Biggest Mistakes You Made In Choosing High School Courses

First, keep an eye on the target school you want and what do they NEED. Set your target being the match school, the realistic schools you like to attend. Don’t kill yourself with unrealistic choices. Then, goto the collegeboard website, type in the specific school and click on applying and the open the Academics/GPA tab and check out the requirements.

For top schools, you must have 4-yrs of English, Math, Foreign Language. If you are not going to be STEM major, then at least 3 years of social studies, prefer with 4. If you are going to be STEM major, 4 years of Science with at least 2 yrs of Lab. Some HS has a certain path print out for the kids to follow. But you have to remember that path is likely for the majority for the kids from your HS and not the top 5% there wanting to apply the Ivies and/or the top 30 Universities.

The biggest mistake my S and D made - esp. our 1st D - follow this path and not fighting against the prerequisites set by HS administrators.

Try to get your entire academic profile be ready for submission by the end of the Junior year. Senior year grades count but increasingly, schools are getting so competitive with the regular round of review that any boost from the senior year mid-year grade will be minimal (and not to mention the incredible stress you will have during the Oct-Dec timeframe with the college essays and the need to improve your senior year grades). Take as many AP classes as possible. In my S’s HS, they won’t let kids to take AP in 9th grade and only one AP in 10th. That has become an issue with some parents as nearby HS districts are allowing kids to take more APs early on.

If you can take AP classes early on, get APHG, APUSH, APSCY out of the way early (9 and 10th grade). Then AP Lang, AP (bio/chem/phys), AP AB, APEcon (Macr/Micro), AP WH for 11th… and AP Foreign Lang (or AP Lit), AP BC, AP (bio/chem/phys), AP Euro/AP Econ. For top schools, you need at least 7 APs (preferably under the belt during the review process). This is a profile for highly competitive STEM majors (and you can substitute the classes with social studies core if you are not a STEM major).

The biggest mistake is not taking enough foreign language, not vigorous enough a curriculum, and not getting the complete academic profile ready by the end of 11th grade.