Are my classes competitive enough?

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USMAHopeful97

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Mar 10, 2015
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Hello, today I just received my senior year classes which include:

College English 101
AP Government/Econ
College Physics 100
AP Statistics

I was supposed to take AP Calculus BC but my school doesn't offer it anymore. I currently have open 5th and 6th periods. Should I take my school's JROTC class or take AP Spanish language? I've already taken three years of a foreign language. Which would make my application more competitive? Thanks for the help.
 
Neither matter for admission at this point. You have the language credits you need. Academically, JROTC does not count for anything. Unless you are severely lacking on leadership credit, there is little point to take JROTC this late in your HS career from an admission standpoint. I'd rather have a language capable officer as that training won't be as prevalent at West Point (unless you are a language major) and later as the general military leadership training that you'd get in JROTC.
 
845something said:
Neither matter for admission at this point. You have the language credits you need. Academically, JROTC does not count for anything. Unless you are severely lacking on leadership credit, there is little point to take JROTC this late in your HS career from an admission standpoint. I'd rather have a language capable officer as that training won't be as prevalent at West Point (unless you are a language major) and later as the general military leadership training that you'd get in JROTC.
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Are my classes competitive? During my junior year, I took AP Physics 1 and Calculus AB.
 
You can only take what your school offers. It looks like these are all high level courses....not sure how you could take more competitive courses than these.

Good luck!
 
USMAHopeful97 said:
Hello, today I just received my senior year classes which include:

College English 101
AP Government/Econ
College Physics 100
AP Statistics

I was supposed to take AP Calculus BC but my school doesn't offer it anymore. I currently have open 5th and 6th periods. Should I take my school's JROTC class or take AP Spanish language? I've already taken three years of a foreign language. Which would make my application more competitive? Thanks for the help.
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The primary evaluation metric for your high school classes is your class rank. So in theory, you could be taking easy classes to have higher class ranking (which will hurt you later if you end up a SA as you will be less prepared academically). Since you are a senior now, focus on getting good grades as you can't change what you took and will be taking now. As Navymomwannabe posted, you can only take what your school offers and West Point recongizes that. If West Point give extra points for taking AP courses, that will skew the admissions to kids from "rich" and/or big schools.
 
MemberLG said:
USMAHopeful97 said:
Hello, today I just received my senior year classes which include:

College English 101
AP Government/Econ
College Physics 100
AP Statistics

I was supposed to take AP Calculus BC but my school doesn't offer it anymore. I currently have open 5th and 6th periods. Should I take my school's JROTC class or take AP Spanish language? I've already taken three years of a foreign language. Which would make my application more competitive? Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

The primary evaluation metric for your high school classes is your class rank. So in theory, you could be taking easy classes to have higher class ranking (which will hurt you later if you end up a SA as you will be less prepared academically). Since you are a senior now, focus on getting good grades as you can't change what you took and will be taking now. As Navymomwannabe posted, you can only take what your school offers and West Point recongizes that. If West Point give extra points for taking AP courses, that will skew the admissions to kids from "rich" and/or big schools.
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Thanks for your response. Also my class rank is 12/546.
 
Have you taken Chemistry? You don't have it listed, but based on your Junior/Senior classes, I'm guessing you took it as a Sophomore. If not, you should definitely take it. Plebes take two semesters of Chemistry their first year.
 
ca2midwestmom said:
Have you taken Chemistry? You don't have it listed, but based on your Junior/Senior classes, I'm guessing you took it as a Sophomore. If not, you should definitely take it. Plebes take two semesters of Chemistry their first year.
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Yes, I took AP Chemistry my sophomore year. During my junior year, I took AP English Language, AP Physics 1, College History, AP Calculus AB, Spanish 3, and General Art. Do you think taking only four classes senior year will hurt my chances of an appointment?
 
What are you doing during the last two hours that you would have been taking classes? Are you working? In sports? Are there other classes you could take to fill your schedule -- even as a teacher assistant in a math/science class? Are you now not considering Spanish or JROTC? What else does your school have to offer?

I would defer to 845something's opinion re. language and JROTC. If you enjoy Spanish, by all means taken another year of it. My DS had taken every honors/AP math/science/history class that his school offered by the end of his senior year, but I wanted him to have a full schedule so he was the teacher's assistant for his Chemistry teacher.
 
ca2midwestmom said:
What are you doing during the last two hours that you would have been taking classes? Are you working? In sports? Are there other classes you could take to fill your schedule -- even as a teacher assistant in a math/science class? Are you now not considering Spanish or JROTC? What else does your school have to offer?

I would defer to 845something's opinion re. language and JROTC. If you enjoy Spanish, by all means taken another year of it. My DS had taken every honors/AP math/science/history class that his school offered by the end of his senior year, but I wanted him to have a full schedule so he was the teacher's assistant for his Chemistry teacher.
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Actually, I will be taking AP Spanish for my fifth period class, and for my open sixth period, I will be playing tennis and/or helping my math teacher voluntarily.
 
Another AP Spanish course. JROTC will not help you at this stage, you would have had to have been a part of JROTC for a couple of years to have an effect
 
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