your HS? AP is normally considered level 5 ie., will you need to take level 4, are you considering skipping level 4, or is that normal at your school?
I’d recommend taking Spanish 4 and saving AP for junior year, thus keeping that schedule manageable.
Do get the grades that’ll allow you to take algebra2H. It’s an important class for precalculus.
Junior year is fine.
For UK schools, only AP scored matter, and AP scores pertaining specifically to the subject you plan to ‘read’ (major in). You will need to work independently as the level expected in that subject is (well) beyond AP.
For US top 50 universities and LACs, your ECs will be of primary importance. Do read how to be a HS superstar. A few ECs that you push to the max is better than a smattering of everything under the sun. It means your schedule has to leave plenty of time for these. Top schools don’t expect more than 6-8 AP/DE classes total.
For Russian I am exposed to a lot of speaking. I’ve built a very good accent when speaking basic phrases and my vocabulary for Russian is equivalent to that of an infant. I can say very basic things pretty well.
For Spanish, my school’s Spanish 4 class is very lackluster. Many dedicated sophomores and juniors make the jump and emerge fine. Also this summer I’m going to be taking an immersion program in Spain for a month. On top of that I’m taking a conversational tutor twice a week. As of now I’m pretty strong in Spanish, being capable of having normal conversations with many native speakers, and I think that with all of these resources I’d be well off.
