How rigorous is this junior year course load?

Applying to College
1

<p>Out of curiosity…what would top colleges (ie. Ivies) think about this?</p>

<p>Honors Pre Calc
Honors English
Spanish 4
AP Government/Comp Pol
Piano 1 (PE for 2nd sem)
Honors Physics
Yearbook </p>

<p>The top kids at our school are taking AP Chem/Bio in place of Piano/PE and Yearbook, the rest of their schedules are pretty much comparable. Other AP classes would not be possible at this time.</p>

<p>GPA wise, there isn’t much difference, but the aforementioned schedule is a bit easy for junior year isnt it - only one AP and its a humanities one?</p>

2

<p>Just depends on how many other kids are taking Chem/Bio. Obviously, if all of top 5% are taking it, you might feel some pain.</p>

<p>Otherwise, if your AP choices are limited at your school; it should be okay</p>

3

<p>Yeah, it depends upon the context of your school. Compared to your classmates, is that a rigorous schedule?</p>

4

<p>Is yearbook a class? I am always amazed when I see ECs listed as classes.</p>

5

<p>A good 10-15 (about top 5%) are taking either AP Chem or Bio or both. I don’t think this individual will be taking AP Physics/Chem senior year, so basically only one AP science. Also an independent study in “leadership” (ie. more time for student government) senior year.</p>

<p>Edit: Yep Yearbook is an honors weighted course, and I think the leadership independent study is as well.</p>

6

<p>I think the best schools like to see Yearbook on the transcript. I dunno why…</p>

7

<p>All the best high schools I know (just one part of the country, and a few prep schools elsewhere) put classes on the transcript but keep activities off the transcript.</p>

8

<p>In some hs’s, yearbook is an elective class with a grade…IMO, ridiculous, but true; I’m sure that colleges eliminate the grade when re-calculating GPA…</p>

<p>Echelon: If 5% of your class is taking an AP science in junior year, it depends on the type of schools you want to apply to whether it will make a difference…</p>

9

<p>Is piano filling a graduation requirement? To have the most rigorous schedule, I would think you ought to have an academic class in place of yearbook and ought to be studying piano on your own time unless it is required, but if that’s how your school does it…</p>

<p>How many study halls do you have? Do you have room to take another class? Can you participate in yearbook if you don’t take it as a class? All these things play into it.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I know a few kids from our HS who’ve gotten into Ivies and elite LACs early this year, and none of them have actually taken the <em>most</em> rigorous courseload available at our HS. They’ve all filled up on things like band and chorus that require no homework (for them, anyway), taken honors instead of AP, or CP instead of honors in some cases, haven’t taken the maximum number of courses so that they have more study halls, and so on. So although some schools talk a good game about “the most rigorous courseload,” I think that it may not really be necessary, and may actually work against you if your school doesn’t weight grades for the GPA.</p>

10

<p>that’s not very rigorous. what other AP’s are open to juniors at your school that you could possibly take?</p>

11

<p>Piano is filling a graduation requirement (though the top kids do this by taking orchestra/band, which is honors, for the duration of their hs career). There is no more room for other classes, and yes yearbook is an EC that can be pursued outside of the actual class.</p>

<p>APs open to juniors = AP Gov/Comp Pol, AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Stat (very few take this junior year, if at all)
Senior year = AP Physics, English Lit/Lang, USH, Calc AB or BC</p>