AP Environmental Science or AP Computer Science

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Salutations,

I am currently a freshman in high school choosing my courses for next year.

My courses for freshman year:
Honors English
Honors Alg 2/Trig
Honors Bio
AP Human
Honors Engineering
Spanish 2

I am for sure going to be taking AP Euro next year. The reason for this is that I want to take AP US history junior year, and my teacher recommended AP Euro to prepare for AP US history. AP US History in my school is basically the hardest AP Course besides AP Physics. Thus, I want to be prepared as I can be. Since I took AP Human this year and got an A, I feel AP Environmental would be a course I will be able to succeed in while getting an A. However, I did get a B in bio first semester so I am also uneasy. Also, I heard AP environmental is really helpful for someone who wants to do advanced social studies courses. However, I have the opportunity to do AP Computer science next year. I enjoyed working with computers in Honors engineering, thus my interest in AP compsci. However, since I am taking AP Euro next year (which is known to give a ton of hw and is rlly hard), i don’t know if I want to also take AP Compsci (which i heard is sorta hard if you aren’t already experienced in coding). I am also interested in AP Environmental Science, so I am having trouble choosing between these two courses.

2

Can you take AP Comp Sci junior year? While it can be time consuming, there aren’t pre-req’s which would get you off track for other classes (they do advise pre-calc). If your teacher is recommending AP Euro before APUSH I would go with their advice. Also you noted above that AP environmental is helpful for someone who wants to do advanced social studies. At our high school, AP Environmental does not have any relation to social studies. Several kids seem to take AP Environmental earlier than AP Comp Sci, but it could be our school. Either way you look to be on a strong track in high school. Good luck!