Should I take another AP or Senior Stem Seminar?Answered
I am a current junior and I am thinking about what classes I should take senior year. I can take 7 classes and will most likely be taking AP CS, BC Calc, AP Physics, AP Lit, and AP Stat, and an elective. My school offers a Senior Stem Seminar course in which you work on a year long engineering/science project of your choice. I plan on pursuing an engineering degree and am trying to decide if I should take another AP or the Seminar Course. If I did not take Stem Seminar, I would most likely take AP Latin or an AP history.
I have already taken/am taking AP US, AP Chem, and AP Bio.
Also, I plan on applying to mostly tech schools and the service academies, if that changes anything.
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
So how do you have time to work on your impressive extracurriculars and "spike" narrative? Do you have any other talents like art, singing, dancing, music? Do you play any varsity sports? How about leadership roles and community service? Hobbies?
Finding and doing things you love will in the end make you a happier person and colleges want to admit students who have more "angular" strengths than someone who is just book smart with perfect grades and test scores.
As someone who attends a Top Ivy, I wouldn't recommend using your remaining time at school to load up on APs and course rigor. It would be better to do an inventory of what you bring to the table and use what remaining time you have to bolster and shore up any gaps to make you a more distinctive applicant.
Good luck.
5 is already a lot of APs for senior year. People tend to claim junior year is the worst because you load up on APs for the first time, senior year can be as bad or worse because you're focusing on APs and college apps. After 4-5 APs, you won't impress schools so much; you may get credit for that AP if you do well on the exam. It's best to focus on the fairly difficult APs you already picked and do this project as a lower-stakes class that will still give you a college course experience. Besides, you already have or will hopefully have a gen ed history credit (APUSH), there is usually no point in getting a second one.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!
I (somehow) have a lot of interests and activities outside of just school, and I totally get that it is important! I definitely would go insane if I focused entirely on school. What sort of level of commitment/achievement should I go for? Ex. I am an avid climber and am on a team but I don't compete. Is just being on the team and calling it a hobby enough? Or should I be trying to compete?