Daughter (rising senior) wants to take AP CSP (she already took AP CSA) - she is planning to go into engineering with a potential minor in CS. Her school has offered AP CSP the past two years but hasn’t actually run the course due to low enrollment. Finally, her senior year they will run the course… but it is only one section and will be the same class period as the one section of Calc BC. Boo. The principal is trying to find a viable solution via the master schedule but I am not holding out much hope for that!
We have all agreed that Calc BC takes priority over CSP. CS teacher (whom she had for AP CSA) has offered to let her take it via independent study - which I am not sure is a great solution knowing that the intention is for some of the work to be collaborative although maybe she can collaborate with students in the class after school. She also will apparently not receive Honors/AP weighted credit since it’s independent study which is annoying but not a decision factor.
Another alternative is to take an online programming course at our local community college - it is NOT dual enrollment and would not appear on her HS transcript. I assume this is not an issue for applying as a freshman to universities - she would just include it as a second transcript, maybe with an explanation that there was a schedule conflict between Calc BC and AP CSP at her HS.
Any thoughts on which path is better?
I would go with the CC online programming class. Maybe not Java since she probably used Java in her CSA class. So maybe Python, C++ or Advanced Java. That will be way more helpful than CSP. ( Note that most CCs will either do a placement test or need documentation that your kid is experienced enough with Java in order to take an advanced class.)
Lots of kids take CC classes that are not dual enrollment. You would simply send a separate transcript to the final destination University from the CC for those classes.
“Better” is relative. I’m not sure there is a wrong answer.
For a potential engineering student who has already taken CSA, I don’t see the need/benefit to take CSP. Usually CSP is taken as a first course, so it’s kinda going backwards. So I agree with @ProfessorPlum168 that advanced Java, or another programming language, would be the way to go. That said, even for a non-DE CC class, the credit may not transfer (and for most private colleges definitely won’t transfer). So that might be a consideration.
Agree with above posters. D20 took it last year. Class tends to be a lot of freshman who want to take an AP class or seniors who have run out of CS to take.
Thank you for the specific advice… the CC course would be C/C++ (yes CSA was Java). She tried to take CSP first but they didn’t end up running it - hence, CSA. She does need to send her CSA AP score to the CC to meet the pre-req for the C/C++ course.
We’re not concerned about the credit transferring - she will likely end up at a private college.
Or she can go through http://cs10.org on her own to get an overview of CS that she may not see from programming and data structures courses.
Just wanted to provide some closure on this thread… school was unable to make any changes to the schedule so she is unable to take AP CSP. She will most likely take C/C++ at the local community college. As an aside, she is ending up with two unscheduled periods which happen to be 1st and the last - which to me is a bonus (she will drive herself to school so she can take advantage of no classes those periods)… she wants to TA for her physics teacher instead of sleep-in!
@ucbalumnus cs10.org looks AMAZING! I can’t seem to discern whether or not they will offer it in the fall but I will pass the info along to my daughter.
CS 10 is offered every semester, but a recent previous semester’s web site will still be useful for someone going through it on her own (especially if she goes though the material faster than the actual class or is otherwise not doing it exactly in sync with the actual class).