AP course suggestions for Junior and senior year in High school
Hi,
Planing for STEM - Computer science
Debating about taking the followingin junior and senior years:
11 - th Grade - AP English, AP statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP US history, (Cal BC completed in 10th)
12 - th Grade - AP English, AP Physics, AP Comp Sci, AP Govt
Is this good strategy or need to change anything?
Thanks
V
I think that the rigor of your course load will make you a competitive applicant. You have also chosen a good range of classes that show that you are well rounded, but also have a spike in computer science and STEM. My only advice for improvement would be to take AP Comp Sci during your junior year if you can. This way, colleges will see that you have been passionate about your intended major early on. Ideally, they will see a high GPA in AP Comp Sci which will further show your interest. Hope this helps!
Thank you. It really helps and going to take AP Comp Sci in junior year instead of AP Env. Science.
One more question - Does AP Spanish 4 in junior year make a huge difference in college app? I am not a native Spanish speaker and barely getting A- in Spanish 3 this year. Appreciate any guidance as my school counseller is recommending to take Spanish 4 in my junior year. Confused.
Appreciate any suggestions.
thanks
V
Sure thing!
I do not think that AP Spanish will move the needle greatly in your favor. The AP classes that you are planning on taking already show that you are well rounded in your academic interests. You also do not need to rely on an AP foreign language exam score to give you college credit - taking a language proficiency exam at the university you choose to attend will give you the same result. With all that in mind, there are virtually no benefits to taking AP Spanish unless you are passionate about the language. If not, I think that it would be best to take another AP class that you would likely perform better in.
Happy to help if you have any other questions!
My advice is to take AP physics 1 instead of AP Environmental Science and take AP Computer Science instead of AP Chem because for a STEM degree I think that Physics and Computer Science, make you look even better to top ranked schools. Also because I'm taking APUSH and AP Physics 1 right now and APUSH eats a lot of time for note taking. One more piece of advice is to not forget to continue keeping up with your extracurriculars.
AP classes can be a lot of work, especially APUSH, but I suspect you already know that-- if you think you can handle the workload, then it sounds great! The classes you chose look good if you're going into STEM, and show that you're both interested and driven. I personally don't think you should feel the need to take any more AP classes in different topics to look better-rounded... only do a hard class if you really care about it!
If you need to drop an AP and take a standard for whatever reason (I know school counselors can be weird if they think you're taking too many difficult classes), I suggest you to drop AP English. It's a great class, but also furthest opposed from your area of interest. That being said, I doubt you'll need to drop any as long as you work hard.
Thanks for the suggestions. Appreciate the quick response.
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