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An Advanced Sophomore Schedule

Written by Sally Rubenstone | May 23, 2003

Question: Please give me an example of an advanced sophomore schedule.

An â€œadvanced sophomore scheduleâ€ can only be judged in the context of what your school offers. When students apply to colleges, admission applications ask guidance counselors to indicate whether that student has taken a course load that is â€œMost demanding,â€ â€œVery demanding,â€ â€œDemanding,â€ or â€œLess demanding,â€ compared to his or her school peers. (Sometimes the terminology is slightly different, but thatâ€™s the general idea.) Thus, if you are hoping to elect an advanced 10th grade load, your first stop should be your guidance office, where you ask if you have indeed chosen the â€œMost Demandingâ€ courses available at your school.

However, you are probably wondering what the most demanding programs are that appear on the transcripts that admission committeesâ€"especially those at the most competitive collegesâ€"evaluate. At some high schools, sophomores have the option of taking Advanced Placement classes or the school may offer an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. A sophomore with AP or IB classes on her transcript would certainly be taking an advanced load. At many schools, too, students can begin high-school level foreign language and/or algebra in grade 8, which means that, as sophomores, they will already be in a third year of a language and may be taking trig or pre-calc. (I heard from one sophomore recently who was already taking AP Calculus BCâ€"but thatâ€™s very unusual. Still, it's worth knowing what's out there.) Likewise, the more advanced sophomores often take biology in 9th grade rather than the more typical â€œEarth Science,â€ and are doing chemistry in 10th. Some sophomores who want to challenge themselves with options that extend beyond what is available at their schools opt for an evening class at a local college or even a distance-learning class that they take online at home.

Again, admission committees will evaluate you in the context of what was available to you at your school, and any effort on your part to expand your horizons by taking the hardest classes you can handleâ€"either at school or elsewhereâ€"will reflect favorably on your admission outcomes.

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.