AP Courses or College Courses

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I am currently a sophomore, and will be forecasting for my junior year next week. I could really use some advice!</p>

<p>We have a program in our school district which enables high school juniors and seniors to take courses (college level, numbered 100 and above) at the local community college. These courses give us both high school and college credit, and the grades contribute toward our high school GPA. Most of the courses are transferable to the University of Washington. I’m not sure about the transfer status to highly selective colleges.</p>

<p>I have two choices for next year.</p>

<p>I can stay at my high school and take:
AP Chem
APUSH
AP English 11
Spanish 4
Pre-Calc
Human Anatomy/Physiology (an excellent, but very challenging course) </p>

<p>OR</p>

<p>I can take the following at the college in the morning:
US History
Inorganic Chemistry/Lab (would take Organic during my senior year)
Spanish (1st yr college level; 2nd yr to be completed during my senior yr)</p>

<p>And take the following at the high school in the afternoon:
AP English 11
Pre-Calc
Human Anatomy/Physiology</p>

<p>One more thing…
I am a ballet dancer and train from 3:00p – 9:00p every weekday, and all day on Saturday. My study time is extremely limited. Plus, I make time for church, Key Club, AWSEM, and my very understanding boyfriend. I took AP Bio as a freshman (proudly got a 5!) and am currently taking AP World…so I know what kind of work these AP courses require. Keeping a 4.0 and my ranking is extremely important. I plan to double major in Bio and Dance in college.</p>

<p>I don’t know that I could handle, with my ballet schedule, more than 2 APs at the high school. I am lucky in that I only need about 4-5 hours of sleep at night! I’m thinking (and I may be very wrong) that it would be more time efficient to take the “AP” equivalent courses at the college so I can just go to the lectures, study, and learn the material…no Mickey-Mouse, time-wasting assignments that we often get in high school. Plus, no AP exams…just midterms and finals.
What are the pros and cons to either schedule? How do admissions view it? Would I be considered a transfer student or still a new, incoming freshman when I apply to college? Does that status even matter? I have the opportunity to actually earn an AA degree at the same time. Is it worth pursuing? That "transfer" status bothers me for some reason. My counselor hasn’t been too helpful…she’s just pushing me toward the college courses without thinking of the consequences. </p>

<p>Thank you for taking the time to muddle through this post. I appreciate any and all thoughts on the matter.</p>

2

<p>I had the same options, and I chose to do the college courses for several reasons.</p>

<p>1- don't have to take an AP test/pay for it
2 - guaranteed to credits as long as you pass the class
3 - you can always take the college courses, then study a bit for the corresponding AP test. Even if you don't pass the AP test or get less than what you desired, your time is not wasted b/c you've already earned college credits.
4 - If you're staying instate, college course will definitely be a better choice.</p>

3

<p>You might as well take the AP/college load as it is tougher (and looks that way). You will also have no busywork nor wasted time as colleges highly value time and don't like to spend it frivolously.
You will be considered an incoming freshman if you apply through that mode. However, you will probably be given sophomore standing because of the number of credits you will hold.</p>

4

<p>Don't take the college courses. I'm in Running Start right now and I regret it since I ended up not applying to UWashington and the other WA schools - it is a waste of time, especially if you are shooting for the top25 schools. </p>

<p>Your school's AP record will be seen by your colleges - they can gauge the course difficulty at your school and they cannot do that with community colleges.</p>

5

<p>AP....college credit for the college might not transfer, and AP is universal in terms of difficulty.</p>

6

<p>I did Running Start this year and it's amazing. I'm not sure which community college you're going to, but make sure you go to a high quality one. I'm doing it full time, but my classes are really good. Teachers are SO much better and class sizes are TINY. Plus, if you do it full time you can end up with an awesome schedule. If you want more information about running start, I can post it later...</p>