science course in HS
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Anonymous
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DD wants to take Physics HN and AP BIO in Junior year, she also plays a sport on the varsity and club level that requires a time commitment of at least 20 hours a week.
Some of her classmates are discouraging her from taking 2 sciences, she wants to get into pre-med. Will taking only 1 science course in Junior and science affect her application? |
Anonymous
What she plan on taking senior year? |
Anonymous
*does |
Anonymous
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If she can do the work, she should do the work and not listen to her classmates, especially, but should talk to her guidance counselor if useful and the teachers of those classes. Plenty of kids do time-consuming sports or other activities as well as challenging STEM-heavy courseloads, but it can take a lot of discipline to make choices to prioritize and balance the classes with the sports with all the rest of it (like sleeping, socializing, etc.)
And part of the discussion also needs to be with you about whether she can do well with the time-consuming sport, and if not, what is more important in terms of her long-term educational and career goals. I'm not saying she should drop the sport, but it's wrong-headed IMO to prioritize the sport over a challenging curriculum and good grades. |
Anonymous
No. But she should have taken at least AP Chem and AP Bio before she graduates. I would have her do both TBH. What is the harm of trying? |
Anonymous
Really? Not all schools make that easily possible and what about physics? |
Anonymous
| My dd took AP chem and AP bio at the same time. If she loves science and usually gets As in honors level, she should be fine. |
Anonymous
at some schools those are double period classes. the point holds that plenty of kids double up and do fine. it is a commitment so it might depend on the other classes. For my kid, 4 APs a year was the limit. |
Anonymous
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"it's wrong-headed IMO to prioritize the sport over a challenging curriculum and good grades."
Good grades are not negotiable. The colleges don't care how the challenge is divided between academics and ECs once the academic load hits the level required to earn a single major in 4 years. Proving in HS you are academically capable of earning 200 credits in 4 years for a triple major provides no advantage because no pre-med ever does it in college. All the hardest charging HS students figure out in college that consuming knowledge and getting As isn't the point. The point is for them to get to the level where they can produce something on their own. Med schools would much rather see a journal publication rather than a triple major. Being say an academic All-American in college is much better than a triple major. No one knows how many triple majors there are. Academic all-American means for your sport and division you are in the top dozen or so students in the country. |
Anonymous
| It’s tough with Physics & AP Bio the same year. She might be okay since the Physics isn’t AP. |
Anonymous
But if she is a very talented travel athlete she may be recruitable, and have a better shot at a more selective college (if that's what she wants). But if she wants to go to med school, she needs to be able to handle 2 science courses simultaneously in addition to her other activities. |
Anonymous
+1. AP CHEM in 12th? |
Anonymous
| H Physics is not as difficult as AP Physics. If she likes Science she should do it. Of course it also depends on the teacher. |
Anonymous
| These are both lab classes so scheduling can be tricky. |
Anonymous
| At our school Hon physics isn’t that hard— AP Physics 1 is challenging for many but not so Honors. |