Solid High School Course Plan? Areas for Improvement? [high school in Ontario, Canada]

NiceUnparticularMan
Fri, 09 May 2025 19:51:39 +0000

APRecess:

I’ve explored my interests already, decided on how I want to develop, and decided on a path.

But you are something like 14 or 15, correct?

One of the relative virtues of the US system of higher education is we tend to accomodate continued exploration of interests much later than most systems. So, in the US, at many of the “top” colleges it is normal for you not to even decide on a major until the second term of sophomore year, and some people change majors again after that and yet still graduate in four years.

And then many US graduate and professional programs are very flexible about college majors. And people often work before grad and professional school in a job that does not end up career track for them. So your decision on what to specialize in for a graduate or professional degree that launches your actual professional career could come years later still.

All this exploration comes at a cost, though, both financially for the institutions who make this exploratory model possible, and then in terms of opportunity costs for US kids who are still exploring when kids in other countries are already specializing.

OK, so possibly you are right and you are done exploring at age 14/15 and ready to decide on a specialization that will carry right through higher education and on into a professional career. But if so, the US higher education system may largely be just a slower and more costly system than is appropriate for you, particularly with the Canadian system as an alternative.

But another possibility is you may come to realize that you could still benefit from a lot more time to explore, in which case the US system might make more sense for you. But then almost necessarily, you would not really know yet at your current age what institutions within the US system would make the most sense for you.

APRecess:

If need be, I can switch out 2 years of computer engineering courses for chemistry and AP Chemistry.

Consistent with the above analysis, I think a lot of more selective US colleges might prefer a more obviously broad science education. But some might not care either way, and possibly a few programs might actually prefer the focus on computer engineering.