I am a rising junior and this is my next year schedule.
APUSH, AP Bio, AP AB, AP Spanish Lang, AP Lang, Theology (catholic school), free period. I am aiming for the T20s and my current gpa is a 3.9 (highest can be 3.91 with all As). I am kind of scared because of my free period, will this dictate me as being lazy? I also want to mention I work a job so it kind of the reason why I decided it but now I am wondering if it was a good idea. Also if there any students who took my classes, please let me know how it went, any tips especially for Spanish lang, lang, and bio.
Six classes per semester - five of which are AP - is more than enough. You are overthinking this.
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Agree. You are fine.
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It could technically be 6 aps (swap free period for ap music theory) but i felt like that was a waste of my time despite my long history with clarinet. would you agree that ap music theory wouldn’t really benefit me as someone interested in business major?
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If you are not really interested, then don’t take it. Your schedule is fine as is.
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Agree with the above. Keep in mind that it is also important to leave yourself enough time for ECs, to prepare for standardized tests, and to relax a bit.
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You are challenging yourself in all five core areas, and doing your reasonable best in those classes is your top academic priority (your top overall priority is to keep developing in a healthy and happy way). I’ve read many AOs discuss this issue, and not a single one has suggested you need to take additional non-core APs once you have done all that. So if you think taking a free period will help you balance all those academic responsibilities plus a job, great, that is smart and I don’t think will have any negative consequences.
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Five APs, in each of the core academic subjects? Of course this is the highest rigor imaginable! This is a superhuman academic workload. Are you sure you can handle this, especially while also working a part time job?
For AP Spanish, I would recommend right now starting to watch a Spanish TV series. Choose one that has subtitles available in English and Spanish. You first watch an episode with the English subtitles on, so that you completely understand the plot. Then you re-watch it with the Spanish subtitles on, so that you are reading it at the same time as you are hearing it. This will help greatly with your receptive Spanish AND with your written Spanish, since you will be learning the correct spelling while you are listening to the spoken language. My kids used the series El Internado (the boarding school of the black lagoon) for this, but anything would be fine. Pretty quickly, you get good enough that you no longer need to watch it first with English subtitles, and then it goes faster. Some streaming services, like Netflix, offer settings where you can slow the playback speed - set it to 75% in order to have more time to understand what is being said. Another good thing to do is to re-read a favorite childhood novel translated into Spanish, something like Harry Potter, something that is at the upper elementary school or middle school level, where you already know the story.
For AP Lang, if you can get the syllabus and any reading list ahead of time from the teacher, you could do the readings ahead of time, this summer. Meanwhile, the best thing that you can do for English is to read, read, read. Download a list of the 100 best classics of English and American lit, and start reading. You should get plenty of writing in AP Lang (which is supposed to be the equivalent of a freshman comp class), but if you want to, you could journal every day, perhaps about what you are reading and watching.
For Bio, get a hold of the textbook you’re going to be using, and start reading.
Most importantly, if you fall into that broad financial category where you will not qualify for a lot of financial aid, but your family cannot or will not pay what the college deems they should, then you should seriously consider intensive self-prep now for the PSAT (which will carry over for the SAT). The reason is that the PSAT, given in the mid fall, is used to qualify for National Merit. If you score high enough for semi-finalist, and then apply for and receive finalist status, you will be eligible for massive merit aid at some schools, and even a full ride at certain schools, some even with money above and beyond the full ride, at some decent schools. Do a quick search on here or on the internet for colleges offering fantastic deals to National Merit semi finalists and finalists.
Good luck! I admire your ambition. Great idea to be looking ahead, in time. So many people don’t consider these things until the summer before 12th grade, by which time it’s too late for National Merit, and the academic record is pretty much a done deal.
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