So I’m a junior, and we’re about to start scheduling for next year at my school. I’m debating on what science I should take, especially since I’m not a science person. I do fine in the math and science and get low to mid A’s with enough effort, but it certainly does not come as easy as does history or English. My schedule so far is most likely;
AP Spanish Language, AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Calc AB, Band, Personal Finance/Economics (required), and obviously a science.
I think Calculus will be my main obstacle next year, but I don’t know which science to take because I don’t want to torture myself with AP Bio and AP Calc at the same time, but I also don’t want to look like I took the easy route by choosing AP Environmental Science.
Just to give some background, my top choice is probably UVa, but I’m also considering Boston University and even U Chicago, Northwestern, and Brown as reach schools.
This is just my opinion, but I think not taking AP Bio would not hurt your applications much, especially given the fact that it doesn’t sound like you want to pursue science in college. You’ll be spending enough time working hard in Calc (and also completing all those applications!), so why not give yourself a little break.
If Enviro is easier at your school, or interests you more, I think it’s fine to take it. My D did that and she IS a science major at a very selective college now. She did it because the AP Bio teacher is not good but the Enviro one is amazing. She also took regular English 12 instead of AP because she was focused on science/math courses.
D took AP ES as a sophomore and AP Bio as a junior. She said that quite a few kids took AP ES thinking it would be a cakewalk. It wasn’t. It’s not a difficult class like AP Chem but it is work (think AP history classes) and if you aren’t interested in environmental science, it’s a LOT of work. Either take the class with the best teacher or take the subject you like best but don’t take a class because it is “easier”.
AP Environmental by no means is taking the “easy road”. I took that class my sophomore year thinking it was going to be an easy A and what is in for the shock of my life when we really got down to the nitty-gritty of content! That being said, it IS possible to do well in there if you first acknowledge that you’re going to need to put in the work. AP Biology has worked the same for me (I’m currently taking it). It is definitely one of the most difficult classes I’ve taken so far in my high school career and requires a TON of dedication to understanding the material. Because you’ve mentioned not being super science-inclined, I would probably recommend taking Environmental over Biology. AP Environmental focuses on several disciplines such as pollution, demographics and ecology while Biology REALLY gets in depth with biological concepts you would do well to understand before taking the course. Plus, I had a blast in APES and it ended up determining my college major! You have a full plate next year, but I’m sure you can handle it! Hope this helps
Honestly the degree of difficulty for an AP class varies by each individual education institution. SO heres what you can do personally find out what the typical work load is for the classes daily or whenever you have. See what they learn in there and find out if it interest you. Find multiple stories of what its like being in that class and try to find somebody who’s similar workload work ethic personality or tendencies are similar to yours and see if you like it. Then make a decision
My DD has taken both, bio as a junior and enviro as a senior. APBio was a two period class with lab, APES is one period. While APBio was hard, APES is not picnic. The pace is much faster because they are covering the same material in one class period. The beginning of the year there were thirty students in the class. Today there are less than 15. Pretty quickly kids realized this wasn’t an easy A. You need to really like studying this subject. There was an entire unit just on dirt. And crop rotations. And weather.
I’m taking AP environmental science…It is the easiest AP class–thin textbook, simple content, basic concepts. It;s definitely not a complete-blow off, but it’s still very basic. AP bio will require much more effort. I recommend taking APES so you can focus on calculus.
Have you taken Honors Bio, Honors Chem and Honors Physics yet? You could take one of those instead of AP Bio and keep the AP science for senior year. Don’t take AP ES until you have taken each of the 3 core sciences.
@bopper I’m a junior now. I took Earth Science Honors as a freshman, Biology Honors as a sophomore, and Chemistry this year. I’ve shied away from physics because it’s an academic class at my school, and I want the bump.
