Im in my sophomore year and currently I am taking AP Precalculus and AP World. I’m stressed out because a lot of my classmates are taking AP Bio this year. I didn’t take it because I wanted to take guitar to start a club and I am already in 2 sciences (Chemistry Honors and a Biomedical Science elective class). I found out recently that I could’ve started the club without being in guitar (United Sound) and also when I tried to switch to AP bio my counselor said no. Even the director of counseling said no. Now, I’m really stressed out because I feel like I am not taking enough APs since some of my classmates are taking 4 APs, and a lot of them are taking AP bio. I want to go to a t20 as a biomedical engineering major. My school offers a lot of AP’s and now I’m worried my schedule isn’t as rigorous as they want it to be. I am planning on taking rigorous schedule my junior and senior year (AP Lang, APUSH, AP Chem, Calc BC my junior year and 1 DE) but I’m still worried because people will still be ahead of me. I’m a straight A student and have no doubt that I will keep that up especially with an easy course load this year. What can I do and any advice?
I think you need to relax a bit. You are taking two AP classes and a pretty challenging courseload.
I think you need to do your personal best and not worry about what others are doing this year. You have two more years after this one to take AP bio if you want to.
You are double accelerated already in math.
Honestly, when the time comes, there will likely be plenty of colleges that will welcome you as a student.
And…enjoy guitar! That sounds like a great arts elective course to be taking!
ETA…you wrote this:
I’m a straight A student and have no doubt that I will keep that up especially with an easy course load this year
My opinion…your courseload is not an easy one!
-
You can’t change what you can’t change so relax
-
Do you want to go to a top 20 or a top 20 for biomedical engineering - because that’s unlikely to be top 20. And how are you measuring top 20 because I can show you 100 top 20 schools - lots of rankings.
-
Engineering is mainly - I love the word - egalitarian from @Mwfan1921 - ie short of a few schools, the where doesn’t matter. My kid turned down a top 10 engineering school for Bama. Told me ranks are for parents and kids but companies mainly don’t use them. Well he had 150 in his cohort - not sure how many were engineers but at least 50. He was hired in with kids from top schools but also the Akron’s and W Michigans if the world. And he interned with Georgia Tech kids. He was invited back. (Edited by moderator to comply with forum rules).
Bottom line - be the best you and you are fine.
Take 4 years English, math, lab science, foreign language and social science. You only need chem in 10th of you had bio in 9th and don’t compare.
To me it sounds like they are taking too many APs. What if they don’t do well ?
Ps it’s the elective science class you don’t need. Focus on core and you’ll be fine. The core is far more important than biomedical. With guitar you have two electives. Get back on the core classes next semester.
But nothing wrong with taking classes for enjoyment.
But in 10th grade, you are way too early to proclaim a top school. It’s a great goal but your application goes beyond grades and #1 is money. But your schedule seems rigorous for a 10th grader assuming you are hitting core classes.
Don’t worry about your friends or US News.
Good luck.
My advice is to stop trying to pay attention to what your friends or fellow students are doing. Just do not worry about it.
Two AP’s sophomore year of high school is a LOT of AP classes. I personally would not recommend taking even this many. You are doing fine.
Also, there is nothing magical about a “top 20” university. There are a LOT of universities that are very good for various biomedical fields. There are a LOT of students who are studying in various biomedical fields. If you look for example at students in very good biomedical graduate programs, you will find that they come from a huge range of undergraduate universities and colleges. If you graduate with a bachelor’s degree and find yourself working in some biomedical field, you will find that the people that you are working with again came from a huge range of undergraduate schools. One person described this as “all over the place”. And students will have gotten a very good education at all of these schools.
And yes, there will indeed be plenty of very good colleges and universities that will be happy to have you as a student, and that will provide you with a great education and with great opportunities.
One thing that might be worth mentioning regarding “top 20” schools: If you get to attend one, you just cannot try to compete with all of the other students. It will not be possible. Even at a university that is not quite “top 100” there will be a lot of very strong students. Don’t try to compete with them. Instead learn from other students, figure out what your own pace is, and take things at your own pace.
Another thing to mention about “top 20” schools: What are the best schools for you, what were the best schools for me, and what are the best schools for anyone else, are all entirely different things. US News rankings suffer from the problem that they cannot know what is best for you or what is best for me. They have some ranking criteria, but you and I if we really think carefully about this are likely to have some very different ranking criteria. Thus trying to narrow this down to a single number attached to each college and university really cannot make sense for all of us.
This will work out. Be the best version of you that you can be, and do not worry about it.
Not taking AP Biology in 10th grade shouldn’t be a problem. I attended a high school where Biology and Chemistry Honors were mandatory prerequisites for taking any AP science in 11th or 12th. I don’t have any statistics to demonstrate whether students that fulfill these prerequisites perform better in AP junior and senior year. What I do recommend - definitely take a physics honors subject & avoid taking AP Biology & AP Chemistry the same year, take one in 11th & the other in 12th. I would stick with guitar & perhaps take AP Music Theory with some supplemental preparation beforehand, only if interested of course.
My husband is a university department chair in Biology and he was horrified when he heard that the sophomores at our daughter’s school were taking AP Bio while also taking Chemistry. I also work in higher ed and can assure you that what high schoolers think is important does not always align with what university admissions committees think is important. Schools want to see rigor and that you are challenging yourself but they also want to see mastery and deep engagement with the content. Cramming in as many APs as you can (especially in the first two years) is NOT what they are looking for and can often even be viewed negatively. Colleges want to see thoughtful course selection as well as evidence that students will make good judgement calls by knowing what a reasonable limit is on their time. It is every university’s nightmare to see students enter and try to take on too much in their course load selection and run the risk of not being able to return in a future semseter (be it from academic suspension, financial aid suspension, or losing their merit scholarships). I even know math professors who do not let their own children progress more than +1 in the math sequence because they don’t think it serves students well to go beyond Calculus in high school, but the consensus among students and parents these days seems to think if you’re not +2 or +3 ahead in math that you’re doomed. I promise that those of us in higher ed are viewing these choices under a completely different lens. Run your own race and do what you take on well and find things you enjoy and can speak passionately about. That is more than enough.
I’m not going to lie to you. It would have been a good idea for you to have taken AP Bio, but it’s not going to happen (unless maybe if you get your parent to call the school principal today, and argue your case for you). The best thing that you could do, at this point, is to get straight A’s in all your classes (hooray for being a year ahead in math, btw), and do the extracurricular activities that you really want to do. Don’t worry about starting clubs, unless that’s what you really want to do. You want to learn guitar? Great! Do it! You think it will look good on your applications that you started a music club? Only if you want to do it for its own sake, not for applications.
In my opinion, AP Bio, if well-taught, is one of the more valuable AP classes. You could “fix” this by taking college biology next summer at the nearby 4 yr state college, but it’s going to be intense, doing a full year of college Bio plus lab in 8 weeks - it will be all that you can do, for those 8 weeks. You don’t have to do this, but if you’re interested in bioengineering, it’s not a bad idea, because if you hate college bio, that might steer you away from bioengineering - best to find this out early.
You don’t need to go to a T20 to do engineering. There are many good engineering schools, lots to choose from, and what will matter for your career is your ability to do the job, not what school you went to. So don’t stress out about getting into a T20. It probably won’t affect your career trajectory in engineering, to go to a reputable 2nd tier school like RPI instead of a top school like MIT or Stanford or Columbia for engineering.
I would also look for “taste of engineering” summer programs for next summer at your nearby state colleges, flagship state U, and nearby private colleges. They might range from a one week program where each department gives you a bit of exposure to what each type of engineering does, to a 3 week immersion into one particular type of engineering. You might wind up more interested in mechanical, or Chem E, or electrical - who knows? But if at all possible, try to get in a year of AP Chem and AP Physics C before you finish high school (in addition to the AP Bio if your parent can fix it, or a summer of college bio next summer), plus Calc BC, plus get involved in something mechanical engineering at school (robotics club?) Your goal is not to goose your applications, but to explore which type of engineering you might like best of all, when it comes time to choose.
It must be school dependent - I haven’t heard of this before. Both my kids and their friends at College Prep or Honors Chem 2nd year - it was sort of the pace.
I don’t see this as an issue. To me, it’d seem to be a huge rush.
In fact, AP itself says this:
### Recommended Prerequisites
High school courses in biology and chemistry
The student is in Chemistry now - which is the right sequence.
I’m wondering - with guitar and and possibly unnecessary elective - biomedical science - which core class are they missing?
In my district, there is no honors option in sciences, but students can take AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics C without having taken any high school bio, chem, or physics. A lot of the ambitious students do that. It’s a bit challenging. I wish that they wouldn’t waste middle school on low-level, very slowly taught science, and simply let the ambitious students take high school bio, chem, and physics in 6th, 7th, and 8th, then AP enviro in 9th, and AP Bio, Chem, and Physics in 10th, 11th, and 12th. As it is, they kind of just mark time in middle school, and then jump into the deep end with AP sciences. The bright kids who are motivated do just fine in the AP sciences, without ever having had high school science.
I’m not recommending that OP squeeze in college Bio while in high school in order to buff up his applications. He wants to major in Bioengineering, so not taking AP Bio which was offered was, frankly, a big mistake, because he needs to figure out whether he likes Bio enough to major in Bioengineering.
I disagree that he needs to know his major selection in 10th grade. And he’s taking a biomedical sciences elective.
We don’t know if the student is taking the required core classes.
I don’t think any college will penalize someone for staying in sequence (as I showed, AP recommends chem first) - and given the student is in 10th grade, it’s too early to proclaim they will get into x school - that may be $400k. Or may require a 1500+ SAT or 34 ACT.
Most kids I know can take 1-2 APs most 2nd year. They all don’t but that’s the max.
Not sure your district but it doesn’t seem the norm (to me). I would hate for OP to see your note and get stressed. I don’t believe it’s the norm.
The only potential issue is how your total number of APs will compare to the strongest students in the class. If you take fewer AP courses than some of your peers, your curriculum will be relatively less rigorous. It doesn’t matter how many APs students take at other schools, you won’t be compared to them.
I would encourage you not to be thinking ‘T20s’ at this point, there are many strong BME schools that aren’t in the T20. It’s good to have goals of course, but when the time comes to build your college list, spend relatively more time identifying schools with higher admission rates that you would actually be happy to attend.
this.. it is the context that matters, not the absolute. (And agree I think taking AP sciences in 9/10 is silliness but that is normal a lot of places, unfortunately)
In my town, you can not do any AP science (except Physics 1) w/o having taken a year of that science first. However, they aren’t comparing against my town or what you think it should be. The town next to me AP Bio is “honors bio” for top 10th graders (but there is a process to get in). AOs compare kids to their available offerings, not across districts offerings, at least not in top “20s” with holistic admissions and very low acceptance rates .
Anyway, what is done is done for OP! Make sure to take bio/chem/physics, as high as you can handle your remaining time! And as other as said, engineering job outcomes are great across a variety of universities, even those with more generous acceptance rates (and the programs are VERY rigorous with at all of them:)
AND this one thing is probably not make or break anyway…and you will never know if it is.
nevermind
Interpret these posted statistics by UGA with caution: The mid-50% of AP, IB, & DE classes taken is 9-14. Some students do take a combination of all three during high school. And not all of these students are taking the AP exams in May or opting to submit scores.
CollegeBoard: Number of AP Exams Per Student (2025)
Taking 9-14 or more AP, IB, or DE classes is not an admissions requirement for any T20 school.
nevermind
A post was split to a new thread: Accused of cheating
And might I add, neither do honors nor Pre-AP® courses. 
Students don’t need to know their major selection in 10th grade. But they should explore - and this young person says that they are set on bioengineering. High school is a time to explore interests, to try things out, to figure out what one likes and doesn’t like. OP has already stated that they are set on bioengineering, so it makes complete sense for them to try AP Bio, if offered, to find out if that’s really the case. It might help them avoid choosing the wrong school, and avoid realizing once they’re there that they really didn’t want bioengineering.
I completely agree with you that kids should have high school science in bio, chem, and physics before taking APs, but since it is considered “elitist” to allow access to these subjects in middle school for those who are ready for them, it means that it’s either straight into AP sciences with no high school prep, or not taking them. The reality is that, where allowed, students are taking these classes at the AP level without preparation, because that’s when they’re finally allowed a shot at rigorous, challenging coursework in the sciences.
Can we please get back on topic? People on this thread are unnecessarily causing anxiety for the OP. Unless you actually know the specific context of their school, offering advice based on your own kids, your local district, or national averages is completely unhelpful and misleading. Lecturing them about what they should have done differently in the past doesn’t help them now either.
I’m just a parent, but my gut sense is that the rigor determination is more akin to a rough threshold than a race to the most APs. Where the number of APs can have significance is rank via weighted GPA, though a single course is unlikely to make a huge numerical difference.
Make sure you take a physics course. Consider saving AP Chem for senior year, as it has a reputation for being one of the more difficult APs.