(Yet another) Schedule help!!

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Sorry this is such a long post!! </p>

<p>So next year I will be a sophomore and this is what I have currently signed up for.
Ap chemistry
Ap statistics *
Ap macroeconomics
Ap psychology
Ap environmental science
Honors english 2
Ap computer science (online) **</p>

<ul>
<li>I originally signed up for ap stats because I'm taking precal over the summer and my counselor, math teachers and even ap calc teachers said the website wasn't very good and other people who have taken the online program then ap calc have literally gotten F's. However, I currently have a 98 in the class (With 2 weeks left) and I have an Ap calculus teacher tutoring me. She thinks I am more than ready even though she was very worried at first. At my school, Ap stats is yearlong with an honors course first semester then an Ap course second semester. We can either take Ap calc AB which is honors first then Ap second, or AB-BC which is Ap calc AB first semester and Ap calc BC second semester. If I got A's in AB-BC my gpa would be higher but I'm already taking so many Ap's and I have a job and many ec's not to mention I will be on the tennis team so many days I won't be home until 10 or so. I'm taking IB math SL (no HL available) my junior and senior year and if I don't take calculus my sophomore year I will self-study. Which would be better in the long run, a tougher class with a better gpa assuming I do well or an easy class that would bring my gpa down?</li>
</ul>

<p>** I really don't want to take this class BUT in order to be in FBLA and deca (which I will have leadership positions and I am very passionate about) I must take it. Is it honestly worth it, to do something I hate for something I love? I also know it will boost my gpa and look good for college. I have some programming experience so I don't think the class will be too hard I just know I already have a rigourous schedule.</p>

<p>Lastly, I'm planning on self-studying some classes. Which would be best. </p>

<p>Ap world history- many people take this class as sophomores at my school but it is notoriously hard. I have already taken honors world history and I enjoyed it.
Ap microeconomics- I love economics and may major in it. I will have taken macro so I will have a foundation and I have heard it is relatively easy to self-study.
Ap music theory- my school doesn't offer this class and I have played piano for over 10 years. However, a lot of colleges want to see an arts class and I won't have one so would it look better to self-study or take the class online junior year?</p>

<p>What are your opinions on my schedule and also do you think I should add/drop any classes??
Thanks in advanced!!</p>

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<p>And I am aiming for the ivies. Columbia is my first choice and Yale is my second</p>

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<p>Personally I think it is too many AP’s for a sophomore, also I would still take calc anyways (not stats). Last drop one of the AP’s (maybe macroecomincs and take a language). You are dealing with too much, maybe self-study for one AP, but if you are taking an online class too, I wouldn’t.</p>

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<p>You need a history class and a foreign language class. Doesn’t matter how many AP’s you’re taking, gotta have four years of history and language.</p>

<p>I’d take AP Calc AB-BC because it’s not going to be that much harder than AB.</p>

<p>Drop AP Psych or APES and take Spanish II or something.</p>

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<p>I think that’s too much, when will you sleep. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to see a student challenge themselves, but there’s a limit, it’s way too much.</p>

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<p>Wow, lucky! Sophomores at my school can only take 2 AP classes. </p>

<p>If you think you can handle all of those classes then don’t change anything! But, those are a LOT of APs for a Sophomore. Maybe drop the online AP Computer Science class or the AP Macroeconomics one?</p>

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<p>I agree that this schedule would have way too much work, but I’d solve that by removing AP Chem and/or AP Econ. The other APs there, with the possible exception of AP Computer Science, are generally seen as some of the easiest ones. At my school (though I can’t speak for yours), it’s seen as quite challenging to take AP Chem even as a junior.</p>

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<p>@thekongo at my school, all sophomores take honors/reg civics and economics but I took it online as a freshman. Ap macroeconomics and Ap psychology are counted as humanities/histories. Also this year I took French 1 and in the IB program there is something called AB initio which basically goes through 1-4 of a language so I will take that and self-study the ap material and take either the ap exam or the subject test.</p>

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<p>But are you sure you’ll be able to sleep?</p>

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<p>Honestly I don’t know if I will be able to sleep! Haha!! But my school does block scheduling so I will only have 5 classes at a time (4 in school, 1 online). This year I took all honors classes and 2 online and I managed just fine. I know that ap is completely different but I am a very hardworker and I do have very good time management.</p>

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<p>I think it reaches a point where even if you are a hard worker and have good time management (a lot of people on CC do), it reaches a point of absurdity. Take your core subjects (which means you need a language and a social studies class), psych might count but world or US history is more meaningful. Also you will struggle to have a social life/EC’s if you do all those AP’s (ivies do like to see EC’s and not just a bunch of APs). Good luck!</p>

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<p>This is a long response, but I hope it will be beneficial because after all that is the purpose of these forums.</p>

<p>Like the other posters, I agree that this schedule would be hard to handle, but with some modifications it is more than manageable. This is from personal experience, since I just finished my sophomore year and I took 5 Ap’s: Calc Ab(Bc self), Chem, English Lit, Art History, Apush. Each of the latter two classes were taken online( Flvs, Aventa learning). I also took H- physics, H-chem, and H- us history.*</p>

<p>That intro was just to justify the advice I’m going to give as coming from someone in a similar situation.( Fellow Fbla member as well) I don’t know the scheduling situation at your school, but here’s my advice regardless. It seems as if you are loading up on Ap’s that may be frivolous in the long run. Not that all aren’t beneficial, but if your going to load up on Ap’s, make your effort worth it. In my case, I enjoyed every class and every class filled a graduation req, even Art History was a fine arts req. Leave classes such as environmental until your out of the more core Ap’s(Chem, Bio, Apush) this way you won’t miss out of the Ap’s that are most beneficial. After all, the purpose of Ap’s are to get the most out of High School, and enjoy learning while you do it. I can personally attest, that although I do want State Scholar I choose all of my classes because I enjoy them and they interest me, I recommend doing the same.*</p>

<p>To continue, the requirement for fbla is a business course, and if your already taking macro than the req is met, if you need the other half for deca, take micro online, this is the more business oriented option anyway and will also help in your competitions.
I would also recommend losing either psych or environment, make the one you don’t take your self study. These are traditionally easy(easier) self studies, and despite being an easy test, class difficulty ranges with teachers and this could negatively affect your gpa. Choose based on both your interest and your best interest. Also if the schedule did prove too much, you are in no way obligated to take the test this way.</p>

<p>As for stats, I would definitely do the BC&AB option over stats. I have no first hand knowledge of the Ib program, but I can’t imagine stats being more helpful that calc bc.*
I also agree that a history and foreign language would be more beneficial than taking extra Ap’s, provided you haven’t already met the requirements. The only reason I did not have a foreign language in my schedule is because my small school did not have anything past spanish 3, which I took freshman year. If you still have room for another Ap, try to work a history into your schedule. After this, I would say you have enough Ap’s for Sophomore year. Hopefully this advice aids in your decision.</p>

<p>To sum up, this is my recommendation for you, but without knowing you personally, remember this is merely based on my own experiences and preferences rather than your own.
Ap calc Bc&Ab
Ap Chem
Ap Macro&Micro
H English
Ap Psych/Environmental
History/ Foreign Language
Self study: Option above not taken</p>

<p>Anyway, I hope this helped and was not too much about myself, given that my experience was similar, I just wanted to provide some first-person justifications to my advice. And lastly, please forgive any typo’s, I wrote this on my phone.</p>

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<p>@bensonfan23 thank you for the long response! At my school the FBLA requirement is a career technical education (CTE) class. This has everything from principals of business to foods, but sadly ap macro/micro is considered a humanities class which doesn’t is absolutely ridiculous. I talked to the teacher in charge of FBLA and he said there was no way around it. I think I’m going to take everyone’s advice and take ap calc ap-bc.</p>

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<p>Thats confusing about fbla, we only needed one business class throughout high school, and my school uses the mandatory freshman keyboarding to get around it. Why economics doesn’t count confuses me. But, I suppose you have another choice if you don’t want Ap comp science, just throw in a general business class like accounting 1 online. It shouldn’t take too long, be too hard, or take away from your schedule.</p>

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<p>I thought about adding personal finance or something easy like that but there are only college prep classes or ap comp science so a cp class would mess up my gpa :(</p>

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<p>I would recommend AP Calculus over AP Statistics, simply because you’re taking Pre Calculus right now and are being taught by a Calculus teacher so it would be advantageous to just go straight into Calculus (rather than something different like Statistics), but your schedule is insane, so at this point I guess just go with the easier class and take Statistics. Or, you could drop the self-studies (maybe do them another year) and take Calculus.</p>