aaargggh. I hate picking classes with my kids. We have to make some decisions for DS. He really is interested in urban planning/design. We are looking at colleges in the 5-10K person range, all on the west coast. He may or may not be interested in Civil Engineering. He currently has a 3.8 in a rigorous curriculum--but not top of the line due to his processing speed/dyslexia issues and his anxiety. Please help us decide between an AP Research class vs. a 3rd year of language.
For Senior year, he will have AP US Government and AP English Language. He has had 2 AP classes a year since he was a sophomore and does well with them. His course plan is currently something like:
AP US Government
AP English Language
Physics (just regular-not honors or AP)
Calculs (just regular, not AP)
Peer Ministry (he goes to a Catholic School so he has to take religious ed every year)
Oceanography/Astronomy (he has been looking forward to these classes since he was a freshman)
Then there are 2 classes we have to figure out what to do with. He can take Theater IV--he likes theater a great deal, so he probably will do that for one class. He can take AP Research and get an AP Capstone Diploma. But that's a 3rd AP class and its an elective--it doesn't count as his English credit. The Capstone Diploma looks good--but how good??? And----he only has 2 years of language. I know he really, really needs 3 years to be competitive for college admissions. The dyslexia makes learning a second language hard for him. He did well in Spanish 1 & 2 but those were easy classes. Spanish 3 steps it up a notch. I *might* be able to get him to take a Spanish class over the summer at the local Community College or something like that. But it seems to me that having him take Spanish 3 is important. I wonder about the wisdom of taking the 3rd AP class when he hasn't even fulfilled the preferred (in some cases, required), language classes. He is hoping to claim the dyslexia card to get out of languages but I think that's a no go.
For reference, the colleges we are looking at are along the lines of Gonzaga, University of Santa Cruz, University of Portland, University of Denver, etc. So not Stanford or Cal Poly, etc.
TIA in advance for your thoughts!!!