How are my freshman/sophomore courses? + AP prerequisites

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

Hi,

I’m a freshman in high school and currently starting my second semester. All my final letter grades for the semester have been A’s, so my GPA is 4.0. I go to an accredited online private school, and since I wasn’t sure what to expect in that environment, I decided to take very basic courses first:

Algebra I
French I
Earth Science
World History
Psychology
Comprehensive Literary Analysis and Composition I

For my second semester, I’m taking:

Algebra I
French I
Earth Science
Honors World History
Health Sciences
Honors Literary Analysis and Composition I

For my sophomore year, so far my plan is to take:

Honors Geometry
French II
Honors Biology
AP US History
AP Art History
Honors Literary Analysis and Composition I

My dream schools at the moment include UMICH and Smith. I’m turning in a volunteer application at my local animal shelter tomorrow, and I’m probably going to go to the library as well to beg them for a volunteer position (since I didn’t find any open positions on their website, there will definitely be some begging). I’m trying to create the usual salad of good grades, a good GPA, challenging courses, good extracurriculars, and good test scores.

My biggest concerns are that my school has myriad AP courses but some serious prerequisites (I can’t take AP Biology because I haven’t completed Honors Biology and Comprehensive Chemistry, I can’t take Comprehensive Chemistry without taking Comprehensive Biology, etc), and I get awful test anxiety, especially with math, which I know is a lot of the SAT. It’s something I plan to work on as much as possible before the test in junior year, but I’m still a bit stressed. And I’m worried about the possible lack of AP courses on my transcripts due to the difficulty of getting into the majority of them at my school. So far, the only courses I’ll be eligible to take are APUSH and AP Art History, which I think I’m going to take as a sophomore.

Any advice here/how do you think I’m looking so far, admissions-wise? Thank you, and sorry if this is in the wrong category, I’m totally new to College Confidential!

2

You probably want to find out whether or not your school allows you to take two science courses at the same, if so you should probably take Biology and Chemistry at the same time next year so you will be eligible for APs by junior year. Keep in mind that colleges like to see that applicants take the three major sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics) so try to take at least one class of each and preferably at a higher level.

Also, keep in mind the application requirements of your prospective schools.
UMICH requires 4 years of english, 3 years each of science, social science, and math, and 2 years of foreign language to apply, but recommends that you take 4 years of each.

3

The Honors and APs look good. I think it’s a great schedule. My advice to you is to somehow see if you can take AP Calc. If you’re taking Alg 1 (9th Grade), then I assume you’re going to do Geometry (10th), Alg II (11th), and Pre-Calc (12th)? Is that correct? If so I would suggest taking Alg II or Geometry over the summer. I think it would look impressive especially if you’re applying to colleges like those. Definitely take AP AH and APUSH, but I’m warning you: only take APUSH if you’re a strong writer and reader who can analyze thing. If you can’t do other APs, consider looking into DE. You might have to pay (depends on your school district) or you might not have to. It gives you HS and College credit, and it would be better than just taking regular classes instead of APs (Bio, Chem, Calc, etc).