Foreign language and science options

[ucbalumnus]

@Techno13

–He is currently set to take Latin 3 next year. But he doesn’t want to take AP Latin and plans to take Mandarin 1 his senior year (new offering at his school, was not available when he started HS). Does this make sense? Should he switch now so he get two years of Mandarin or is 3/1 a better split?

Highest level completed is the important part. So level 4 (or AP) > level 3 > level 2. Two languages to level 2 = level 2.

@Techno13

–He is thinking of taking AP Chem and AP Bio next year and AP CompSci senior year and skipping Physics all together. How important is it to fit in Physics?

Taking some physics (does not have to be AP) is generally preferable at the most selective colleges. If he likes math and is good at it, physics may actually be more interesting to him than biology or chemistry.