<p>I'm a rising senior, and I have to take either AP English Language or AP English Literature next year. I am interested in BME or Biochem for my major, but I wanted to know - does it matter if I take AP Lang or AP Lit to colleges? Which one is generally considered easier, though they stress different skills? Thanks so much in advance.</p>
<p>Doesn’t really matter, but Lang involves more skills that will be relevant to the average non-Lit major in college. Rhetorical analysis, argumentation, and synthesis will be useful no matter what your major, whereas few non-Lit majors will need to spend much time with poetry in college. Both are similarly difficult, imo, but some students find the poetry and comparative analysis portions of the Lit exam more alien, less similar to what they’ve learned in school (many English teachers don’t do much poetry, after all).</p>
<p>AP Lang may be more useful for you. Indeed, you should have taken it in junior which my help you in essay writing. My D did not even take AP Lit as she will major in engineering. </p>
<p>Two things:
- Check the policies of the colleges you’re looking at. Some colleges (of the top of my head, I know NYU) only reward credit for one (usually Lit), but not the other. So I’d check the AP policies of the schools you’re interested in.
- If that makes no difference, AP Lit analyzes fiction while AP Lang works with non fiction. I find analyzing fictions easier, so I much prefer Lit. I know plenty of people who were the opposite. Both will teach you to be an effective writer, so consider what kind of books you’d rather read for a year if there are no other important differences.</p>
<p>Either is fine. AP Lang is useful for its writing emphasis, which can really come in handy for college app essays, as well as life in general. Colleges don’t tend to favor one over the other, although many top colleges do not give credit for both.</p>