AP Econ or AP Comp Sci

Pre-Med & Medical School High School Student Topics
1

Hello!
I’m a current junior in high school and I am conflicted about which class to take next year to fill up my schedule so I don’t have two free blocks (I mean it would be nice but that seems a bit excessive). Anyways, I need to sign up for next year’s classes and I don’t know if I should take AP Econ or AP Comp Sci. I plan on going down the premed track in college if that helps, but I narrowed my extra class down to these to broaden my knowledge and take some things I wouldn’t usually take. I’m interested in both of these topics and would be happy taking either one of them, so now I am using “which one will be better for my GPA” as the deciding factor. So basically what I am asking is which one is generally easier. My mom is a software engineer so she might be able to help me with comp sci (although she’s admittedly not that great of a teacher). Anyways, I will most likely be doing either of these classes without outside help, so which one won’t tank my GPA? I know that it really depends on what a person is good at/interested in, but just in your experience, what is your opinion?
Thank You!

TLDR: Which class do you recommend I take so my GPA doesn’t drop?

2

I have no idea which one will be easier, but all AP classes are pretty challenging. Have you taken other APs? How do you do in them? My D is taking AP Econ (Micro/Macro) right now and enjoys it. She’s a STEM girl, heading to college for engineering in the fall. So Econ isn’t really her thing but she surprisingly has found it quite interesting and a nice change of pace. Good luck with your decision.

3

Well, in my experience AP Econ was much easier than AP CompSci. It also depends on how well you handle courseload, as usually schools lump AP Macro and AP Micro into a one semester class. AP CompSci is mostly in Java, so I would see if your mom knows it before making any decisions.

Also, in general, I hear AP Econ’s AP Exams are much easier to do well on than AP CompSci. This was also true for me, I did a lot better on AP Econ than CompSci. I guess it just depends on how you feel!