I’m currently a high school sophmore in South Florida, and can’t decide which to pick. I haven’t taken a single AP class, but I’m in advanced gifted classes(if that makes any difference). I applied to all three and I’ve been accepted to all three. I’m trying to get into UF or GT for aeropsace. Which one should i pick, or should i just take 3-4 AP classes next year?
You’ll get more answers if you specify what those acronyms stand for.
@MYOS1634 AAA and SAS are Duel Enrollment programs.
FYI.
At UF, a freshman applies to the university and not to any college. That means your major does not mater in admissions. However, if you earn your AA degree, via DE, you also have to apply to your college.
For example, lets say you want to go into Aerospace engineering. As a normal freshman (including IB program graduates), you would apply to UF, and your major is not consider. If you’re accepted, you can pick any major, including Aerospace. You’re IB classes will have earn you college credit, so you like start out as a 2nd year student (which will give you a higher priority in selecting classes!), but you will need to still take most of your critical tracking classes.
If you earn your AA, then you have to apply to UF and to the college of engineering’s aerospace program. The university will consider your application and if you met their requirements, they will then hand it off to the college of engineering. Now the college will consider your application. They will want to make sure you’ve meet the engineering core requirements. These include taking the critical tracking classes (Calc 1, 2, 3, Physics 1, 2, Chemistry 1, and Differential Equations), as well as meeting a minimum GPA target (which shouldn’t be a problem, if you got accepted by the University).
DE students with AA degrees will sometimes not get accepted till a few weeks after the normal acceptances go out for freshman (2nd Friday in February), as they applications take longer to review.
Either path (IB or DE) will get you into U, I don’t think one has much of an advantage over the other. IB is a more standard path and a bit more flexible (you can change majors at will your first 1 or 2 at UF), while DE will lock you into the program you’re applying too. Personally, I would lean more toward the IB program, but the DE path could get you to graduate much earlier (a year or more).
In the University of Florida forum, you can ask other accepted students and parents about the IB vs DE path (for engineering). They can share their experiences.
I would contact GT admissions department and ask them about accepting DE students who have earned an AA degree. The state of Florida has an arrangement setup between it’s community colleges and universities, so most if not all classes can be transferred. I’m not sure what GT’s policy is on DE/AA students, so I would ask.
Good Luck!!
@Gator88NE : I know but it’d dubious most people in the high school life forum would :). My hope was that OP would get more answers by being more precise.
You don’t need to earn an AA at all. Taking a combination of AP and de classes with maximum flexibility while maintaining a healthy range of EC 's is the best way to get into highly selective schools. Beside the fact earning an Aa makes it harder to get into and requires you to know your major at age 17, the issue with straight AA programs is that they neglect the EC dimension, which is fine for instate public universities but not for selective oos universities (or honors programs). However being on a college campus means you can try to get involved in research more easily then if you stay in high school.
All in all, old say go for the most flexible part available to you.
So essentially, I would have to take the courses that are prerequisites for Aerospace if I go to AAA or SAS since the they would be handing off my application to both departments. I’m pretty sure i cant make all of those in 2 years. I was leaning towards IB anyway, but wasn’t sure if i could handle it since I’ve done basically nothing in terms of AP or hard classes, and the Junior year is apparently the hardest. Should I just do 3 APs or switch into IB?
Can you take 3 AP’s and 1 or 2 DE?
Yeah i can take AP Lang or Lit(forgot which), AP Physics, AP Psych or APUSH. And For DE i can take Pre-Cal(whichi is kinda hard but the teacher is amazing, just very fast), and Computer Science Everyone/Programming in Java( which i think is going to be easy since the teacher is super cool and i have prior knowledge of programming already).
AP Lang, AP Physics, APUSH
a foreign language (Honors preferably) level 3, 4, or AP (or DE?)
Precalc DE CS DE
Do you have art at your CC? (I think FL CC’s are required to list Art classes for DE students)
= winning schedule
We have Art and AP art at my H, and i took Spanish 1 & 2 in middle school but i kinda forgot all of it besides “la casa es de color rojo”
So -AP Lang, Physics 1, APUSH, DE Precal, and CS?
You need 3-4levels of a foreign language to access selective colleges. Didn’t your gc tell you ? Fortunately, if you study a language through levels 1,2,3 -doesnt have to be Spanish, you may even choose to stand out a little and pick, say, Portuguese, German, French…- it should cover what you need in three semesters (college language classes are faster paced, which allows you to meet the colleges ’ expectations in two years or less.)
I thought you only needed 2 years of a lang…
If i take all of those classes, it would basically be ib without theory of knowledge.
also i want to learn Spanish since i dont know it and everyone and their mother speaks spanish in south florida
You need to reach at least level 3 in high school, but 4/ap is better. You can do that in 3-4semesters with dual enrollment. You could also take Spanish at initio SL for IB, that would be OK. If you do ib what would your subjects be ?
IB English 3(Gifted)
IB Pre-Cal(G)
IB Chem(SL G)
IB History of the Americas (HL) (Gifted)
IB Spanish 1*
Theory of Knowledge (Gifted)
IB Film Studies
DE: CS Everyone/ Programming in Java
That looks good. 
So just do IB?
I have to do Gov over the summer so i could add spanish to it also.
Add gov over the summer and do Spanish ab initio.
Sounds like ib will work better for you indeed.
I think I have to take Gov over the summer, should i take spanish 1 with it too?
^ wait didnt know that there was 2 pages
Thanks for the advice. You helped me a lot. imma put all your posts as helpful.