Senior year high school course selection Q’s

Beware poopoo-ing AP English of any kind, whether it’s Literature or Language. It’s all good preparation. Plebe English is no joke. The ability to communicate your thoughts and ideas clearly and convincingly is a USNA priority.
 
Did anyone ask? Does your school offer Dual Enrollment? You could crank out English Comp through that if it would count as your English credit. And if you don't wind up at USNA, you can get college transfer credit for that. Same thing for the History...if you could take a DE Hisotry instead of hte honors history and still get the HS credit for taking it. Just thoughts.
 
First question for me is what the student has already taken in h.s. To date, has there been any calc, chem or physics? I entered USNA without any physics and wish I'd taken it in h.s.

If the student has zero chem and zero physics to date, take chem. You have less time as a plebe to focus on academics and chem is really hard.

Having some calc (vs. only pre-calc) prior to USNA will really help. A/B vs. B/C should probably be determined by how good you are at math and the time / workload of your other courses.

If the student has taken English with writing for the prior 3 years and has a decent SAT score, it's not critical to take English as a senior -- especially if the history course involves writing. However, that slot should be filled by "core" course -- English, advanced language, science, math.

IMHO, someone with a generally strong h.s. background in English / writing won't have any trouble with Plebe English. However, if you struggle with writing, then more prep in h.s. is a good thing.
 
To the OP:
Please note that you are getting a wide variety of advice from all over the place here. Some of the advisers include grads, a University Professor and a soon to be USNA Professor as well as a bunch of High School students who are candidates for USNA but are really just a little further in the process than you and have not experienced actual college or USNA academics thus far. If you are seeing conflicting direction, I advise that you go with that from folks with more experience.

Sincerely
OldRetSWO (USNA Grad and current University Professor)

Oh, and I recommend "splitting the baby" and taking Calc AB and the English course instead of going for BC.
 
usna1985 said:
First question for me is what the student has already taken in h.s. To date, has there been any calc, chem or physics?
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At the end of junior year will have had (all honors except where noted as AP):
Foreign language: 4 yrs
Science (3: Enviro, Bio, Chem
English (4): 3 years of literature and also AP Capstone
Math (4): alg 1, geometry, alg 2/trig, pre-calc
Social studies/sciences (5): 9th grade history, world history I&2, AP US History, AP Macro
A few arts and music classes, health and PE
 
Swimmergirl2029 said:
What are peoples thoughts on AP English literature?
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I took AP English Lit last year and I would highly recommend it if there is room in your schedule. It is an excellent course that prepares high school students for college level writing, as well as expanding your literary horizons. It's a great way to refine your writing skills and exposes you to a wide variety of literature, which can be helpful in other English courses.
 
Jabor3 said:
Still figuring that out and researching a lot. Getting more and more interested in Nuclear Engineering but not sure yet.
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Pretty sure nuclear engineering is not a major at USNA. If you do select the nuclear navy (eventually) your major is irrelevant to selection but your grades at USNA (especially in STEM) are.
 
ders_dad said:
Pretty sure nuclear engineering is not a major at USNA. If you do select the nuclear navy (eventually) your major is irrelevant to selection but your grades at USNA (especially in STEM) are.
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Nuclear Engineering IS a major that is available at USNA.
That said, plenty of people from other majors go into the Nuclear field upon commissioning and they do just fine.
 
OldRetSWO said:
Nuclear Engineering IS a major that is available at USNA.
That said, plenty of people from other majors go into the Nuclear field upon commissioning and they do just fine.
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Piggy backing here for clarity: Not only other STEM majors (EE, math, mech-e, etc), but you can be an english or poly sci major and still go into the Navy's nuclear community because you'll take the requisite calc and physics. I served with many liberal arts undergrads who were fantastic nukes and plant operators.
 
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