D25 is thinking of dropping a class. The first day of school was today and there are only 10 kids in AP Computer Science Principles and only one other girl. The teacher is good, so I am encouraging her to stick it out. I think she will learn valuable skills that will help her in life regardless of career choice.
This is an elective class and her other 4 classes would be core (AP Calculus, DE English, DE Econ/AP gov (semester classes), AP Physics).
Would only having 4 classes be detrimental to college applications in any way? She will have 5 years of math, 4 years of English, 3 years of history/social science, 4 years of science (all lab classes), 3 years of foreign language, and 2 years of orchestra.
She has a few very reachy schools on her list (Cal Poly SLO, Hamilton, and Swarthmore). The other schools she is looking at have acceptance rates between 40-90%.
I think my daughter took that senior year with her best friend, they knew nothing. It was a bit of a struggle because the other students seemed very into it, and it was virtual. She asked her AP calculus teacher to let her CS teacher know she’s actually very smart and hard working (he suggested she take the class). She did get an A.
My kids each had four academic classes, one elective (culinary arts) and one arts elective (honors wind symphony). They both got into their first choice colleges
I would trade it out for foreign language, if possible. What is her planned major? I ask because I see she is taking two DE classes. Perhaps there is another elective she might be interested in through DE? Perhaps something relevant to planned major?
She definitely doesn’t want to take AP Spanish which would be her only option for another year of foreign language. Plus since all of her classes are singletons it probably wouldn’t fit in her schedule anyway.
For history/social sciences her school really only offers 3 years. Freshmen have to take health/geography which I don’t think counts for colleges.
Lol. Probably not! But this class would be a good exposure to CS for her. I read the course description on the AP site and it looks like a good overview with an introduction to programming.
Might be worth looking through the course catalog - maybe just take something that sounds fun? My daughter did that and took a DE philosophy - she liked it so much she is now minoring in philosophy, so you never know what exposure to a new subject might spark.
I am surprised the school is considering her full time with just 4 classes. Our local high school only allows for one free period and forces kids into 6 courses. The local private my son attended required a minimum of 5 classes.
Update: I talked her off the ledge (and a good friend switched into the class! lol). As she was telling me about her day she kept talking about this class and AP Physics. I told her it seemed like she actually found it interesting. She reluctantly admitted that to be the case. Thank you for all the responses!