I’m a rising HS junior and have been dealing with a dilemma for the entire summer. At my High School, we can take up to 7 courses maximum, and I have pretty much decided what I’m going to take as a junior, except for one course.
I’ve already taken AP Physics 1 and BC Calc, and will be taking AP Physics C junior year for sure. But as for that one last course I need to take, I’m torn between taking AP Physics 2 and AP Chem.
(Whatever I don’t take this year I’ll take my senior year, but then I’m thinking of applying early, so I think I need to have my most important AP scores pretty much by the end of my junior year).
I’m a STEM major for sure although I don’t know exactly what I want to do, and I like both physics and chem. Which one should I choose??
Hmm I guess the contents do overlap? Thing is, my Physics 1 teacher is teaching Physics 2 — he’s really nice too — and I thought perhaps by taking Physics 2 as well I can ask for a rec letter more easily as well…
It sounds like neither. You definitely don’t need AP Physics 2 if you’re planning on taking AP Physics C, and it seems weird that would you take both AP Physics C and AP Chem in the same year, this year, when you have another year to go. Were you planning on taking AP Bio in 12th?
My choice would be to take AP Chem this year, but take AP Physics C next year.
Yes, I’m taking AP Bio in 12th grade. Actually, I’m taking all-STEM courses (except for English) junior year, so I thought I should take more of other courses in 12th grade. (On another note, does it hurt if my humanities seem weak, bc I’ve never taken any AP history courses & I’m planning to take AP USH my senior year.)
I’m not sure if the reasoning why you would want this imbalance between your 11th and 12th grade, but when you’re in college you definitely do not want to stick all your harder classes into one semester or year, you want a balance.
Now that I said that, IMO AP Physics C is the hardest AP of them all. AP Chem is also quite hard, and I think that AP Bio in general is a bit easier than the first 2. So to me if you’re going to fit all 3 into 2 years, you probably want to AP Physics C or AP Chem by itself and combine AP Bio with the other. Just for balance purposes. So if I were you, I would take AP Chem and APUSH in 11th and AP Bio and AP Physics C in 12th. Or AP Physics C and APUSH in 11th and AP Bio and AP Chem in 12th.
Hi ProfessorPlum168, thank you for the info — those are some different ways to think about it I didn’t think of before. I was just wondering if AP Chem would be that hard too if you have taken a pre-AP Chemistry course (so it’s not AP, but a course that prepares you for the AP course, quite equivalent to the honors, I guess).
I think one year of any Chem is good prep for AP Chem. My kid actually didn’t take any Chem before AP Chem. Admittedly he struggled a lot in his first 2 months, but was ok after that and did get a 5 on his AP exam. So you should be fine.
Well that’s not 100% true. Yes if you’re taking the AP course as a 12th grade, then yes you are right. However If say you took AP Chem in 11th grade and got a 3 and you wanted to be a Chem major, then I think it would matter. (Of course you could simply not report the score on the application, but then AOs could probably still find out the score if they were so inclined.)
Students currently enrolled in AP courses are not required to submit AP scores as part of our admission process. AP scores that are reported are acknowledged but rarely play a significant role in the evaluation of an application. Grades earned over the course of a term, or a year, and evaluations from instructors who can comment on classroom engagement provide us with the most detailed insight into a student’s readiness for the academic rigors of Stanford. http://admission.stanford.edu/basics/selection/prepare.html