Hello, I am looking for some information on course selection for Junior Year. My daughter is a rising Junior and she plans to sign up for the below courses in Junior year: AP Lang, AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Comp Sci Principles, French III. Is this a very heavy course load? Typically is there a lot of writing involved in AP Lang?
For some more context, her school is a college prep high school in Chicago and on an average most of her peers seem to be taking 4-5 APs in Junior year.
Any inputs would be greatly appreciated!
What does her guidance counselor think?
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There is if they’re doing it right. But it really depends on the teacher
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How many Social Studies/History classes has she taken? A lot of colleges want to see that on the transcripts in addition to what she is already planning to take. For example, your in state flagship UIUC requires 2 years of social science, but recommends 4 years.
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It’s a pretty heavy schedule, and it would be advisable to switch one of the STEM electives out for a social studies class (AP or not). If she’s aiming for selective colleges (which is plausible given this course load), it would probably be best to have four years in each core subject (though perhaps she’s doubling up on social studies another year).
Both of my kids have taken AP Lang. It is a lot of writing and will surely be more demanding that prior English classes, but it’s not a lot of long-form writing. The class emphasizes different writing genres and rhetorical styles, so most writing seems to give kids opportunities to experiment with those. There’s a lot of drafting and revising built into the process. There’s a fair amount of reading, too – a mix of books and shorter pieces, fiction and nonfiction. I’m not sure it was more than my kids’ earlier honors English classes, though, and definitely not as much as AP Lit.
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Is she currently in honors English and math? Those AP courses would be continuations of the usual sequences in those subjects.
Has she taken biology, chemistry, and physics already?
Any history, social studies, arts?
AP CS principles is not generally considered hard.
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Great question. Don’t skip physics, even if it means replacing AP Bio.
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Thank you everyone for your responses. So she has taken AP Chem, APUSH and Pre Calculus BC in Sophomore.
She had Honors Physics and AP Human Geography in Freshman year. So from a progression perspective she is on track to take up AP Biology and Calc.
Her guidance counselor suggested she should go with this course load given rigor from previous years. However Sophomore year has been a struggle so we were wary of again signing up for a heavy workload.
On a related note, is it important to take 4 years of Social science? She would really just have 3 if she skips AP Gov in Junior year.
Thank you, this is very helpful to understand.
This really depends on where she is planning to apply and what major she’s considering. As I stated above, UIUC is 2 years required/4 years recommended. Highly selective colleges will have applicants that have four years. But three years won’t automatically put her out of contention for those schools. Maximizing rigor is important if she will have a highly selective school list.
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It’s worth looking at expectations and recommendations for the kids of schools she’s interested in applying to. I would weigh recommendations more heavily than requirements, because requirements are usually minimum expectations, and students who’ve met or exceeded recommendations will have a better shot at admission to selective schools.
AP social science courses can be part of a rigorous courseload, and most colleges will want to see a well-rounded academic background (including may STEM-focused schools).
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What are her goals ?
How are her grades?
This is an extremely heavy workload. You don’t want her stressed or struggling this early - strained, but not stressed. She needs a life too.
So unless you are pushing her to Ivy, etc., slow down. Why not Calc AB as an example.
Even if you’re pushing to a top school - given the difficult year - maybe you shouldn’t?
No point in over stressing/straining.
Hit the required classes for your state - but no need to go crazy…because if you do Calc BC in 11th, ,then what.
You’re way too far ahead of the curve for most.
Good luck.
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My daughter’s experience with AP English Lang (she is 50%-60% of the way done) is that she doesn’t write big papers, but she writes many, many small ones. Probably an average of 1 or 2 300 word essays per week. These papers are graded against the AP English Lang rubrics.
There is also a bit of literature reading, but not a huge amount. Mostly kids are asked to identify rhetorical devices in the literature.
Overall, it isn’t terrible, but the final AP test in APEL is said to be tough for some.
AP Comp Sci is more manageable EXCEPT when you get stuck on a piece of coding. That is where the time sink is. If you have someone in your life to help with coding, it might make it easier. We don’t have that person. But overall, Comp Sci is far easier than AP EL. But again…your daughter may pull her hair out on a few things. My daughter wasted an entire day working on getting the correct color to appear in a program. Turns out that the problem was not on her side. Maddening.
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You mention that sophomore year was stressful, so I would like to offer some thoughts to consider.
If part of the struggle was academic, there will be more of that this year. My kid - now out of college-- took a very ambitious schedule junior year. The work required to do merely okay in two classes that didn’t really play to his strengths took so much time that he had no time or energy left to really shine in the classes where he could have. Instead, his “gift” in those subjects allowed him to do passably with a minimum of time. The result was a uniformly lackluster transcript for junior year, the decision to not play his second sport in spring to buy time, and a fair bit of stress and regret. He took the lessons learned to college and then to his career, but I suspect there are other ways to learn about balance.
Is your D getting enough sleep? Happy? Having time for non-academic pursuits, whether application worthy or just good for the soul?
If she has a miserable year and doesn’t get into the schools she’s aiming for, how will she feel? Put differently, is this the course of study she’d choose if she weren’t thinking of high school as an extended college admissions test?
I’m not saying she shouldn’t load up, but that she should understand what she is getting into, why, and what the options are.
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I would take a social science but NOT an AP.
AP Bio should be easier than AP chemistry (one of the hardest APs) but it depends how it’s taught at your school so your daughter should ask current AP Bio students. It’s still a solid AP as is AP Lang.
AP CS Principles is relatively light compared to the three above.
In terms of difficulty and amount of knowledge/skills: AP Chem >> AP Lang, AP Bio > AP CSP
So: 3 solid (but typically not “among the toughest”) APs + 3 Honors-equivalent (APCSP, French 3, social science) = good junior schedule.
This would need to be balanced out by
- how much work your HS typically assigns
- whether your child is getting enough sleep (8 hours) and has time for social/fun activities
- whether one of these classes had a reputation for being especially hard at your HS (even if it typically may not)
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If she is struggling with her course load this year, then I would recommend maybe easing up and switching one of her AP’s to a non-AP class. Which class or classes is she struggling with currently? What are her long term goals and interests for career or college major, etc? She could ease up in the subject she struggled with, or the subject that doesn’t interest her as much or correspond to her desired college major. Also, as others have said, she should definitely take a history.
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Is AP Gov the only civics course her high school offers? At a minimum, she should take US history, world history, civics, and economics. That is 3 credits if the school offers civics and economics as half-credit courses, 4 if all courses are full credits.
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