Best Classes to Take in Your Junior Year

At a minimum, your junior year schedule should include five core courses: AP English Literature and Composition or AP English Language and Composition, an AP history or social science course, AP Calculus BC or a college math course beyond it, one AP science, and an AP or honors foreign language. If you plan to major in a STEM field, add a second math course and a second science course as electives. These recommendations assume you are aiming at highly selective colleges.

When you apply in the fall of senior year, junior year is the most recent full year of grades on your transcript. The courses you take this year show colleges the level of work you can handle right before you arrive on campus.

The goal is to take the most rigorous version of each course available to you while keeping an unweighted GPA of 4.0 or very close to it. Your unweighted GPA counts every A as a 4.0 regardless of course level, so it measures how well you performed, while your course selection shows what level you performed at. Colleges look at both together.

Seven core courses across English, social studies, math, science, and foreign language is the most you should carry at once. The five core courses plus two STEM electives reach that limit, so each slot should go to the most advanced course you are ready for in that subject.

English

Take AP English Literature and Composition or AP English Language and Composition. AP English Language focuses on nonfiction and rhetoric, the study of how writers build arguments and persuade an audience. AP English Literature focuses on close reading and analysis of fiction, poetry, and drama.

Many high schools schedule AP English Language in junior year and AP English Literature in senior year, which lets you complete both before you graduate. Either one fills your junior year English slot, so take whichever your school offers to juniors.

Social Studies

Any AP history or social science course fits this slot. The options are AP United States History, AP World History: Modern, AP European History, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, and AP African American Studies.

When your school offers several, pick the one closest to your intended major or interests. A future economics or business major might choose AP Macroeconomics or AP Microeconomics, and a future political science major might choose AP United States Government and Politics. Some schools teach the two economics courses, or the two government courses, as one semester each, which lets you complete two AP courses in a single year of social studies.

Math

Take AP Calculus BC, or if you have already completed it, a college math course that comes after it: Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, or Discrete Mathematics.

Each of these covers different ground. Multivariable Calculus, often listed in college catalogs as Calculus III, extends calculus to functions of several variables, the math of curves, surfaces, and volumes in three dimensions. Linear Algebra studies vectors, matrices, and systems of equations, and it underlies computer graphics, machine learning, and quantum mechanics. Differential Equations covers equations that describe how quantities change over time, which engineers and scientists use to model circuits, vibrating structures, and population growth. Discrete Mathematics covers logic, proof writing, counting, and graphs (networks of points connected by lines), and it is the mathematical foundation of computer science.

Your intended major should guide which one comes next. Engineering and physics students usually get the most from Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equations. Computer science students usually get the most from Discrete Mathematics and Linear Algebra.

Most high schools stop at AP Calculus BC, so students usually take these courses through dual enrollment, meaning you enroll in a college course while still in high school. Choose a fully accredited community college or university that issues letter grades rather than pass or fail, so the course appears with a grade on an official college transcript you can send with your applications. A dual enrollment course can fill your core math slot or, for a STEM student, serve as a second math course alongside a high school class.

Some high schools give dual enrollment courses less weight than AP courses, or none at all, so a college math course can lower your weighted GPA, the version of your GPA that adds extra points for advanced classes. Selective colleges value the rigor of a college math course well above the weighted GPA points it may cost you.

Science

Take one AP science: AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based, AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, or AP Biology. Choose the one closest to your intended major, and within that subject, the most advanced course you are ready for.

AP Physics 1 covers mechanics, the study of motion, forces, and energy, using algebra and trigonometry. AP Physics 2 continues with thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics. AP Physics C covers the same core material using calculus and is split into two courses with separate exams, AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, which many schools teach together in a single year. If you completed AP Physics 1 as a sophomore, move on to AP Physics 2 or AP Physics C. If you are taking AP Calculus BC or a higher math course, AP Physics C is the stronger choice, because it matches the calculus-based physics sequence that engineering and physics majors take in college.

If you are taking AP Physics 1 or AP Physics 2 this year and are enrolled in AP Calculus BC or a higher math course, self-study for one or both AP Physics C exams, AP Physics C: Mechanics and AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, and take them in May. Self-studying means preparing for an AP exam on your own and sitting for it without enrolling in the course.

This is worth doing even if your school offers AP Physics C in senior year. Scores from exams you take in May of junior year are released in July, in time to report on the applications you submit that fall, while senior year scores arrive after admissions decisions. Junior year carries significant weight in admissions, so a Physics C score earned that year puts calculus-based physics on your application while colleges are reading it.

To take an exam for a course you are not enrolled in, ask your school's AP coordinator to add you to the school's exam order. The College Board's ordering deadline is in mid-November, and many schools set earlier internal deadlines, so ask early in the fall. If your school declines, a nearby school that administers AP exams can host you.

AP Chemistry covers atomic structure, chemical bonding, reactions, thermodynamics, reaction rates, and chemical equilibrium at the level of a first-year college general chemistry course. AP Biology covers cell biology, genetics, evolution, and ecology at the level of a first-year college biology course. Both include regular lab work.

Each of these courses has prerequisites. Most high schools require a year of introductory or honors chemistry before AP Chemistry and a year of biology before AP Biology, and AP Physics 2 follows AP Physics 1. Plan your freshman and sophomore science courses with your junior year choice in mind.

Foreign Language

Take your foreign language at the AP level if your school offers it, or at the honors level if you have not yet reached AP. The AP options are AP Chinese Language and Culture, AP French Language and Culture, AP German Language and Culture, AP Italian Language and Culture, AP Japanese Language and Culture, AP Latin, AP Spanish Language and Culture, and AP Spanish Literature and Culture.

Continuing the same language into junior year shows sustained study of one language, and many selective colleges recommend three or four years of a single language in high school.

Electives for STEM Majors

If you plan to major in a STEM field, use two elective slots for a second math course and a second science course. That brings your schedule to seven core courses, the most you should carry at once.

For the second math course, add one of the college courses from the math section above through dual enrollment. Prerequisites vary by college, so confirm which calculus courses each one requires before you register.

For the second science course, add another AP science from the list above, ideally the one most closely tied to your intended major. A future engineer might pair AP Physics C with AP Chemistry, and a future premed student might pair AP Biology with AP Chemistry.

Putting Your Junior Year Schedule Together

Every junior year schedule should include the five core courses: one English, one social studies, one math, one science, and one foreign language. STEM students should add a second math course and a second science course, for seven in total. Within each slot, your choice depends on where you are in that subject's sequence and what you plan to study in college.

Planning for this schedule starts in ninth and tenth grade. AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics 2, and the college math courses all have prerequisites, so the courses you take as a freshman and sophomore determine which options are open to you as a junior.

Cosmic's admissions consultants build coursework plans that map out every year of high school, including dual enrollment courses that extend what your school offers. To plan your junior year, schedule a consultation.