Insight on my schedule
My school started scheduling for next year and I’ve put together a list of the classes I want to take. I’ve gotten enough teacher references to take them and the school approves, but I’m wondering if it’s too much. For reference, I’m planning on going T20 for Biomedical Engineering or something like that.
My plan:
Summer 2024:
H. English 10
H. US History
(Both Virtual)
2024-2025 School Year:
H. Pre-Calc/Trig
H. Intro to CS
AP Bio
AP Physics 1
AP Music Theory
H. Band
DE. Medical Terminology
DE. Psychology
V. Span 2
V. Health
(H - Honors, DE - Dual Enrollment, V - Virtual, and AP is of course Advanced Placement)
My school has 8 scheduled class periods, AP Bio is two periods and the DE classes are both in the same period, both taught in different semesters.
Originally, the school wanted me to take this:
2024-2025 School Year:
H. English 10
H. US History
AP Bio
H. Intro to CS
H. Pre-calc/Trig
H. Band
Normal Spanish 1
V. Health
It took some persistence and knowledge of the districts prereq and grad requirements to get the big schedule, but now that I have it, I don’t know if it’s a good schedule.
For reference here is my current schedule, which I feel is extremely easy and is similar to the schedule that the school wanted me to take originally.
2023-2024 School Year
H. English 9
H. Bio
H. Geometry
H. Algebra 2
AP World
STEAM (Grad req)
V. Spanish 1
I’m currently first in my class, so you won’t find a schedule harder than my freshman year schedule at the moment, but I’m worried about the jump, even though I really want the challenge.
I’m a senior and I’ve gone through high school very similarly to you in terms class rigor and goal. Given that you already have experience with an AP class and you find your current course load easy, I really think you’ll be fine with the jump. That’s not to say your classes will be easy for you, only that I trust you’ll rise to the challenge (which if you want to go to a T20 that is the expectation you’ll have to live up to anyway).
To me the part that stands out about your proposed schedule is the DE classes. Those can be very hard or very easy depending on the school. Probably worth the challenge even if it does turn out to be difficult but I would still ask some people who have taken those classes about their experiences.
I agree...ask about the DE classes and those teachers if you can. I am taking DE classes directly through the community college, so I get to choose what professor I want. Some professors are really difficult and others super easy. It really depends on the class and teacher, so ask questions!
If you feel confident about the classes then go for it. Just make sure that if you run into trouble to get help. Sometimes kids can get sick for a week and it’s hard to catch back up. It happened to my son but he was smart enough to have study groups in his classes that helped. He’s smarter than me as far a forward thinking.
Honestly, I think the courses you have for the 2024-2025 school year is fine if you think you can handle it. If this is your first year doing AP and Dual enrollment, I suggest taking a little slowly at first. I just started dual enrollment this school year; last term I took two classes and this one I'm taking three. Just adding one more class can really take the majority of your free time. Pace yourself, see what you can do before you jump all in, and then find out if you can maintain good grades in all of them.
Summer classes are somewhat extreme, especially if its not something you enjoy learning. Summer is often a time to give yourself a break from studying and homework, to stabilize your mental health, pursue hobbies, and be with family. Perhaps, think about what you would do during the summer. If you wouldn't mind taking those classes in place of other things, then great! Go for it. If not, consider dropping them.
Hope that helps! :)
The summer courses shouldn't be too difficult, as they are just grad reqs that I don’t really care about and the in-person year long class is easy as well. I’m used to our virtual program and I don’t think it’ll be a lot of work, although I’m prepared if it is. Either way, even with the opportunities to hang out w/ friends and family and the time we spend with them, everybody gets bored during the summer, so might as well fill it with a class to keep yourself occupied and conditioned until the school year.
Thanks!
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