Do colleges want four years of science?

[Anonymous]

DD are in a debate. She’s a junior who is planning her classes for next year and wants to take an abbreviated schedule (for either an internship or college course) which means only taking five classes at her school. MCPS requires only three years of science which she will have completed (all at the honors level). She wants to take two AP social studies classes next year which would leave no space in her schedule for a science class. If she took science, she would take ap environmental because she thinks the public policy aspects are interesting (wants to major ir or polisci lol). Do colleges expect four years of science? Is it better to take rigorous classes she enjoys or to have all the core classes all four years? She isn’t in a language so there are some concerns about only having three course senior year. Is science something to worry about?

[Anonymous]

If she wants to get into a competitive school like, say, William and Mary, they want to see that your kid has taken Physics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she wants to get into a competitive school like, say, William and Mary, they want to see that your kid has taken Physics.

She has honors biology, honors chemistry, and honors physics

[Anonymous]

Have her look at some of the colleges that she might want to apply to. See what the recommended courses are.

It really depends.

[Anonymous]

The college common data sets will tell you how many years they require and how many they recommend.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the college and sometimes the major/program. Admissions websites typically provide this information.

[Anonymous]

It depends on what your DD wants to study in college and where she thinks she might go. If she's committed to polisci/ir taking two AP social studies (like APUSH and USGov) is a good idea. Not taking 4 years of core academic subjects (English, math, science, social studies, foreign language) is an issue for the most competitive colleges. But, the typical public college minimum requirement is 4 years of English and math, 3 of social studies and science, and 2 years of foreign language. and it's always better to have more than the minimum. Having a college class or two is a plus, especially if it is formally recognized by the high school and put on the transcript where it will count with the other subject classes. An internship while in high school tends not to be terribly academic, so its not usually much of a plus factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on what your DD wants to study in college and where she thinks she might go. If she's committed to polisci/ir taking two AP social studies (like APUSH and USGov) is a good idea. Not taking 4 years of core academic subjects (English, math, science, social studies, foreign language) is an issue for the most competitive colleges. But, the typical public college minimum requirement is 4 years of English and math, 3 of social studies and science, and 2 years of foreign language. and it's always better to have more than the minimum. Having a college class or two is a plus, especially if it is formally recognized by the high school and put on the transcript where it will count with the other subject classes. An internship while in high school tends not to be terribly academic, so its not usually much of a plus factor.

What is she going to take senior year? I would do APES for balance this year, then load up on extra social studies APs next year.

[Anonymous]

It’s almost November pp — what good does it to tell someone the courses they should take this year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she wants to get into a competitive school like, say, William and Mary, they want to see that your kid has taken Physics.

She has honors biology, honors chemistry, and honors physics

What are her options after those classes? Would she consider AP? Maybe Anatomy/Physiology Honors? Computer Science?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she wants to get into a competitive school like, say, William and Mary, they want to see that your kid has taken Physics.

She has honors biology, honors chemistry, and honors physics

What are her options after those classes? Would she consider AP? Maybe Anatomy/Physiology Honors? Computer Science?[/quote
She has AP Computer Principles (it’s called something like that I think - the one that isn’t A). The only AP science she would take is environmental.
She’s considered forensics too but has no tolerance for a “true” science class.

[Anonymous]

UGa, for example, is strict on the Biology requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost November pp — what good does it to tell someone the courses they should take this year?

Because it is planning time.

[Anonymous]

You don't really describe how selective of a college your daughter is thinking about.

At the tippy top schools, the idea of an abbreviated schedule itself is going to be scrutinized. Even at state flagships, three classes is going to be questioned. English, math, and 2 APs sounds like 4 anyway.

I don't mean that the abbreviated schedule (even 3 classes) is a problem, I mean that the internship or college course(s) it is allowing needs to be better than what she would get in HS.

If the internship is good enough, they won't care about science. But it sounds like there is no internship yet which means it is unlikely to be good enough to take care of all flaws in the application.

Now a college course(s), I'm guessing it will be like the two AP social studies classes. I think math, AP English, 2 AP SS and a college course would be fine if it doesn't lead to dropping most HS based ECs, without replacing them.

[Anonymous]

My DS is a senior and not taking a science either. We'll see how the colleges shake out, but basically he isn't going for a top school and his major is liberal arts and he has strong APs in humanity type courses and he is taking AP spanish so he did more than the max in another area.

He decided with his counselor that the schools he wanted and the majors he wanted wouldn't care about science, but again, he hasn't gotten into college yet, I'll report back in April.