Would it be better to have two semesters of band my junior and senior year, or a single
semester of band and an AP class each year?
I’ve also placed first in the state at State Beta club convention my sophomore year, third my freshman year, and first both years regionally. How much would this affect my admissions chances? (My dream schools are either Stanford or Brown, while the more realistic choices are The University North Carolina Chapel Hill or Appalachian State University)
(NC resident/sophomore/male)
Depends on what AP and what your schedule looks like right now.
What are you planning to take Junior and Senior year?
Junior:
English 3 Honors
Honors middle eastern studies
Honors Concert band
Honors symphonic band
Honors American history 2
Honors Pre calculus
Honors chemistry
AP Psychology
Senior:
English 4 Honors
Honors International terrorism
Honors concert band
Honors symphonic band
German 1
German 2 (possibly honors)
Honors Civics
AP US government
Brown and Stanford are going to want to see you taking the most rigorous classes offered at your school. How many AP classes does your school offer? Will you have 3 years of another foreign language and then switching to German? How about science senior and math year?
The AP would either be AP Biology (two semesters) or AP European history and AP English literature.
4-5 AP classes at most. German will be my first and only foreign language. There aren’t any other sciences or maths available.
I don’t buy that your school offers neither calculus nor statistics, nor any foreign language beside German for seniors (it’s a core class and level 4 would be expected as a minimum).
Honors American history 2 should be APUSH.
Honors English 3 should be AP English language. AP Psychology should be a foreign language (French? Arabic? Sounds like you’re interested in IR or Security Studies).
Senior year should be statistics (regular, honors or AP) rather than civics, and higher levels of foreign language.
Calculus and statistics are offered, but they both have prerequisites I wasn’t able I take. We only have German and Spanish. I was never informed APSUH would replace honors US history 1&2, so I missed that boat. Honors English 3 is required for graduation. I could take honors German 3&4 but I would have to give up my two other possible AP spots. Civics is also required. Our counselors and college advisors SUCK and so does the NC education system (seeing as it’s all geared toward UNC’s admission standards)
You listed that you are taking honors pre-calc as a junior so why can’t you take calc as a senior? Why has the boat sailed for APUSH? It’s only April. There should be time to alter your schedule for junior year. Look at Brown and Standford’s common data set and see what they say about their admissions requirements and recommendations (if it’s recommended, do it). Then go talk to your counselor and let them know of your college aspirations. You do not have a competitive schedule mapped out for Brown or Stanford the way it stands now but you have time to make it right. Educate your counselors. This is your process, not theirs, so do your homework on what you will need.
Calc requires both semester (which I can’t do because of band). It’s too late to take APUSH because I’m already most of the way through American history 1, and APUSH requires two semesters (band again). I’ll talk to the counselors
I’m getting an education here in curriculum differences! At my daughter’s school, students need 3 full years (both semesters) of history, 4 years of English, 4 years of math, and 3 years science (plus other non core course to graduate). We were told to take 4 full years of everything for competitive schools. My daughter did have to drop music junior year to make that all happen but did stuff after school instead of taking it as a class. I don’t necessarily recommend that but you may want to look at some of your electives. Also getting back to your original question, I think it would be better to just do one semester of music so you can add an academic class.
Just to be realistic, Stanford and Brown will be out of your reach. Most students applying will be taking many AP classes.
Ditch band, especially 2 band classes, and take the academic classes.