Will not taking AP Bio hurt my chances of getting into Fordham?

[SJ2727]

@Mwfan1921

We don’t even know OP’s GPA. Obviously more context could change how posters are responding.

Sure, and also GPA could change between now and when OP applies. For some context Fordham class of 2029 outcomes below - while I imagine it got a bit more competitive this year I can’t see huge leaps. I do like that Fordham is one of the few schools who publishes both admitted and enrolled stats:

Admitted

High School GPA: 3.75
SAT Middle 50%: 1380-1490*
ACT Composite Middle 50%: 31–34*
*66.2% of those who gained admission did not submit testing

Enrolled

High School GPA: 3.61
SAT Middle 50%: 1350–1480**
ACT Composite Middle 50%: 30–34**
**74.0% of those who enrolled did not submit testing

[NiceUnparticularMan]

@aquapt

Also, if you’re taking precalc junior year and Calc BC senior year, doubling up on math to take AP Stats junior year as well shouldn’t be a high priority. That might be the place to fit in CSP or music theory if you really want those.

That’s a good point. A humanities student in particular would seem to be a good fit for choosing at most one of Stats and CSP for an elective Math class, not both, and neither would also be fine. To the extent you eventually wanted to take something like that anyway, you might well be better off doing it in college as one of your electives.

ETA: I also agree that depending on the OP’s overall admissions profile, it is entirely possible Fordham will easily want them and never dig into these details of their transcript.

As I understand it, we were implicitly asked to assume the OP was in some way a marginal case, but realistically only a small percentage of applicants are in that range.

Personally, I would actually more be focused on college preparation. Like, it is one thing to be admitted to a college like Fordham, another to be truly well-prepared to really thrive in their core curriculum. And I think if you focus on preparation, that not coincidentally tends to also work out for admissions.

[Bill_Marsh]

@MAmom111

My daughter got into Fordham with one AP, no dual enrollment and a 3.8 GPA at a public high school. As did many of her friends. I feel like people are overthinking this.

Same here.

[ucbalumnus]

@NiceUnparticularMan

A humanities student in particular would seem to be a good fit for choosing at most one of Stats and CSP for an elective Math class, not both, and neither would also be fine. To the extent you eventually wanted to take something like that anyway, you might well be better off doing it in college as one of your electives.

Both statistics and CS principles are useful things to learn for their own sake by students going nowhere near those subjects for their majors. However, statistics is easily available in college (and a student who has had calculus may have the option of calculus-based introductory statistics), and CS principles type courses may also be offered, or the content can be self taught from https://cs10.org . So there is no rush to stuff it all into one’s high school schedule.