On track?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

Hey guys! :slight_smile: I’m currently a freshman in high school, and I’m in the process of choosing my schedule for next year. I was wondering if you guys have any tips for choosing schedules, and I guess an evaluation on whether I’m on track for selective colleges like Penn State, or way off.

My current schedule and grades are:
Honors World History- 97
Honors Chemistry- 99
Challenge- 100
Gym- 100
Honors Orchestra- 98
Honors English 1- 97
Honors Spanish 2- 93
Honors Algebra 2- 98
Photography- 94 (final grade, as it was a 1-semester elective)
Honors Robotics

I’m not completely sure regarding course selections for next year, but I have:
Honors World History 2
Challenge
Honors Orchestra
Honors English 2
Honors Spanish 3
Honors Trig
Other Science- Not sure
Health (this takes up one period every day :/, this and Gym are mandatory)
Gym

(My school has eight periods a day)

At my school, I can take either AP Bio, AP Chem & Organic Chemistry, AP Physics C, or AP Environmental Science. What makes me uncertain is that I don’t know if I wanna go into Chemistry or a Chem-related career, but my Chem teacher is edging me towards AP Chem & Organic Chemistry (if you do one the schedule works out so it lets you do another), and I’m not sure of what I would like to do in life yet, so I have a minor dilemma. I also don’t know what most of them will be like. Does anyone have any experience with the different AP Classes? Even though I can take whichever ones I don’t take jr/sr year, I won’t be able to do one of them, sadly.

Right now, I am in Debate Club, BuildOn, Science Olympiad, TSA (but planning to drop it next year), and our school’s Literary Club. I do Cross Country, and Crew. I don’t have many awards except for a Silver Key in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and being a CTY Scholar. When I took the SAT in middle school, I scored a 2050. I’m not that sure of what else I can do, and I’m wondering how to spend the summer too. I live in Western PA, and there’s not really that much to do. In the past, I’ve basically sat around and done nothing of use, but I have a feeling that needs to change. Any suggestions, guys? Thanks so much! :-*

2

Hardest to easiest (At my school anyway):
AP Chem
AP Physics C
AP Bio
APES

If you are looking to get into somewhere like Penn State I would rule out APES because it is seen as a pretty easy AP. You could do chemistry sophomore year because you wouldn’t loose as much knowledge over the years plus if its your only AP sophomore year it would be like your one class that you have to work a lot for! But it is a pretty difficult class!!! I think it all depends on if you are doing well in your current chemistry class, if you enjoy it, and if you are up for a pretty big challenge! If you don’t really fit any of those I would go for AP Bio and do AP Chem and AP Physics your junior and senior year.

3

Do you mean Penn State or University of Pennsylvania.