<p>It seems as though honors and especially AP science classes (bio, chem, physics, environmental science) all demand more than do AP classes such as Lit, US History, Spanish, etc. You see, AP science classes demand laboratory time, often which at my school, and I assume at others too, requires out-side class time (ie. coming to school at 7.00 AM for a lab, or staying after school for a half an hour everday, etc). This is not a "can i get in if....or what are if my chances if.... thread" This is simply a question: do admins give consideration to students who have taken a significant amount of their APs in the sciences? I mean, yes, all APs demand devotion to thorough studying and dedication, but it seems as though AP sciences are already harder than others, plus the fact that advanced math is needed for some of them, on top of the fact that they require outside lab time. I have a feeling colleges probably look at all APs roughly the same ? (and yes I know humanities courses such as AP Lit for example require good writing skills and analytical thinking, but many many more people take AP Lit for example than AP Chemistry.)</p>
<p>I think if you're looking at schools like MIT, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, etc then they will be happy to see that you take lots of science APs. However, I honestly do not believe that science APs are any harder than humanities APs. It really depends on what you're good at. I know some people who breeze through high level math and science courses, but struggle in humanities, and also vice versa.</p>
<p>I think the relative difficulty of APs rests more on your personal talents and perhaps the school's teacher and course, than the subject itself.</p>
<p>it depends on who you are. For me, AP bio and chem were really easy and even the labs didn't trouble me that much. On the other hand, it took me 10 hours to write each paper for AP US Hist. It really depends on your talent.</p>
<p>Think about how many hours one would spend outside of class reading and writing papers for Lit, the histories, etc. I spend a LOT more time for my humanities classes than I ever do for science classes, even though for AP Physics last year I had 8 sessions a week (the normal class is 5 sessions a week). Any AP class is <em>supposed</em> to be college-level work, though I know this depends on the highschool.
Sigh.... Sorry if I sound argumentative, I just got back from a very stressful vacation (doesn't that sound odd?). I spent the whole time doing my summer assignments for AP Calc, Euro, Lit and Psych, so I am worked up about this. My Calc work really only took me a day, and math is my worst subject.</p>