AP course selection - advice needed

[Anonymous]

My DS's NOVA HS offers the following AP courses:
African American Studies
Biology
Calc AB - will take next year as a senior
Chemistry
Computer Science A
English Lang - taking it now as a junior
English Lit - will take next year
Spanish - will take next year
Env Science - planning to take next year
Human Geo - taking this year
Econ - taking this year
Physics I - taking this year
Physics C
Precalc - taking this year
Psychology - planning next year
Stats
US Gov - planning for next year
US History - taking this year
World History

Will be applying to UVA Arts & Sciences this Fall. What courses should be considered for his senior year in addition to or instead of what's already planned?

[Anonymous]

Humanities kid or STEM kid? Math and science choices are ok but on the less rigorous end.

[Anonymous]

What is he interested in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is he interested in?

Not sciences, leaning towards humanities, public policy, econ.

[Anonymous]

Maybe drop 1 or 2 of the following and replace with world history:
human geography, psychology, environmental science?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is he interested in?

Not sciences, leaning towards humanities, public policy, econ.

If he intends to major in econ, then I’d wait until college to start taking econ. Focus on doing well in math.

[Anonymous]

He is talking a lot of fluff AP classes. He needs to drop one of the (many) easy ones he has planed and take AP bio or chem

[Anonymous]

That is a lot of APs (taken and planned) but leans heavily to the “lighter APs” (pre calc, human geo, environmental science, psych, gov). Better than not taking APs, but does not show as much rigor as someone taking the harder sciences or World History. Take this with a grain of salt since you said your kid is a humanities kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Humanities kid or STEM kid? Math and science choices are ok but on the less rigorous end.

This plus what are similarly-ranked UVA applicants in his class taking? This is critical. You need to meet with his college advisor and ask and ask if he’s on track for the advisor to check off the “most rigorous” box. They probably won’t tell you but push and ask specifically valid what courses need to
Be taken to get that designation no one here can tell you that. UVA will receive from that counselor a list of AP courses offered by your high school and percentage if your kid’s class who took them. This us how the colleges figure out approximate class rank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities kid or STEM kid? Math and science choices are ok but on the less rigorous end.

This plus what are similarly-ranked UVA applicants in his class taking? This is critical. You need to meet with his college advisor and ask and ask if he’s on track for the advisor to check off the “most rigorous” box. They probably won’t tell you but push and ask specifically valid what courses need to
Be taken to get that designation no one here can tell you that. UVA will receive from that counselor a list of AP courses offered by your high school and percentage if your kid’s class who took them. This us how the colleges figure out approximate class rank.

I think that in almost every school, the kids are internally ranked by categories in the counselor’s letter (top 10%, top 25%, etc.). My son’s counselor actually uses the SAT scores heavily to differentiate among the high stats kids (due in part to grade inflation?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities kid or STEM kid? Math and science choices are ok but on the less rigorous end.

This plus what are similarly-ranked UVA applicants in his class taking? This is critical. You need to meet with his college advisor and ask and ask if he’s on track for the advisor to check off the “most rigorous” box. They probably won’t tell you but push and ask specifically valid what courses need to
Be taken to get that designation no one here can tell you that. UVA will receive from that counselor a list of AP courses offered by your high school and percentage if your kid’s class who took them. This us how the colleges figure out approximate class rank.

Excellent feedback. Exactly what we wanted to learn. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Colleges care about AP courses in the 5 subjects:

math: AB or BC plus or minus Stats
english: Lang and/or Lit
history: US and World
foreign lang: Lang and/or Lit
science: Bio, Chem and Physics.

The rest don't matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care about AP courses in the 5 subjects:

math: AB or BC plus or minus Stats
english: Lang and/or Lit
history: US and World
foreign lang: Lang and/or Lit
science: Bio, Chem and Physics.

The rest don't matter.

How do you know this?

[Anonymous]

Also FCPS only pays for six tests …many kids take the class (for the easier AP) but skip the AP test. Those easy AP courses for freshmen & sophomores don’t earn college credits anyway. They just show the class is advanced. The harder AP classes, take the AP exam, get the 5. Lotta “fluff” AP classes now.
AP in foreign languages, chem, physics (the C& EM one), BC calc, US history, Lang or Lit are the harder ones. focus on getting top grades in those.
The psych, econ, envSci are just nice to have but not seen as particularly challenging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities kid or STEM kid? Math and science choices are ok but on the less rigorous end.

This plus what are similarly-ranked UVA applicants in his class taking? This is critical. You need to meet with his college advisor and ask and ask if he’s on track for the advisor to check off the “most rigorous” box. They probably won’t tell you but push and ask specifically valid what courses need to
Be taken to get that designation no one here can tell you that. UVA will receive from that counselor a list of AP courses offered by your high school and percentage if your kid’s class who took them. This us how the colleges figure out approximate class rank.

I think that in almost every school, the kids are internally ranked by categories in the counselor’s letter (top 10%, top 25%, etc.). My son’s counselor actually uses the SAT scores heavily to differentiate among the high stats kids (due in part to grade inflation?).

That’s crazy that the counselor takes it upon themselves to do that!