Are 4 years of traditional science really necessary?

Applying to College
1

<p>So I am part of a science and technology magnet program in a large high school in Maryland. It’s pretty competitive, I’ve got good grades, SAT scores, and extracurriculars, and I am hoping to apply EA to Stanford, get rejected, and then go to Berkeley. I worked hard freshman through junior years because, despite being in the magnet program, I HATE math and science. The human aspect of genetics is fantastic, and biology is okay, but the rest of it is horrible. So I worked really hard and did a lot of biology-related stuff to keep my sanity and struggled through awful math and got all the requirements out of the way for the program except the senior-year project and the math we have to take every year.</p>

<p>And then we had to meet with the woman in charge of the program, who told me that I might be rejected from the colleges I said I was thinking about applying to because I wasn’t going to take another year of science.</p>

<p>So far I’ve taken Engineering Foundations I (semester) and II (full-year), Genetics, Forensics I (semester), and my school’s equivalents of honors Biology and Chemistry. I am finishing up a year of AP Bio, the equiv. of honors Physics, and a semester of Anatomy/Physiology. My final grades for all of these courses are As unless I slip too much in Anatomy. Next year I will be doing a full-year research project involving forestry in a nearby national park, which is a science class and is very work-intensive. It’s just that it’s not a traditional science class. It’s not like my senior course load isn’t tough; I have AP Lit, AP Stat, AP Japanese, a double period of AP Computer Graphics (which is technically studio art, but whatever- it’s a double period since, though I loved computer graphics I, it was the most time- and work-consuming class I had last year), the science capstone, and creative writing.</p>

<p>I want to look into History and writing-focused English, with a double major if I can. Beyond general education requirements and a bit of genetics dabbling, I’m not learning any more science in a classroom, ever. Do I really need to change my schedule to take yet another science course that I won’t even like?</p>

2

<p>You have Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and AP Biology. That’s four traditional years of science right there, not to mention three (five if you count applied science) science electives. What’s the problem?</p>

3

<p>Apparently I’m supposed to have at least one science per temporal year, not just four science credits for four years. I can’t tell whether I’m wrong, she’s wrong, or I’m being lied to so I take another science (because I’m not sure whether I’d put it past her).</p>

4

<p>If it’s your high school policy to have a science class every academic year (as it was a my old school), there is no way around it. If you’re thinking about college policies, I have no reason to believe they would raise concern, what with 4 core science classes and 5 science electives.</p>

5

<p>You don’t have to take one every year- you just have to take so many credits to graduate as part of the program.</p>

<p>Thank you so much :D</p>

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<p>For college admissions purposes, it looks like you have more than enough. If your high school insists that you take a science, how about AP Psych?</p>

7

<p>^At most schools, at least in my area, psych is a social science.</p>

<p>OP, you should be fine, except for the obvious question–why were you in the magnet program to begin with?</p>

8

<p>Haha, I just found this thread again… it’s the only good high school in the county, and this was the only way to go to it from out-of-bounds :-/</p>