AP AB Calc??

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi, everyone. So I’m finalizing my schedule for next year (I’m currently a sophomore in high school) and I have a schedule conflict. I am currently registered for english 11 AP, world history AP, human geography AP, calculus AB-AP, chemistry AP, physics I AP, and latin III honors. However, I want to drop physics (I plan on skipping to physics C senior year; I’ve heard it’s definitely do-able). The issue is if I drop physics AP then my only option to replace that class is marketing, which is an honors class and is a joke class. It’s not that I am against a joke class, but I just really want to replace it with Independent Research II GT, which will give me the same weight as an AP and is a class I really enjoy (I took IR 1 this year). In order to do this I must drop AP calculus and take business calc GT, which will give me the same weight as calc AP, but is not as hard as calc AP. Is this a bad decision? I’m pretty good at precalculus and I really want to go to a selective or semi-selective college. Will this hurt my chances? I have a 4.71 this year and next year if I take business calc GT and IR GT I’ll have a 4.93 but if I take calc AP and marketing honors I’ll have a 4.87 (this is assuming all A’s-probably won’t happen junior year haha). So basically is AP calc worth it for colleges? P.s. I want to major in chem and most likely become a surgeon or something in the medical field. Thank you SOOO much!!!

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Paragraphs are your friend. It makes it much easier to read.

For that reason, I just skimmed, but if you do not have the scheduling conflicts with your original schedule, I would keep it.

If AP Physics 1 is your 1st physics course, I’d suggest taking that before tackling AP Physics C. If most or all of your classmates will have had AP Physics 1 prior to Physics C, you will feel so far behind at the beginning of the year. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but the fall of your senior year you will be spending a lot of time writing colleges applications and essays and you don’t want to be playing catch-up in physics.

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Please don’t burn out; whichever option you take, your academics seem to be really, really ahead of the curve.

My thoughts:

  1. Business Calc does not sound as impressive as AP AB Calc, although taking any kind of calculus your sophomore year will be looked upon favorably. But in university, business calc is often times called "elementary calculus" (as it is in my college).
  2. I'm not an admission officer, but though I'd suspect that "marketing" would be a rather easy class, I think it would still be a pretty unique entry on your resume that could speak favorably to your well-roundedness.
  3. Independent research sounds *really* impressive IMHO, but do you have to take it next year? If I had to choose between Marketing and Research, I would choose Research.
  4. Don't underestimate AP Physics C. *Never* underestimate AP Physics C.

And finally:

  1. Remember that if you overload yourself on classes, you're going to suffer on your resume in two areas: a) Potentially lower GPA b) Less time to pursue resume building EC's

(and also more stress on yourself)

So I guess I really didn’t come to a conclusion, but I hope my rambling makes a little sense.