a H student's high school schedule

My High School Schedule

Another common question asked: What classes did you take in high school?

High schools vary across the nation, but hopefully getting a glimpse of what I took will help you understand a bit better what colleges look for in a student's high school curriculum.

Some basics about my high school.

• It's a public school in Minnesota, so there were some AP (Advanced Placement) classes, but only in Social Studies, Math, and few other subjects. After I left, more AP classes were added but the school only administers them if there are enough people (30 to 40) that will take the class so most of the new offerings are scrapped because of budget cuts. 
• Each year is divided into three trimesters and each trimester is divided into seven class hours. This means that you can take a total of twenty-one classes per year. 
• If you talked to the counselors beforehand, students could add PSEO (if you don't know what PSEO is, you can find an explanation of it in my other posts about college/high school) classes and Independent Study options to their schedule. This was only in the case of last resort if you had exercised all available options. 
• CIS (College in the School, not to be confused with the hit TV show CSI!) is a special type of class that essentially boils down to a College Level Class offered at the high school. Teachers have to be accredited with the University of Minnesota to teach these classes, so the program is a Nationally Accredited Program. The courses are assumed to be taught at the same level as an introductory class at the University of Minnesota, so they are difficult. When you are done with the course, you will get both a high school grade and a University of Minnesota grade that goes on your transcript, which is great because the credit that you earn is ensured to count for any Minnesota State College and most private colleges in Minnesota as well. This is a really quick overview, but for more information visit College in the Schools - University of Minnesota. 
• I was in UMTYMP, so I was doing math at the University of Minnesota. If you need more information on that, click on the UMTYMP page on the top toolbar. 
• The level of difficulty goes Regular < Honors < AP < CIS. I only took regular classes when there was absolutely no alternative. 
• The Mentorship class was a class that met once a week because I had to spend six hours outside of my class in my mentorship. 
• I had to include a PSEO hour in my schedule so that I could do part time PSEO. This was essentially a study hall but I had to go to class every Wednesday once a week at night for Organic Chemistry. 
• Since my high school did not offer AP Science classes, I independently studied for the AP Biology and AP Chemistry tests and took them at the end of the year. 

Now for my schedule:

Hours	9th Grade
1	Social Studies	Social Studies	Social Studies
2	Honors Earth Science	Honors Earth Science	Honors Earth Science
3	Honors English	Honors English	Honors English
4	Health	Gym	Gym
5	Driver’s Ed	Tech Ed	Computer Aided Drafting/Design
6	Band	Band	Band
7	French II	French II	French II
After School	UMTYMP Calculus II/Linear Algebra	UMTYMP Calculus II/Linear Algebra	UMTYMP Calculus II/Linear Algebra

 

Hours	10th Grade
1	AP US  History	AP US History	AP US History
2	Honors  Biology	Honors Biology	Honors Biology
3	Honors  English	Honors English	Honors English
4	Health	Gym	Gym
5	Accounting	Accounting	Accounting
6	Band	Band	Band
7	French III	French III	French III
After School	UMTYMP Calculus III	UMTYMP Calculus III	UMTYMP Calculus III

Hours	11th Grade
1	AP European History	AP European History	AP European History
2	Honors Chemistry	Honors Chemistry	Honors Chemistry
3	AP Language	AP Language	AP Language
4	AP Statistics	AP Statistics	AP Statistics
5	Honors Physics	Honors Physics	Honors Physics
6	Band	Band	Mentor Seminar
7	French IV	French IV	French IV

Hours	12th Grade
1	Independent Study Microeconomics	Independent Study Macroeconomics	Independent Study AP Government
2	School TV Show	School TV Show	School TV Show
3	CIS Writing	CIS Writing	CIS Literature
4	CIS Anatomy	CIS Anatomy	CIS Anatomy
5	PSEO Period	PSEO Period	PSEO Period
6	CIS French	CIS French	CIS French
7	Mentorship	Mentorship	Mentorship
After School	PSEO Organic Chemistry I	PSEO Organic Chemistry II	PSEO Organic Chemistry II