Junior Schedule

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

I’m sort of depressed about my schedule for this year and I need some advice.

During registration in sophomore year, my schedule, as I planned with my parents and my counselor was as followed:

AP Eng Lang
US History P
French 3
Pre-Calculus
AP Biology
ROP Criminal Justice (semester class for fall; Health during the spring)

Sadly I didn’t get the classes that I wanted, instead I got this:

Eng 3H (because I didn’t get the recommendations; my 2H teacher was a bit bias about her students, there were multiple students with the same grade as I, but got into AP)
US History P
French 3P
Pre-Calculus P
AP Bio
ROP Criminal Justice

Since my English skills aren’t the best; I had trouble maintaining it as an A in sophomore year (1st semester B+ / 2nd A) and I because the 3H teacher had timed essays every week (which I’m terrible at, I can write a good essay, but not within 57 minutes) I consulted my parents and counselor and got into Eng 3P.

I also dropped out of ROP Criminal Justice because I wanted more time to study for classes and the ACT.

Today, I went and ask to transfer from US History P to AP US, but my counselor said I might not get in because transferring in and out of AP classes are difficult. Then I asked him if the schedule was difficult enough for colleges, he said yes, but I’m not sure, is it really?
I really want to get into AP US so that I would have more rigorous classes, but my luck seems to just be out.
I can’t even take another science class because the school policy won’t let me.

Advice? Please?

I’m seriously depressed, I’ve cried multiple times already, I want to get into a good university like UCI, UCR, or CS Fullerton, but with a schedule like that, I’m not sure anymore.

2

Please help, I really need advice. My parents are great at for when I need consulting, but they don’t really know much about the American school system…

3

I think it’ll be fine for colleges. It’d help if you are in multiple ECs, preferably ones you’ve been in in past years. If you want to study APES or Chem on the side, that’d be even better. If you can, ask past students who applied to UCI, UCR, or CS Fullerton what they did and if they have any advice. AP Bio will be a strong point on your application.

Also: Does P mean College Prep? and: It sounds (stuff you said)like you moved to the US from another country, which will boost your application, especially for the UCs.

Sorry I can’t help that much, but my advice is to find passions and devote a lot of time to them. Find what makes you happy. On your application for college, you can say “I tried to get scheduled for these classes, but something got messed up in registration, so I devoted a lot of time to ____ instead.”

gives hug I hope you feel better soon.

4

@awesomepolyglot The idea of studying on the side is great, I might do that along with prepping for the ACT. I’ll attempt to ask past students, but I don’t really know many other students, I’m kind of an introvert.

I believe that P does mean college prep, what I know is that it fulfills the “a-g” requirements in California.

I didn’t move here from another country, but I was raised by my parents who moved here from Vietnam two or three decades ago and no one in my family or anyone close to us has gone to college in the US, if they did and I didn’t know about it, it was a long time ago and times are now different; so mostly, I’m left to plan for myself when it comes to my high school education and future college education.

Thank you nevertheless for your advice, it’s a lot of help and I’ll keep what you’ve said in mind! Thank you again, I hope that I’ll feel better as well, looking for something funny online to keep my mind off of things.

5

I’d like so more advice? Please and thank you!

6

Try to get back into English 3H or Ap Lang. Explain that you don’t speak English at home and STILL got an A second semester, so would like to stretch academically and learn as much English as you can in a class that is intense and intended for string native speakers.
A B/B+ in English 3H and especially Ap Lang is considered better than an A in regular English, but, MOST IMPORTANTLY, the depth of learning in these classes will prepare you for college and for tests, whereas English regular will be basic and won’t serve your learning needs as well. If you intend to apply to UCs, you’ll need strong writing skills both for your essays and for college classes.

For ucs, look at the lust of “UC approved honors classes” and make sure to take 4-5 , then add up to 3 Ap classes for sophomore and junior years. So, ideally, you’d have 1Ap and 3 honors sophomore year plus 2 aps and 3honors junior year.
You need to have English, History/social science, math, foreign language, and science every year. In math you need to have recalculate or calculus senior year. In foreign language you need to reach level 4 or ap. In science, it’s preferable to have bio, chem, and physics, plus one ap (environmental science is fine but Ap bio, ap chem, or ap physics 1 are even better. And you can have two ap sciences of course, just as you could have two ap social science.)
Only drop down to non honors if you are not making a B or higher in a class.
Prepare for the Sat - I’d you’re on your own, use " up tour score sat", it’s very user friendly. Work very hard on it starting now.

Csu’s will only take Sat /gpa into account.
Ucs will look at your EC’s so get involved in a school club , get a steady job and keep it (save the money! ), see if there’s a Vietnamese cultural center you can get to and explore your heritage.
If you are lower income, participate in Trio or Upward Bound or Avid - ask your school w ha t programs they have for lower income first generation students. In addition participating in these.programmes would automatically mean a fee waiver for tests and college applications.

7

@MYOS1634 Thank you for the advice!
I’m thinking about asking to transfer back into Eng 3H, or even attempt to get into AP if I’m unable to get into APUSH. (It’s a bit strange, my school’s policies though; my mom has a few friends who are high school teachers from other school districts, and she got advice from them about the problem with my scheduling and how my counselor told me that it’s unlikely that I’ll get into it. They told her that other schools aren’t like that and that their students aren’t restrained like so. She then got so involved that she wrote an email to the principal about the school policy and told me that she’ll meet the principal on Monday, I tried changing her mind, but I kind of hope that it would some how help me get into APUSH…) But I’m just a bit worried about the 3H teacher’s timed writes, I sat through her class for a day and she said that her class would have timed essays every other week, and as I’ve said before, I need more than a school period to write a good essay. I can handle essays where we are given at least a minimum of two days to work on it and other types of tests, but not timed writes. Any suggestions? I’m afraid that if I got back into the class, my writing grade (if I remember correctly, is about 45% of the class grade) won’t ruin my grade in the class overall.

I’ve been looking around about the “UC approved honors classes” and I’m pretty sure that my school doesn’t have such a thing. The only honors classes that they have are for the English classes and freshmen year world history, and I’m sure that they don’t belong in the list of classes.
Thus being, sophomore year I only have 1 AP class and an Eng 2H; and junior year with 1 (hopefully 2) AP classes and maybe an Eng honors class.
Senior year I’m thinking about either taking AP Calculus AB or AP Stats, and I’m going for four years of my foreign language and another AP science.

I plan on taking the ACT plus writing first, then the SAT if the score isn’t high enough. But I’m a bit unsure about the new SAT because it’s new, not many people know about it so I can’t take a prep class, and that there would be bugs in the system; and I can’t take the old one because my school is saving the fee waivers for the seniors who have last minute testing.

CSU don’t take a student’s classes into account? I didn’t know that, thank you for that little piece of info!
I’m joining a few clubs at school and plan to volunteer at my local church, in addition to that I’m signing up to volunteer at a hospital and the library during the summer.
There is a Vietnamese club at my school, I joined it freshmen year, but the club doesn’t do much other than meet up and talk about school.

My school only has Avid, other than that they don’t have programs for lower income students.
The only thing is the reduced lunch program which I’ve applied for so that I could get fee waivers for my tests.

Also, I’m thinking about self-studying for either (or both) AP Psychology or AP Environmental Science. Is it a good idea? I want to show colleges that even if I can’t get into APUSH or AP Lang that I’m still dedicated enough to self-study for a class I didn’t (and couldn’t because I had asked for AP Psychology during the end of my sophomore year and was rejected even though my friend got into it) take.

Thank you again!