Should I risk my GPA after I raised it up to a 3.88??
Hello!! I'm currently a sophomore in high school and I will be a junior this fall. During my freshman year I had a 3.700 but by the beginning of sophomore year it lowered to a 3.64. However, now after finishing my sophomore year I raised up my GPA to a 3.88!! During my junior year, I'll be taking 3 honors classes and 1 AP (Spanish).But, I'm fluent in Spanish and I don't think it'll impress elite colleges like Princeton University, my dream school. I took chemistry this year and got straight A's but struggled a lot. Therefore, there is a possibility I'll be able to take AP Chemistry next year too. Should I risk my GPA and take AP Spanish and AP Chem or just take one and keep my GPA high?
I tested into all honors classes and my school only offers 9 AP classes
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3 answers
In my experience not taking challenging courses did a little damage to my GPA, however at my school AP Chem is also one of the hardest AP classes we have. If you do well in the class it will look really good on resumes and benefit your GPA but if your grades aren't that great then theres also a possibility of hurting the GPA you already have. I would say take the class because even though you struggled during chemistry this year you still made good grades so will have a good foundation to work with for AP Chem. Also i'm not sure if your school does this as well but at my school we get quality points added on to our final grade for the semester for each AP and Honors class we take that count towards our GPA. For example, I get 10 quality points added on to each of my AP classes so if I made a 93 at the end of the semester then a 103 goes into my GPA. If this is how your school operates as well then it is pretty hard to make bad grades in your AP classes as long as you do all the work and study.
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I've heard that AP Chemistry is a very rigorous and challenging course so only take that class if you're confident in your chem skills. Although AP classes boost up your GPA, they could also bring your GPA down very quickly. Take AP Spanish and do well on the end of the course exam for a college credit, and also look into what other AP classes you could take next year. Remember that your junior year is what colleges mainly look at, so keep your grades as high as possible!
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Tbh during my regular chemistry class, I had the easy teacher which is why I ended the year with a 94 but the others with the other chemistry teacher ended up with C's and D's but they learned more and memorized the whole periodic table. Also, my chemistry teacher didn't recommend anyone for AP Chemistry but the teacher from the other class did. I struggled with exponents and significant figures. I have to choose between AP Chemistry or Anatomy Honors, which one should I do? ;(