HELP! Admissions Decision to a Competitive High School! Can't Decide!

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

I’m in need of some help.

I applied to a free 11th and 12th grade STEM high school in January and got rejected/waitlisted (I don’t know it wasn’t clear in the letter). Just now, I got an email from the school accepting me into the program as spots have opened up.

The school is very competitive. Around 300 people apply each year and only 50 get in to the school. They have STEM classes that allow you to pursue research endeavors on your own and compete (and win) at Intel. Their program is strong in STEM and senior year, I’ll be a freshman at the affiliated university. That means one less year of college, since I’ll probably end up going there.

Here is my one dilemma. Next year I’m supposed to take AP Calc BC and AP Physics C (since I just finished Honors pre-calc and honors physics). The schools math class is called “Mathematical Modeling” and is really just an application of geometry, algebra, trig, and statistics. It is precalc + statistics + number theory (a little). Their physics class is algebra based physics (the equivalent of Physics 2). Now I don’t know if it is worth it to take both again.

School’s pros: nearly no tests, a computer programming class I wouldn’t have taken before, STEM class, one less year of college, rigorous school, great teachers, no class rank, no GPA

School’s cons: junior year i’ll be retaking precalc and physics basically, unless there is some way to get ahead that I don’t already know about

At my current public school, I’ll be taking this:

JUNIOR YEAR: Honors Game Dev & Programming w/ XNA, Honors Spanish 4, AP World History, AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP English Lang & Composition

SENIOR YEAR: AP Spanish, AP English Literature & Composition, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, Honors Economics

My public school is great and I’m confident that all my teachers were going to be fantastic.

If I go to my current school, I was planning on applying to JHU, MIT and WPI. If I go to this school, I’ll end up finishing at the affiliate university since the credits continue and I’m planning to go into BME and to med school.

Is it worth going to this school if I have to retake precalc and physics? Senior year at this school, I’d take the full four term calculus sequence.

2

Here are my thoughts:

First, I edited your post, since it really gives too much detail about who you are and what the program is.

Second, I don’t believe that the junior year math/science courses are quite pre-calc and physics 2. True, they are not Calc BC and Physics C, but it sounds like they teach you to work more collaboratively than would be the case in a typical AP course. IRL, scientists are often parts of teams, so this teaches skills which would facilitate that.

In terms of EC’s, this place looks awesome, and probably far surpasses what would be available to you at your current school. The list of college acceptances is also pretty impressive and, while attending a certain school does not guarantee admissions to a particular college, they probably have a better track record than your current school.

Sometimes in life, you need to take the long-range view; I think you’re focusing too much on the short-term. Good luck.

3

I agree with skieurope. The ECs look awesome.

Since you just got the email acceptance, I’d suggest making an appointment to talk with someone at the school to hear more about the curriculum. I’m sure they’d be happy to give you some information about why their junior year classes are more valuable than the standard precalc and algebra-based physics classes. That would make you feel better about your decision either way, rather than just taking advice from people here on CC.

4

@skieurope @Ynotgo Thanks for the help. I scheduled an appointment and we’ll see, but I’m thinking of attending. It’s a great opportunity.