I’m currently a sophomore - so although I have my junior and senior year schedules roughly planned out, they’re just ideas - nothing has been picked or set in stone yet. But here is my 4 year plan:
9th grade-
•Drama 1-2 (for a-g vapa requirement)
•PE (2 years required for graduation)
•Biology (not allowed to take AP before completing regular)
•Spanish 1-2 (first year Spanish)
•Geometry (honors not offered)
•Advanced English (unweighted class but highest English offered to freshmen)
10th-
•World History (only other choice was AP Euro)
•Chemistry (can’t take AP before completing regular)
•Spanish 3-4 (second year Spanish)
•Algebra 2 Honors
•PE
•Honors English
11th-
•APUSH
•APES
•AP Psych
•AP Lang
•Pre-Calc Honors
•Teacher’s Aide
12th
•AP Calc AB or AP Stats (depending on how I feel after Pre-Calc Honors)
•AP Lit
•AP Government & Politics
•Spanish 5-6 (third year Spanish)
•Teacher’s Aide
•Photography (career prep elective is required to graduate at my high school)
Honors & AP are the only 2 levels of weighted classes at my school, and both get 1 extra point in weight. As of right now, I have earned straight A’s.
Does this seem like a solid enough schedule for UCLA and UCSD? Does anybody have any suggestions for 11-12th grade courses?
Why not Spanish 5-6 in 11th grade and Spanish 7-8 in 12th grade?
Where is physics?
Many applicants to the more selective UCs have more than the minimum a-g courses.
He already has Three sciences. No need for Physics
@ucbalumnus - AP Spanish 7-8 is not something I wish to take. The vast majority of those enrolled in that class at my school are students who have been fluent in Spanish for many years, and those who just started speaking Spanish later in life entirely through high school classes (like myself) never get more than a low B in the class. With FL not being my strongest, I’d rather not take that grade. I’d like to point out that I do have more than the minimum a-g requirements in many cases. 3 years of social science, not 2. 5 courses of high school level math, not 3. 3 years of a lab science, not 2. 3 years of FL, not 2.
Depending upon your intended major, especially STEM, you want a Physics course (doesn’t need to be Honors or AP). TA for both 11th and 12th seems a waste. With 4 AP’s and 1 Honors in 11th grade, you may need the TA position, but I would replace TA in 12th with Physics if needed. Again if you are targeting STEM, take AP Calculus over AP Stats.
The UC’s determine which courses will get the extra weighted points. You can look up your HS’s courses that are UC approved: https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution
UC GPA calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
@Gumbymom: would you suggest physics if I intend to major in the humanities? I could replace TA with physics my senior year. However, I’m interested in teaching and this is the only way to get experience during school hours at my school, and my job after school prevents me from getting any experience outside of school. And, a TA period senior year allows me to take time during the school day to focus on college apps, whereas my job plus homework and school clubs don’t give me tons of time outside of school. I could, however, take my third year of Spanish over the summer instead of during the school year, which then clears up a period senior year for physics. However, somebody warned me that taking FL over the summer in a 5-week course might appear to colleges like I rushed through an important class, and reflect badly on me, thus hurting my chances of acceptance. This doesn’t make sense to me, as I figure taking a class over the summer to free up a period for another a-g class would be seen as a positive?
If you intend to major in Humanities, then Physics will not be necessary, but I would still not take 2 years of TA. I would recommend a 3rd year of Spanish but would take it Senior year and replace the TA with elective such as AP Econ perhaps unless it is included with your AP Government Class. Since you want do want to do teaching, will the TA course state on your transcript that you are doing teaching? Is this your job? You are aiming for competitive schools, so they want to see you have a rigorous course schedule.
@Gumbymom I am not entirely sure about this because I have yet to check with my GC – but I believe that my school doesn’t let students take both AP Gov AND AP Econ, but I never understood a reason why, leading me to believe it’s not true. We meet with our counselors at the end of this month to pick classes for the next year, and if I am allowed to take AP Econ with AP Gov, that is something I am definitely interested in.
At my school, as a TA you are allowed to participate in classroom instruction – including posing ideas for lesson plans, conducting classroom discussions, and explaining material to students.
With 7 AP classes on your schedule, you need to make sure your GC considers this a rigorous schedule. With the UC’s you are targeting, they may question why you have 2 years of TA on your schedule but if you can explain your reasoning in the additional comments, it may be OK. I would consult with your GC since they will know how competitive you are in terms of courses and in comparison to your HS peers.
AP bio and APES in 10th would increase your chances. You can save AP Chem til 12 th. You need to pack as many AP and UC honors classes as possible into 10th and 11th.
Nvm. Just realized you are in 10th already.
@notveryzen unfortunately we can’t take AP Bio or AP Chem at my school until completing both regular bio and chem (which will have been done by the end of my tenth grade year). And I’m not allowed to take 2 science classes at once until junior year, APES isn’t available to 9th-10th graders at all 
As a teacher, you may find Spanish skill helpful.
If the AP Spanish course is full of heritage speakers, perhaps talking to them in Spanish outside of class may help you practice.
As far as rigor it seems pretty good(senior year may be slightly too light in rigor), however the only one who can truly answer this question is your GC.
If you apply for Humanities, you’ll want Spanish 3 (5-6) at a minimum, and in reality youll probably want to push it higher than that. If you dont want to take it at your school, an alternative is to take College Spanish 2 and College Spanish 3 through dual enrollment at a community college, which corresponds to high school Spanish 8.
Generally speaking, even for humanities majors, having each of biology, chemistry, and physics (at any level) is necessary, but you could take physics regular senior year to avoid dinging your UC GPA. Alternatively you could take APES junior year and something honors/ap showing your interest for humanities/social sciences senior year.
I concur that the TA unit two years in a row is too much, especially senior year. Is there any arts /humanities electives offered (like creative writing…?)
if you can handle the workload with As, that (and a strong SAT, essays and ECs) will do the trick. I would caution, your workload would be unmanageable for most students. GPA counts a lot more than course rigor, even at the top UCs. I sincerely encourage you to back off the APs next year. 2 APs and an Honors class is plenty hard.
Good luck