College Co-Enrollment

Applying to College
1

Hi guys,

I am having a hard time deciding how I will spend my senior year of high school. I go to a very small school (about 250 students total) so the full scope of AP classes are not offered (only AP Spanish, AP Lit, AP Lang, AP WH, AP USH, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Statistics, AP ES, and AP Calc BC), and as a result I have exhausted the amount of challenging courses I can take, with the only credit I need to graduate being a social studies credit (which I will fill with Dual Credit Gov/Economics).

So basically my high school schedule will look like this 1. AP Spanish 2. AP Chem 3. Dual Govt/Eco 4. Office Aide and then I will be allowed to leave during lunch (noon) and skip the remaining 4 periods. My high school counselor suggested that I get a job, but I already do have one as a waiter at a local Mexican restaurant (working 23 hours a week, 7 hours on Tuesday, 8 on Saturday, and another 8 on Sunday), so my counselor then recommended that I join the co-enrollment program at the local Schriener University and take classes there that are not offered at my school such as psychology, business, and calculus ii/iii. The thing is, I would have to pay 300$ per credit semester (which is money I am willing to dish out), but I am not sure if it is worth the money since the colleges I would like to attend (Rice, UT, other top 25 schools) would likely not accept the credits.

Would taking classes at a local university be impressive to colleges during admission? Should I spend the bulk of my time developing ECs like volunteering and club activities instead?

tl;dr - Should I take college classes at a local university (actually more of a LAC) or spend that time doing significant volunteering and other extracurriculars?

2

Quick clarification question: so after senior year, you’ll have taken ALL of the APs your high school offers?

3

Yeah, at this very moment, the only APs left are Chem and Spanish, which I will take senior year. So after senior year I will have taken all AP classes offered at my school.

4

What majors are you considering?

5

Psychology or Neuroscience. I figured I could take a Psychology class at the LAC to make up for the fact that my school doesn’t offer AP Psychology (or any Psych class for that matter), but I am not sure how much that will help me with the adcoms as opposed to other activities/volunteering.

6

If you are looking at selective colleges, they will look for course rigor and pushing yourself academic. Right now you have only 3 classes planned and while those 3 are good you seem to be missing English, math and possibly foreign language. Office assistant is not an academic class. If you take classes at the local college you probably should focus more on things that will transfer. Like Calc should always transfer, or at least you would enroll in the next level. Psych is okay for an elective if it is something that you are particularly interested in.

7

11 AP isn’t a meager offering. But did you jump ahead in order to get them in? Take a look at the colleges’ hs prep recommendations. Fill in those blanks with challenging classes.

An arts class at the hs can serve better than office aide. Choose wisely at the local college. Stretching to get all those AP and then shorting the learning process itself is risky.

8

@BrownParent I cannot take anymore English, math, or foreign language as I have completed all math/English/foreign language classes available. I wanted to take French or Latin but my school cut those programs last year so the only “foreign” language left is Spanish, which I speak fluently/natively and will complete senior year. Maybe taking Calc II (in place of Calc BC, which my school doesn’t offer) will suit me better than Psych, as I can always self study AP Psych and get out of Intro to Psychology at whatever college I go to.

@lookingforward Yes, I did jump ahead a bit during 8th grade, essentially skipping it. I had the option to graduate last year but I really didn’t want to miss out on NMSQT because that is pretty much one of my only chances out here for a Nationally recognized award besides FFA Nationals which my school is known to go to often. I have all the credits my top choice (Rice) recommends
4 English (English 1, English 2, English 3 (Lang), English 4 (Lit)
5 Math (Alg, Geometry, Alg 2, Precal, Calc AB)
4 Science (Biology, Chemistry (Senior Year), Physics, Anatomy)
4 Electives (Speech, Floral Design, Journalism, Engineering)
4 Social Studies (World Geogrpahy, World History, US History, US Government/Economics (Senior Year)
4 Foreign Language (Spanish 1, Spanish 2, Spanish 3, Spanish 4 (AP, Senior Year)

Art could help, but I am a TERRIBLE artist, and my art teacher is notorious for “not believing in 100s” so I’d probably end up screwing my GPA more. more than 4-5 classes is out of the question since I need to before 2 o’clock on certain weekdays for work. Normal school days are 8 periods and release at 4 o’clock.

The problem here seems to be that if I don’t take classes at my local college, then the academic rigor of my senior year will be incredibly low. Thanks your the responses guys, this are making a little more sense.

9

Are you counting some classes from middle school? Because we’re going to wonder how you can have 4 years of, say, English, with none set for senior year.

You have the electives. While some colleges will he happy you got to the advanced level, others will still be looking for continued rigor through senior year. That’s BP’s and my comment. Look at how you can work this out with the local college schedule-or possibly consider something online. If you want psych, it does make sense to take it. Self study is no replacement for the course and interaction.But make some wise choices with the rest.

10

Sort of, for 2 brief years my school switched from semesters to trimesters, going from an 8 period schedule to a 5 period schedule in which a full course took 2 trimesters, and the last trimester of the year was used to start on the next course. The school board realized this was a horrible idea because it shortened the time for teaching the class and students would forget what they learned from the previous trimester, effectively making it look something like this:

Biology (1st tri), Biology (2nd tri), Chem (1st tri)

Summer

Chem (2nd tri), Physics (1st tri), Physics (2nd tri)

I took the first trimester of PreAp Biology, PreAp English, PreAp Algebra, and PreAp World Geography in 8th grade, and then I took the second trimester of each class in the beginning of 9th grade, leaving me with 2 remaining trimesters in 9th grade, in which I took Pre Ap English 2, Pre Ap Chem, Pre Ap Geometry, and Ap World History. That’s how I get ahead, but I always did well on state tests, and I got a 4 on the AP WH test so I dont think it was all too bad. Some people who were put on the advanced course definitely struggled, but a select few did alright. I’ll try my best to fill up my senior schedule with APs and I’ll see how many courses the local LAC will let me take. Thanks for the help!