<p>I am going to be a junior next year, and I have the choice of taking AP English or English 101 at the local community college. I asked around my high school, and from virtually everyone who took the AP class, I was told that the class was way too easy and that they didn't learn anything. The English 101 students said that it was a challenging class, the teacher was great, and they learned a lot. I want to go to the English 101 class because I am interested in challenging myself and developing intellectually. The problem is that I plan to attend to a great college, such as Brown or Cornell. From what I understand AP classes look better than dual enrollment classes do on an application. Furthermore, I go to a very small school (about 90 in my class) which has few AP and Honors classes. So far, I have taken as many as have been offered, and I have a 4.0 GPA unweighted. My problem is that I don't know which class to take. I want to learn, and I want to push myself to be become a smarter, more knowledgable individual, but if it will hinder me in my attempt to get into a top college, where I would have more opportunities to learn than i would at just a good college, I'm not sure if I should do it.
Thanks for reading this and any help that follows!</p>
<p>From a curriculum perspective, English 101 is a lit/comp (heavy on the comp) class. It is intended primarily for students who want to attend community college or a state university. (The credit would be direct transfer, and you take a class-specific final instead of a more general AP exam, which means you are more likely to get those credits through that route at cc or public uni.)</p>
<p>Colleges generally do not give credit for 101, but they often give minimal credit/exemptions for AP lit and Lang.</p>
<p>11th grade AP is usually Lang, with Lit in 12th grade. Some schools make the Lang class primarily American Lit, which is less helpful for the exam.</p>
<p>I don’t teach Lang, but I do teach 101 and Lit - Lit is more challenging than 101 based on sheer workload and critical thinking. 101 is more for pragmatists, IMHO. I don’t think anyone would sneer at you for taking it, though.</p>
<p>Take the class you feel will prepare you to write killer essays.</p>
<p>Thank you. The reason that I said AP English was easier was because the teacher of the class has an overwhelmingly bad reputation as someone whose class is too easy</p>