Senior year:
1.) Adv. Expository writing 1.5) Creative Writing
2.) AP BIO
3.) AP SPANISH
4.) AP CALC BC
5.) Astronomy 5.5) Ancient History
6.) Undecided (AP PHYSICS C possibly?)
I am a high school junior. My question here is if I should take the hardest schedule I can whilst receiving As or if I should lay off for Senior year and spend more time on enjoying my last year. One concern I do have is bringing my overall weighted GPA up (or gpa in general), as weighted GPA is what is used for class ranking; taking 4-5 APs would allow me to do this but would also forfeit a considerable amount of time I could be spending on essays and other senior year activities. The absolute most difficult schedule would be adding both AP Physics and AP lit to the mix and then I’d ask my counselor for an early leave or free hour to compensate for whatever the course-load may be like. Advice would be appreciated.
In any case, dont take 2 AP science classes your Jr year. And dont load up on hard classes- a lower GPA wont impress any college admissions office.
There is NO rush to take as many AP’s as possible, especially by your Jr year.
Spread them out and take only what you KNOW you can do really well in.
You will need the free HR your senior year, when in addition to classes, you’ll have an additional
responsibility on top of your class work - applying to colleges, which in itself is like having a part time job.
As a senior that’s three months away from graduating, I would say to give yourself a break. Not to say that you shouldn’t take any AP classes at all, but that you shouldn’t overwhelm yourself during your last year.
One or two AP classes won’t hurt you, but know your limits, and consider how well you can handle senioritis (Trust me when I say this, juniors always overestimate themselves and in the end they have too much on their plate: activities, college apps, scholarships, etc. etc.). You can only raise your GPA if you can get a good score on your AP classes, if you can’t, signing up for too many could result in dragging your GPA down instead, so do be careful.
tl;dr: Don’t overwhelm yourself, and realistically consider how well you can handle what’s coming for senior year.
@menloparkmom The answer to your question is yes. I am currently in 2 AP and 2 IB courses. Two of those being science courses. My goal here is not to take as many AP classes as I can but to take the classes I am interested in, and those happen to be in the STEM category. My worry is not the low GPA, as I was able to handle my course load just fine this year while maintaining As, but the opportunity cost of spending the time studying/doing the hw for those classes. @Sodium23 Thank you both for the insight.
@bvo: the vast majority of students who major in STEM haven’t taken Physics C.
@Dylan197: have you taken Honors Physics or AP Physics 1? if you have, I’d switch AP Bio for AP Physics C, and replace AP Bio with AP Psych or an “easy” class, or perhaps .5 art .5 social science?
@MYOS1634 I have taken IB physics so AP shouldn’t have too much new material. Right now AP physics is a must and AP Bio is the undecided class. I have dropped Spanish for APUSH as of now. What was your reason for switching AP Bio for any easy class? My school is known for Bio being a very easy AP class.
Revised:
1.) Adv. Expository writing 1.5) Creative Writing ( considering AP LIT)
2.) AP PHYSICS
3.) AP US HISTORY
4.) AP CALC BC
5.) Astronomy 5.5) Ceramics
6.) AP BIO
At most schools, AP bio is a very hard class and you don’t need it for engineering. It’s usually very difficult to combine AP bio and AP physics c, hence the suggestion to drop AP bio for AP physics, and add one easy class. If you’re sure AP bio is easy at your school, then your current schedule is excellent. Since you’re already doubling up in science you might want to replace the. 5 credit in astronomy by another art credit or 'fun’credit. You’ll need that with such a hard schedule and it’s always a plus for colleges.
Finally, AP lite will not 'add’anything so keep it if you love reading, especially classical novels, but don’t do it because of perceived rigor beczuse your current combination of English classes looks excellent And rhere’ll be no benefit to adding AP lit in terms of admissions.
If you want to be an engineer, take the Physics and drop the Bio (unless you want biomedical eng or something medical related).
Don’t over do it…You will be spending alot of time applying to colleges (do a draft of your essay over the summer!!!) and next spring you will thank us for it.
DYLAN197- you are making a terrible mistake thinking you can easily handle 2 AP hard core science classes next year. In addtion to all your other classes.
Take only AP Physics. And give yourself the chance to maintain your GPA and your sanity.
We have seen over and over again that Jr’s think they can handle 4-5 AP classes, which end up being TOO much work.
Trust us…
@annana@MYOS1634@menloparkmom@bopper my final schedule consists of Bio, Physics, Calc, and Spanish, plus a second semester AP micro online class, as our school doesn’t offer it.
@MYOS1634 No, sorry I forgot to mention that the rest are electives that won’t require much work. That way I’ll be allowed to have some downtime throughout the day.