<p>My son is a Freshmen in TJ, he is in the process of signing up for next year's classes. He is planning to take Chemistry during summer and take AP chemistry during Sofomore year.</p>
<p>I was wondering if it would look better on his college application to take an internship over the summer than taking Chemistry.</p>
<p>Can you let me know your thoughts?</p>
<p>Unless you have a need to finish chemistry early, doing activities that one is not able to do during school year is usually a better choice.</p>
<p><em>said in my most curmudgeonly voice</em></p>
<p>He should do whatever he would enjoy more and not do things to look good for college. :)</p>
<p>I agree with YDS, but on the whole, I think it’s better for kids to do non-school things in the summer. That said, my older son took Chem summer after freshman year, because it was going to make scheduling courses easier, and he didn’t have better plans for the summer. The following summer he took a computer graphics course and did some job shadowing in comp sci, then worked in comp sci after that.</p>
<p>And I agree with mathmom. My kids worked hard enough during the school year. I can’t imagine doing classes during the summer.</p>
<p>Internship! Colleges want to see that students are active in the summer.</p>
<p>Internship (provided it is a quality opportunity for him)</p>
<p>What kind of internship?</p>
<p>Is chem a prereq for APChem? We are a neighboring county and some AP sciences have the honors course as a prereq and some don’t. I would tend to agree that activities, like the internship, that are a departure from traditional academics are simply going to be a better break mentally provided he is going to enjoy the internship. Kids should absolutely be engaged during the summer, but they should also give their brains a chance to go a different direction. It prevents burn-out.</p>
<p>It depends if summer chem is a prerequisite for AP chem. Can kid take AP chem next year without taking chem in summer? If yes, then do internship. If no, then you would have to weigh pros and cons of internship + reg chem during school year vs chem in summer + AP chem during school year.</p>
<p>Generally, both internships and AP Chem look good on college apps. Depending on the internship, I’d say that the internship looks slightly better.</p>
<p>By TJ, do you mean Tiajuana?</p>
<p>AP chem is considered a two year class usually, at least in public schools.</p>
<p>Interesting, I keep forgetting. At K’s private HS,AP Chem is a 1 year class and no summer school.</p>
<p>First year is usually pre-ap or honors as recommended by Collegeboard. It is also the same with Biology. Many school districts offer classes in summer to do one intense class over 6-8 weeks which is normally two semesters during regular year.</p>
<p>Usually when people simply say TJ they mean Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology. It’s an exceptionally high ranked public magnet high school in Fairfax Co, Va.</p>
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<p>Unless TJSST has really watered down their standards, their AP science classes were like those at my NYC public magnet…1 year. This has been confirmed by several colleagues/friends who are TJSST graduates from the '90s/early '00s. </p>
<p>Moreover, if they’re like my HS, most students would take the AP classes directly without taking the non-ap equivalents first. </p>
<p>The non-AP classes were for those of us on the “slow” track. Then again, many classmates on that very track managed 4-5s on AP exams with just a few weeks of self-studying/practicing old AP exams.</p>
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<p>It was 1 year (with no previous Chem required) at my ordinary open enrollment public school.</p>
<p>What kind of internship is this? Honestly, I don’t understand what kind of educated work a high school freshman can do. What would his role be in this internship?</p>
<p>We live close to a great private university that offers summer internships specially to our high schoolers interested in science and engineering. Those internships are a lot of fun and the kids learn quite a bit and surprising can contribute. Not in a top notch advancing research way but as members of a team doing smaller useful things. Last summer my kid did the engineering part in a program that ties robotics with promotion of STEM and actually came up with some pretty good ideas (according to the prof.)This summer they asked him to go back. A friend’s daughter done the science part and “used” the lab to advance her science fair project (biology related), pretty cool actually.
The professors that work with the kids are very enthusiastic and every spring they ask the kids to come back.</p>
<p>My son did a CTY fast-paced chem course and then took the NYS Regents Exam in August. They whizzed through all of high school chemistry in 3 weeks. There was actually plenty of time in summer to have done both the course and an internship. (That was probably the summer he worked (on his own, for fun, unpaid) on a gaming project that got recognized by Gamer Magazine.)</p>
<p>Look I will be honest with you. My son took Chem in the summer and Ap in his Sophomore year and got a 4. Would I recommend it. No. It was fast pace and I think in the end the kids that took Chem Honors an AP Chem did better and felt less stressed. Can you do AP Chem in 1 year? I do not recommend if you want to go to very demanding colleges. When you do Honors and AP they not only hammer the concepts they go far beyond the exam, something that my son found it difficult to grasp sometimes with his basic knowledge of chemistry. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>“Prerequisites
The AP Chemistry course is designed to be taken only after the successful completion of a first course in high school chemistry. Surveys of students who take the AP Chemistry Exam indicate that the probability of achieving a score of 3 or higher is significantly greater for students who successfully complete a first course in high school chemistry prior to undertaking the AP course . Thus it is strongly recommended that credit in a year high school chemistry course be a prerequisite for enrollment in an AP Chemistry class. In addition, the recommended mathematics prerequisite for an AP Chemistry class is the successful completion of a second-year algebra course.”</p>
<p>Page 4
<a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board; </p>
<p>What schools do and what they let students do is entirely upto them.</p>