Next year, I will be taking AP Lang, AP Psych, APUSH, Physics, Pre-AP Spanish IIII, Analyt./Trig, and is choosing between fashion merch. or journalism. I am taking Econ. & Finance online to free up my schedule for AP Psych, but now, my parents are forcing me to take AP Capstone (please do not suggest anything about refusing; my parents do threaten not to pay for college and other things that will affect my education), which means I must take AP Seminar- which also means that I will not have the chance to take the classes I enjoy or relate to my career.
Is the AP Capstone program necessary for those pursuing journalism or fashion marketing? My parents seem to think that careers have no correlation with high school classes, and that AP Capstone will greater my chances in admittance.
I’m currently in AP Capstone Seminar and really, really enjoy it. It’s a great class that gives you a lot of freedom to research the subjects you want. We talk about and debate real world issues every class. Most importantly, I definitely think it’s the best class you can possibly take to prepare you for college. For a lot of students that enter college, being assigned a 10-page research paper with little to no guidelines or explanation would probably seem like a nightmare. Because of Capstone, I feel that I could easily write such a paper on my own and not have much of a problem.
The AP Capstone program isn’t necessary for anyone interested in persuing a certain career. Truth be told, there is no high school class that is “necessary” for any career, unless a certain college program you might be applying to straight out of high school requires certain prereqs. (For example, I know the Duke U Engineering school requires you to have taken calculus) Most colleges just want you to be taking a broad range of challenging classes.
However, I think the Capstone program would be phenomenal for journalism. The class has tremendously improved my writing and research skills. In fact, the College Board website explicitly says that AP Capstone can “lead to a future in” journalism. I don’t think there’s a direct relation to fashion marketing, but, you have the freedom to research literally any subject in Capstone. You could easily write a paper on subjects related to fashion marketing.
I’m sorry that you don’t have the choice to take this class, but I hope you are able to make the best out of it! It’s a class I’m really enjoying, and as far as I know, colleges do see it to be impressive despite to being such a new program. If you make the best out of it, you can gain phenomenal skills that can help you in journalism and even fashion marketing. Good luck.
@beccarain Thank you so much for such an insightful answer! I think you’ve won me over for AP Capstone, and I’ve submitted my paper this morning with much confidence in taking the course.
Hello! Another AP Seminar student here! Capstone is a great class as long as you put in the work. We’re in the final stages before our exam right now, and ultimately, I enjoy the class, but all the components of the exam make it a beast! If you’re up for really gaining some valuable skills (i.e. research and presentation skills and collaboration skills) then definitely take it, but expect to put in some work! If you like that sort of thing, take the class! It’s unique!
Seeing as you’ve already submitted the form, have fun next semester! If you have any questions then, let me know. I’m hoping for a 5, but we’ll see!
Thank you so much! How is the homework load compared to other classes? I’m in for at least 3 other APs (I’ve only taken one so far this year, and despite it being our “hardest” teacher, it’s killing me) next year
For me, the homework load is very manageable. Truthfully, if you’re good at managing your time in class, you probably will have little to no homework. I do suppose that it depends on the teacher as far as workload goes, but I’m under the impression that most Capstone teachers assign very little homework as well because it’s a class more focused on working independently and writing than completely loads of assignments for grades (as every other AP class seems to be).
Like silverhawk5 said above, we’re in the final stages of writing before our exam. In my class, the first semester was spent learning about research and writing. The first half of the first semester was spent learning about different research techniques and using research databases and things like that, whereas the second half of the second semester was kind of like a “test run” for our real papers. We wrote somewhat shorter versions of the individual and group papers.
As soon as the second semester started, we began working on the papers for our individual portfolio, which comprises of the group paper and the individual paper. Almost every class just comprises of working on our papers.
Like I said, if you manage your time well and work productively in class, you will have little to no homework, especially in the second semester. I’m in 5 AP classes right now (including Capstone) and it’s by far my class with the least amount of homework, even though I’m probably among the least productive people in my class
Hope that helped! Feel free to ask any more questions.
