@fluostif - I would definitely try to maintain or achieve top 10% ranking. It usually hovers around 93%-94% of every class.
Of the big four AP’s; Chem, Calc, Physics, and Bio, I would take all four if possible without sacrificing GPA. If I had to drop one, it would be AP Physics. My daughters high school had students accepted without AP Physics. I don’t think anyone was accepted without the other three. If you feel you can take all four and not hurt your GPA, I would do it.
It’s up to you. AP Physics 1 is fine, although I’m not sure I’d combine with another AP Science. Regular physics is also fine - in fact, in some ways it’s better because is covers more topics that AP Physics 1.
You’re not behind. Precalc as a junior is the “typical” honors math course, and is one year ahead of non-honors.
AP Lang and, to a lesser extent, APUSH, will prepare you for college writing. AP Lang, in particular, will be invaluable for writing application essays.
Go to the Common Data Set (google is the easiest way) for UVA and section C3-5.
Fact is, TJ HIgh School throws all other NOVA bets off. Look at how many they get admitted versus some of the other good (but not as stellar) high schools. Plus UVA is trying to serve kids from all over the state. It can mean kids from more rural or distant hs, who didn’t have the same academic advantages as N. VA offers.
So, to me, UVA is eternally unpredictable. Plenty of tales of top kids, legacies, etc, who do not get in. It’s a defifnite case of your state flagship being no safety.
I have never heard or seen that they are score obsessed. Rather, when the pool of applicants from some areas is so strong, they can cherry pick in the end. But a number of kids from other parts of VA are getting in without score hyperfocus.
Glad you looked at the site, OP. Now read it all, to come to your own understanding of what they want, besides stats and rigor.
I agree you could get by with regular or honors physics. You are not appplying to med school now. And AP stats is not your solution. Not for a stem major. Work on the core math skills, see if you can get to calculus.
@lookingforward I think that I am quite good at math because it comes really easy to me. I have been too busy over summer to be able to have 7+ hours for a month to take any classes. However, I plan on taking AP calc BC in senior year because it is recommended by math teachers at my school and
I can go over some of the concepts over summer.
If i take regular physics, I am not sure of what to take in the elective that was inititally AP capstone. I prefer to fill in the space with another AP course because I personally think i can work well with 4 AP’s. So my options would be AP Stats or AP psychology, which are both non-core electives.
If i end up taking AP physics, I don’t know what to take in the elective. Most people are telling me to take spanish 4 but I genuinely don’t want to since I KNOW i will do terrible.
Sorry if I am asking too many questions, I am currently planning our am entirely new schedule.
I have also spoke with my counselor and she was of little help and seemed to agree with whatever i say despite having her own opinions.
@fluostif - I absolutely agree with @skieurope about AP English helping with writing skills. My daughters AP English even wrote practice college essays, I believe.
I don’t know how every college structures their writing classes, but my daughter did very well in her AP English classes, scored a 22/24 on the SAT essay, and was still not prepared for her writing class in college (some colleges may take it more seriously than others).
As I said, all colleges are different, but at Southern Cal it is mandatory to take a freshman writing class (and a 300 level writing class later; usually Junior year). She took it first semester freshman year (you can take second semester) and she’s glad she did. It’s critical to all your classes to have excellent writing skills. It helped her tremendously in first and second semester when they expect a certain level of writing as a baseline.
This is off topic, but you have mentioned in other posts about applying to top colleges. Just IS or are you looking OOS as well? One thing that surprised me is how her high school classmates were limiting their college choices to only in-state. If it’s an option for you, I would definitely look into it.
She was planning to only apply in-state like her peers but I encouraged her to consider OOS as well. She just didn’t think it was an option. The only conditions I placed on her OOS options was that if they were private that the schools offered good merit scholarships/grants/aid (USC, Vanderbilt, etc.), or Public schools that offered IS tuition or automatic merit based on test scores (ASU, Arizona, South Carolina, Alabama, etc.). There’s a ton of options that people don’t consider.
Southern California ended up costing less than UVA in-state, even without factoring in the premium they charge for multiple schools at UVA. Undergraduate cost can be as high as $40,000 a year if you are in some of their schools; something they don’t like to advertise. That’s a major reason I agreed to let her attend. I actually drive her up to your neck of the woods in NOVA to fly out of Dulles to Los Angeles since it’s a direct flight.
@jcwjnw99 I have only been considering in state colleges because they are most affordable for me. However, I will look into out of state and their financial aid/scholarship opportunities. Thank you for your advice.
@fluostif - The schools I mentioned in the post above are good ones to look at, South Carolina seems to be very popular in NC/VA/DC/MD.
I didn’t know about ASU and Arizona until after my daughter had finished her applications. My nephew was looking at those schools. From what I can recall, I believe a 1400 SAT and certain GPA qualifies for $20,000 a year at both schools. I think a higher SAT can qualify a student for almost $25,000 a year.
You can find the information for these automatic scholarships pretty easily.
@fluostif - Not sure if you’re interested in Liberal Arts schools but University of Richmond is very good with merit scholarships, grants, and financial aid. Being a VA resident, you qualify for an automatic private school grant from the state of VA, it’s about $3500 a year.
Living in VA also qualifies you for Richmond’s two years free tuition (I believe) if you make under a certain income level. It’s a gorgeous school. Was my daughters second choice. Would have been the least costly option for my daughter and it’s about a top 20 LAC. She also looked at Davidson and Haverford for small to medium LAC’s.
We looked at medium/large public’s, medium/large private’s, small LAC’s, and medium LAC’s. Helped her decide on her college “fit”.
@fluostif I know it’s pretty late but I just want to tell you my experience with AP Seminar, I juggled AP Seminar along with 2 other AP classes and in my experience, I would recommend to not take AP Seminar unless the college you want to go to takes it as credit because the AP Capstone program itself is fairly new. I learned it the hard way, where I just discovered the college I committed to doesn’t take it as credit. You’ll get a feel on writing college papers but in my opinion, it’s simply not worth the stress and hassle for something you’ll get no credit for (again, depending on where you want to go).
Ditch the AP Capstone and take the APUSH. Most colleges that take AP credits will take APUSH, but Capstone is less likely to lead to college credit. If AP Spanish is off the table, can you take a different foreign language for beginners like Mandarin? AP Psychology would be a good choice. There is Psychology on the MCAT, and most premeds have to take some Psych in college. The AP Psych might place you out of the intro course.