Hey everyone, I live in Virginia, and I’d really like to go to a really great university, specifically UVA or William and Mary. . I’m about to start the process of scheduling classes for next year. I’d appreciate any feedback, but I was specifically wondering if this would be considered a rigorous course load? In my county we are only allowed to have 7 periods in school, but you can take online classes too. Also, I’m in my county creative writing courses, and to get the diploma you only need 5 classes (I already took one each freshman and sophomore year) but if you take 6, you get the highest level diploma. And in my county you have to take either regular econ or AP econ online. I plan to be in pre-med in college if that helps. Thanks!
11th:
-AP English 11
-Functions/An. Geometry (Pre-Calc)
-AP Chemistry
-AP Capstone Seminar
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar II
-Creative Writing III: Genre Focus
-Creative Writing Seminar I
-Regular History 11 or AP Econ or regular econ online
*taking either regular history 11 or econ online either summer before 11th or 12th
12th:
-AP English 12
-AP Calc AB
-AP Physics 1
-AP Capstone Research
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar III
-Creative Writing VI: Advanced Genre Focus
-Creative Writing Seminar II
-either regular history 12 or AP Gov online
5 APs senior year seems, to me, a bit ambitious. I know that I want my D to enjoy her senior year. Most schools will make decisions based on classes through junior year. You will be doing college apps, including lots of essays your senior year, so that is a lot of writing there, too. You don’t mention your GPA, but I would protect that and not over-burden yourself senior year. Also, what ECs do you have? Have you taken SAT/ACTs? Those take prep time as well. And your AP tests? Wholly mackerel! You need to sleep.
Junior year looks OK to me. I’ll be interested what others say.
The one big hole I see in your schedule is no foreign language. Competitive colleges really want to see 4 years of it. Have you already complete that? Otherwise it looks good.
^Excellent point re: language. Missed that.
I’m currently in my third year in spanish. However, even though I excelled through levels one and two in spanish, I am having a bit of a tough time at the moment. I can’t really envision myself succeeding in spanish 4 next year, and unfortunately my school only offers pre-ap spanish 4, not regular. I am bilingual though, but it’s Ethiopian and no schools over placement tests since its not a very popular language.
@2muchquan I usually miss it when I look at schedules. I’ve had so many people come after me and add it in that I’m finally starting to remeber.
@softballGeek Being bilingual doesn’t substitute for taking foreign language classes. It really should be a high priority to take and do well in more Spanish classes. You will be fighting an uphill battle trying to get into those colleges without it.
Maybe you can replace one of those creative writing class with Spanish 4?I don’t see the need for 2 creative writing classes. Some schools even require 4 years of a foreign language so you will be auto-denied if you don’t.
Okay so if I were to replace one of the creative writing classes junior year to regular Spanish 4, does everything else seem okay?
The rest of your schedule looks fine, but it would probably be better if you added Spanish 4.
You have a great taste in schools and it is great that you are getting started so early. I agree that adding the foreign language would be to your benefit. Most colleges do want to see the fourth level of language and it does help take care of language proficiency requirements once you are in college. If language is not your forte or you want to have a more flexible schedule to try new things, usually the fourth level of a foreign language satisfies that requirement.
As for the rest of your schedule, it looks pretty good to me. You are taking a rigorous schedule that includes physics and calculus, something that William & Mary has recognized as challenging yourself. It also includes creative writing, which I assume is a passion of yours. Having those creative writing skills will definitely help you out when it comes to writing college essays. Overall you look like you are in good shape, but taking that one more year of foreign language can greatly save some trouble for you in the long run
Okay thanks everyone! I’ll take out the 2nd creative writing class junior year and take Spanish 4.
Does the Ethopian cultural center or Embassy offer language tests that you could use to prove proficiency? I agree that having Spanish4 would be better and if you could add some proof of your bilingualism it’d be exceptionally good (because few people speak Amharic and even fewer speak all three of Amharic, Spanish, and English.)
-AP English 11
-Functions/An. Geometry (Pre-Calc)
-AP Chemistry
-AP Capstone Seminar => can you take Spanish 4 instead of this? Isn’t it another Humanities class? Since you have 2 Creative Writing classes (and you need those for the special advanced certificate) and you’re also taking AP English 11, I think you don’t need AP Capstone.
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar II
-Creative Writing III: Genre Focus
-Creative Writing Seminar I
-Regular History 11 or AP Econ or regular econ online => if you can, take Honors History, with Econ online over the summer
12th:
-AP English 12
-AP Calc AB
-AP Physics 1
-AP Capstone Research => I would take a “fun” elective instead of AP Capstone. This will be your senior year and you’ll have the equivalent of an extra class, writing all those essays for colleges. A fun class with no homework will give you time to breathe.
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar III => This is good because it shows continuity.
-Creative Writing VI: Advanced Genre Focus
-Creative Writing Seminar II
-either regular history 12 or AP Gov online => I would take AP Gov online
This is a very rigorous schedule and one that shows consistency, both balance and personal interests, and just by reading it an admissions officer would be intrigued due to the Creative Writing classes and the Leadership Council Seminar. Honestly the above schedule (or even your original one provided you add Spanish) is one of the strongest and most compelling I’ve seen so far. 
@MYOS1634 Wow thanks for the great feedback! So this week I’ve talked to my English and history teachers and I think I have come to the conclusion that maybe AP Capstone isn’t quite right for me. So, this what I’m thinking.
11th:
-AP English 11
-Functions/An. Geometry (Pre-Calc)
-AP Chemistry
-AP Economics
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar II
-Creative Writing III: Genre Focus
-Either regular spanish 4 or pre-ap spanish 4 depending on how I do the rest of the year
*taking regular history 11 online before senior year, I wish there was honors history 11, but there isn’t
12th:
-AP English 12
-AP Calc AB
-AP Physics 1
-AP Goverment OR *AP Stats or AP Psychology and take regular gov online
-Student Activities Leadership Council Seminar III
-Creative Writing VI: Advanced Genre Focus
-Creative Writing Seminar
Looks great, congratulations!