I am currently a Sophomore planning my courses for next year. I am interested in Engineering and as of yet I had signed up for AP Physics 2 (self studying AP Physics C: E&M), AP Chem, AP Calc BC, and APUSH for my junior year. The main reasons I had signed up for AP Chem instead of AP Bio was that 1) I am a little more interested in Chem and 2) AP Bio is hard to get an A in my school compared to AP Chem (it is said Junior year grades hold the most weightage).
But I just found out due to low course demand next year my school will not require a Lab class for AP Bio but it will require one for AP Chem. This offers me the chance of taking more classes next year if I opt for AP Bio instead of AP Chem.In that case, I would take AP Chem senior year.
What would be the better option? I’ve heard that AP Chem is a more rigorous course so colleges might want to see my AP score in that more than AP Bio? But then there is also the question of being able to take more total AP classes which could help raise my GPA.
Take whichever one interests you more. IMO, colleges have no preference between AP Bio and AP Chem.
Be aware that if the College Board gets wind of this, the school will not be able to call the class “AP Bio” although you would still be able to take the exam if desired.
I believe that AP Biology and AP Chemistry bear equal weight in the evaluation of the course load of an applicant because they are not considered to be the “easy” AP’s (i.e. AP Human Geography, APES, AP Psychology). Based off what you have said about your background, I would recommend that you enroll in AP Chemistry your junior year and AP Biology your senior year. My high school alternated the years in which AP Biology and AP Chemistry were taught so I had no choice other than to take AP Biology sophomore year and AP Chemistry junior year (I didn’t want to take AP Biology senior year but I took other AP’s to fill the void). I would say that AP Biology is much more of a memorization-bases course like APUSH whereas AP Chemistry is essentially another math class with some memorization, but I still was able to keep a B+/A- throughout the year without having taken AP Calculus AB. While the greatest emphasis of GPA, standardized test scores, and EC’s is placed on junior year, colleges and universities still want to see a challenging senior year course load. Try to keep your GPA as high as possible junior year.
skieurope, would I still get the college credit if the College Board get wind of it?
Of course, assuming you get the requisite score; one does not need an AP class to take the test.
FLStudent97, one of the reasons why I am considering AP Bio for junior year is that I might be able to take more weighted courses in total because of the extra slots. Do you think this is important enough to change the order?
@UMath101 I would suggest what you said in the previous post only if you are able to take more AP classes by not taking AP Chemistry and receive higher grades in them. Colleges and universities want to see that you are taking the most challenging courses your school offers while still maintaining academic success (which is not always an A; a handful of B’s or B+'s are still acceptable).
Thanks for the advice. It turns out I won’t be able to take AP Bio anyway because the school decided to cap the number of students to 10.