I’m a high school senior who moved this summer. My new school is way smaller than my previous one and when it came down to scheduling, I had to pick between taking no science class and taking AP biology, and also between Spanish 4 and AP Studio Art. I’ve taken honors and ap english and history throughout high school with flying colors, but science is not my strong suit.
I’m looking to get into the Communications or Visual Communications majors at UW, Boston U, NYU, USC, Carnegie Mellon and I’m also looking at art schools like parsons and risd.
Thanks!
Four years of science is at least recommended if not required at top schools like you mention. If you had a high school level science class in eighth grade and then three solid high school courses, maybe that’s enough already. But it does seem like schools would like to see that fourth year of HS science.
Four years of foreign language is also sometimes recommended, but not quite as strongly. You’d have to look at individual schools Common Data Set to see how much they care.
Can you take online classes?
I’d look at the recommendation/requirements of the schools you are considering to see if they want four years of science and/or language. If 3 years of science is enough for the schools (assuming you have had bio, chem, and physics already) then maybe see if you can take AP Studio Art and AP Spanish. Or see if you can take a different science class online (perhaps AP Environmental Studies).
Whether or not you take AP Biology should depend on how well you think you will do in the class and how it will affect your other classes. Don’t take it just for the name. Considering you said you’re weak in science, taking AP Biology might cause you to get a lower grade and maybe even put less focus into achieving top grades in your other classes. I personally have made this mistake and I really regret it. Science is my weakest point as well but I forced myself to take Honors Bio and Honors Chem freshman and sophomore year, respectively. Sure I got the Honors classes in my transcript but I definitely struggled just to get a B in both classes. And because I had to study even more just to keep up with those classes, I ended up getting mediocre grades in my other classes that I could have easily gotten As on had I just focused on them. Basically all my grades were lower than they could have been because I was taking a rigorous class in a subject I was weak in and also didn’t really need to focus in. Seeing you’re a Communications major, I don’t think you’re going to be needing crazy science classes. I’m a Sociology major so by junior year I learned my lesson and took an easy science class, and I got all As in the rest of my subjects. Senior year I didn’t even take a science class.
TLDR; Don’t take a class for the name. Take it if you think you can do well without it taking a toll on your other classes.
Are any of the departments you’re planning to apply to require a portfolio for admission? If yes, that often will take precedence over your grades or academic transcript (particularly at RISD).
Do you have a strong portfolio already? If not (and especially if you don’t have any time or space to work on art elsewhere), then Studio AP gives you the time to work on it in school and help from your instructor. And don’t forget you need to plan time to photograph, edit and upload all your work to slideroom too (and it’s not like the Common App, each school has their own slideroom, requirements and # of pieces) for the school’s that require portfolios.
So I’ve talked to my counselor about it, and I ended up in Spanish 4, and transferred out of AP Bio. I have a choice between AP Environmental Science and Physics. I’m still working on my portfolio for the art schools by myself.
My son is loving AP Environmental Science - it’s a nice mix of science and social studies skills.
I’d typically recommend Physics but for your chosen major(s), APES is fine and may help boost your GPA (which is, if I understand correctly, a concern wrt science.)