High School Course Selection

This is the time of year when students are choosing their classes for next year. If you have been reading my posts for more than a year, you will probably remember the main point about senior year. It is so very different from when we were all in high school! These days, students are definitely expected to keep their foot on the gas throughout senior year. You can take a look at the attached pictures from FSU and UGA in terms of number of classes taken in each subject area on the former picture and number of AP and dual enrollment classes (DE) on the latter one. If students want to set themselves up to be the most competitive candidate as possible, they should be taking classes in the core subject areas (English, math, science, social studies, and world languages) all four years of high school at the highest level where they can find success. Plenty of students start taking high school classes in middle school, and others take two courses in a single year in core areas.

Calculus has begun to be considered somewhat of a gold standard for quite a few schools and certain majors, including business. If students are deciding between taking Statistics or Calculus, and if there is a decent chance they can handle Calculus and want the best chances possible of getting into competitive schools/majors (including, but not limited to the ones mentioned in this post), they should give serious consideration to taking Calculus.

Also, when it comes to science, selective colleges and universities typically want to see that students have taken at least biology, chemistry, and physics; these are thought of as the core science classes.