<p>I'm making a new thread due simply because I didn't get more than one response in the Admissions Thread and I'm in a rush to turn in my courses on Monday. I'm in a big hurry and I can use all the help I can get.
Our school told us in short that the courses we choose now are most likely the courses we will have to take; no schedule changes will be made unless it's very necessary.
So far:
APUSH
AP Comp Lit 3
Trig/Pre-Calc
Spanish 3 Honors
Soccer</p>
<p>I'm missing a course in the sciences, and I'm in a rut between APES, APBio, or APChem.
APES: New course for me, and with the already tough load of Junior year, it would be nice to ease up and take an AP that's more on the easy end.
APBio: I will never be a doctor, have no passion to be one. I don't believe I will need Bio in my life. I took it in freshman year.
APChem: Currently taking right now. I won't lie, sometimes it's tough but overall it isn't something that I can't handle. But..it's almost like taking the same class twice. Of course AP is more in depth but you get where I'm coming from.</p>
<ul>
<li>Would colleges look down upon me in ANY way if I took APES rather than APBio or APChem? I don't mind taking harder classes if it makes my stance in admissions better. If it doesn't, then it's safe to say why not go for APES.
Anyone who has taken an AP course in the sciences, please chime in and let me know what you think regarding this topic. I could really use your help.</li>
</ul>
<p>Since you don’t find Bio useful, take that off the list. It seems that you will have 3 AP courses next year, and personally, I don’t think that sounds too heavy compared to some course plans I’ve seen. If you’re good at balancing and completing your school work and can keep up decent grades, I recommend that you take AP Chem. It’s better to take Chem two years in a row than having a gap year and forgetting a lot of stuff. However, if you can’t deal with having a lot of homework or don’t think you’ll ever use most of the concepts taught in Chem/don’t find it interesting, go with APES instead. Maybe take AP Chem senior year, even if you’ll forget a lot of things you’ve learned this year.</p>
<p>IDK if colleges will look down on you, but AP Chem is a really intensive class. Take it only if you’re really willing to do it, and you think it will help you, and you’ve actually learned the (pre-AP?) chem material well. I’ve heard AP Bio is the same way, and it really helps to take AP Chem before AP Bio. (I’m in Chem this year, Bio next, but I’m interested in medicine so it’s actually useful) Plus, you mentioned you won’t find Bio useful. For you, I would strongly recommend APES. In any case, it’s hard to look down on someone who takes a college-level class <em>and</em> gets good grades :D</p>
3 APs is the max for junior year. I take the hardest schedule offered. Trig/Pre-Calc is the same for everyone - there’s no honors or AP.
I won’t be taking AP Chem in senior year…more like AP Physics. </p>
<p>Will I NEED to take Chem in college if I’m not majoring in something medicinally orientated?</p>
<p>^ actually there is honors pre-calc at my school, as well as others, but not in all
and you are likely to take at least one or two science classes in college - some combination of bio, chem, and/or phys</p>
<p>i would say not to take ap bio if you are not interested in it at all. taking both apush and ap euro in the same year would be a bit much. in my experience, they both require a lot of work. this may not be the case at your school though, so ask some current people in those classes about the workload. and no college would look down on you for taking ap euro. it is regarded as a very difficult class at most places. if i were you, however, i would go for ap chem.</p>
<p>Jennie: I took Bio in freshman year, chem this year, and will take physics in senior year. So I will probably go for Environmental to change it up. </p>
<p>Secret: APES isn’t Euro. It’s environmental science. I’m actually taking Euro this year.</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards APES but I need a definite answer of how an adcom would look at this. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m taking it that you’re going to be an upcoming junior?</p>
<p>I would take classes that interest you that have really good teachers, that way you can knock you’re SAT II’s out of the way.</p>
<p>Seriously, I wish I had taken AP Bio my junior year instead of my senior year because there were kids in Bio last year that were scoring 700+ on the subject test. Yeah, our Bio teacher is REALLY good.</p>
<p>But yeah, just something to think about.</p>
<p>Hope that you get the classes that you want.</p>
<p>Obviously I’m not an adcom, but I will say this: good grades and passion for a subject, especially one that is not required and at an advanced level, should be a very good thing on your app. Besides, if your interest/major doesn’t involve Bio or Chem, it shouldn’t be too much of a big deal. Now if you were going for pre-med, that’s a whole different story…</p>
<p>greens: oops! how embarrassing. what a mistake on my part! my school doesn’t offer environmental science, and as a result i forget that test even exists. so i just see something that begins with APE and assume it is ap euro. sorry about that!</p>
<p>Stig: Yeah a junior. For the SAT II’s, can I send in ANY three SAT II subject scores? Like, will it matter if I sent in a subject score for ES instead of Chem…or how does it work. I need to get refreshed about the SAT II’s cause you brought up a great point that I never would’ve thought of at the moment.</p>
<p>Jennie: True. My direction is not towards the medical field…so what gives.</p>
<p>Secret: Haha, no worries. I’m taking Euro right now though [=</p>
<p>@omnivoroushippo: I’m with you! But technically isn’t that what varsity is for? True, there’s no college credit involved, but you do get recruited for college and get scholarships, at least if you go to a school with a strong basketball program (<em>cough</em> mine <em>cough</em>)</p>
<p>and AFAIK you can send in any three, although some colleges and/or majors may require certain ones such as Math II for science majors and Math I for everyone else (that’s a fairly common requirement it seems) but other than specific requirements, you’re free to choose.</p>
<p>Hmm…well I <em>could</em> self study some bio since it overlaps a tid bit with ES. That’s a possibility.
I’m taking Physics senior year, but will I get the test results before I send out apps…who knows.
I’m good at Lit. There’s one.
And of course Math.
Argh. Now I feel like I have to take AP Chem to compensate for one too less of a subject score.</p>