Course load strong enough for Selective Colleges?

Answered

Hi @JohnnyJay,

Thanks for your question. It's good timing that you asked this question before school starts. You still have time to change his course schedule. Some of it is critical and needs to be sorted out.

You will get a better more accurate answer if you answer the following:

-What is your son's unweighted GPA? 3.9?

-What demographic is he? White, Black, LatinA, MixedRace, Indigenous, Over-represented minority (Indian, Chinese, S.Korean)

-Would he be applying for financial aid?

-What sports does he play?

-Does he play a musical instrument? Does he sing, dance, act?

-Does he qualify for legacy status anywhere?

-What leadership roles did he hold?

-Does he have a "spike" activity or narrative? Like something he's the very best at compared to his peers.

-Has he done any internships or written any published works?

Right now he is not a very compelling applicant without knowing more detail. The major problem area is his STEM coursework which is lacking. Why? Because top colleges want to see their admits thrive with a strong base of foundational coursework, not "niche" specific coursework geared toward humanities or business. So when top colleges state that they want to see 4 years of math, 4 years English, 3+ years lab sciences, 3+ years history, and 3-4 years of foreign language, it's to make sure they are admitting someone who is academically well-rounded. College students change their major an average of 3 times during their undergraduate work, therefore it's more important to meet the threshold of academic expectations first, prior to honing one's academic narrative toward a major.

The first thing I would do if I were your son's college counselor is to NIX the AP Micro/Macro Econ or AP Gov for 1 more math and 2 more science class. If he takes AP Statistics, that counts as math class which will give him 4 years. And if he took 2 out of the 3 lab sciences, like AP Bio, AP Physics or AP Chem, that would give him 3.5 years of science. This fixes a whole lot of rejections down the line.

Your son's core coursework is way below most admits at top 50 colleges. When colleges say HS requirements, those are minimums, not maximums. Most have exceeded that. (don't compare me to him but I had 6 year's worth of math, 8 yrs. English, 4 history, 4 lab science. Then I took a PG year at boarding school after I already got admitted to Columbia U. and took 6 more English classes, 3 more Histories, and 3 religion ones).

You will certainly get a more accurate and better answer if you can provide more information. I'm happy to help and steer you both to a good college list.