Choosing fall semester classes: how much of a challenge is too much?

Ambitious Aragon students looking to attend four-year universities are starting to challenge themselves more and more during the course selection process. For those choosing between AP and CP coursework as an upperclassman, the choice sometimes comes down to personal preference.

For many students, it’s the prospective workload that makes them think twice about which classes they want to take. Indeed, numerous students who plan on not taking any advanced standing or Advanced Placement courses agree that their decision was to cut down on the amount of work.

Sophomore Hao Chang chose to not take any AP classes for junior year.

“I wanted to take [AP U.S. History] but the counselor said it’s good to challenge yourself… [I chose not to take it] because I’m lazy,” says Chang.

Sophomore Derrick Leong says, “I chose my classes because perspective workload of each, so that I’m not overburdened by my work. I chose some of the classes because of what I want to do in life.

Other students base their class choices off of recommendations from counselors, siblings or friends. Freshman Alex Manu, who plans on taking no AS classes his sophomore year says, “My brother took [AS classes] and he said it was a lot of work, and I didn’t want that, so I just stuck with CP classes. I expect [sophomore year] to be harder and [involve] more work.”

“I went with what the counselor said,” says Chang. Although Chang says that the counselors were one of the reasons why he chose all CP classes, his parents didn’t have any influence over his decisions. “All [my parents] did was sign the [sheet]. They don’t really care, they know that the classes I choose to take are the classes I can handle,” says Chang.

Sophomore Allison Kuo, who plans on taking four AP courses, says, “I chose a lot of my AP choices because I’m following what my brother did. I’m putting it on myself that I need to match my brother.”

For other students, the leading factor in choosing their classes is their own personal preferences and interests. “I wanted to limit it to five classes,” says junior Ayelet Brown-Jackson, “I chose classes that interests me such as AP psychology.”

“People choose AB over BC because AB is slower, but math comes easily for me, so I chose BC,” says Kuo. “[Sophomore year] is not too stressful, and not that big of a jump.”

Junior Summer Kang, who plans on taking five AP’s out of the six classes she will take, knows that senior year will be hard work. One of Kang’s class choices of AP Physics during senior year was a process of elimination. Kang says, “I [dislike] biology and I [dislike] chemistry and physics was the only class left.”

College expectations also play a major role in influencing students on making decisions about classes. Junior Jacob Engler decided to take three or four AP classes out of the five classes that he is going to take senior year. “Some people believe that colleges look down upon people that take less than six classes, but if your schedule is rigorous, it’s acceptable,” he says.

Sophomore Jong Lim comments that taking two AP classes as a sophomore “is not stressful,” but adds that, “you need good time management.” Lim says that he chose four rigorous AP classes to take as a junior because, “It prepares you better for college because the classes you’re taking are college level.”

Offering a more laid back outlook is sophomore Hunter Barringer. “I don’t plan to go to a four year university, so I don’t see a major point striving too far,” says Barringer about his all CP class choices.

Leong plans to take CP English over AP English also for the safe route to make his transcript look better. “I feel that the GPA boost isn’t enough of an incentive to get a C in the class when I could get an A in a CP class and make [my transcript] look better,” Leong says.

While the madness of class selection has subsided for this semester, next year will inevitably bring the wonderful chaos of choosing one’s classes.