Are my dual enrollment and AP classes a good path for a CS major?
I am currently a freshman and am going to take the dual enrollment over summer, any class that is not dual enrollment will be part of sophomore year schedule.
CIS 1 (Dual Enrollment, taken over the summer before sophomore year)
Intro to Computer Programming (Dual Enrollment, taken over the summer before sophomore year)
Physical Geography (Dual Enrollment, taken over the summer before sophomore year)
AP Computer Science Principles
AP World History/Culture
Integrated Math 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
English Honors
Spanish 2
Iām planning to major in computer science in college. Do you think this course load is a good preparation for a CS degree? I want to make sure Iām setting myself up for success.
The dual enrollment computer science and programming classes seem very relevant, and AP CSP should also provide a good introduction to computer science concepts. The math, science, and language courses also seem like they would be helpful prerequisites.
Does this course load look strong enough for a prospective CS major? Iām open to any other suggestions to improve my preparation. I will be taking these classes during sophomore year and I am in california and plan to apply to ucās like Ucla and Berkley, I know they are very competitive but I am just trying to shoot my shot.
One more thing will taking a dual enrollment class during the summer and taking essentially the same class but the AP version during the school year be bad, like for example I take world history dual enrollment and AP world history the following year, isnāt this grade grubbing.
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
And yes, I listened to the fact of not skipping ahead in math and just taking the hardest math classes available to you, thank you by the way!
4 classes, and they will mail you a certificate of proficiency.
IMO, if you know coding, skip CIS 1 and move onto actual programming classes and look for ways to cluster and complete a certificate if you can in the next 2 years.
In that case, it may be too much and too fast.
My S24 got the certificate by the end of 10th grade. I do believe it helped with his application to EECS/CE.
So, you think these dual enrollment classes are too many? I mean one of my friends is taking two dual enrollment classes right not during the school year and he says they are easy. So easy that you can cheat in them, our dual enrollment is online and has on cheating or any kind of that protection, they just give you tests, and you do it, it is like doing a test with nobody in the room, obviously I am not going to cheat just saying. It is kind of weird that my community college for dual enrollment does nothing to prevent cheating.
No. I think you trying to get a CS certificate may be too soon.
My S24 have 15 before applications were send out. He will end HS with 18.
DE classes are not difficult. My freshman daughter is already on #5. She is doing two more this summer and will have probably 15-17 before she applies to college in 2 years.
CIS 1 and intro to programming may be too easyā¦ But I donāt know you, so I canāt say. But as long as they transfer, you will get the GPA boosting effect when you apply to CA schools.
Oh, no like he isnāt cheating but he said that he can if he wants too.
Anyway, do you think these three dual enrollment classes would be a lot of work? Like can you estimate how many hours per day I would spend on them.
Yes and no. My son basically did a parallel approach between CC and HS by taking them as if he was progressing simultaneously. We also kelp the transcripts separate. None of the CC classes were used for HS credit. He took all the HS classes like all his classmates, but we started CC Freshman composition, logical reasoning, US History 1 and 2, Social Sciences, Math and Programming. On the application, it looked like a lot of duplications but he just has almost twice as many classes listed and ridiculous number for A-G years.
So I would say to OP, taking AP history as well as DE History is not necessarily seen as grade grabbing.
D27 has the luxury of her brother having gone thru this for the last 4 years, so we know which professors to get and who to avoid. Example: a music theory class may only take two hours a week. An easy freshman composition class about 4 hours a week while a different professor may assign a 20 page research paper on his chosen topic and insist on ten references of at least 5 different type ā that paper will probably take 30 hours to prepare and write.
Most DE classes will average maybe 6-10 hours a week. RateMyProfessor is helpful in getting an idea who to avoid.
Thank you, one of my friends is taking cis 1 right now and says that it is barely any work, almost too easy, it counts as uc transferrable so that is good. I want my dual enrollment gpa to count in my school gpa, which I am pretty sure is the case, hence the reply above.
Regardless where the grade from CC sits, when you apply, it will all get computed anyways. Many posters have observed having more years of A-G classes and high fully weighted GPA have been helpful. I suppose if you are using it for HS class rank (if your school ranks) then it will matter.
I am primarily using it so that my uc weighted gpa will be high as I heard that it matters for berkley and ucla, but I really want to take this coures and am not taking it solely for the gpa boost.
Thatās why we are doing it. To learn and get the fully weighted GPA up.
But I guess if your school wants the grades on the HS transcript then you may not have a choice. But we have ours separate and just have that many more classes than everyone else from the HS.