AP Seminar Question

I see some posts from students who took “AP Seminar.” This is a subject that is not offered at my school (or any I know of in my area)
What is AP Seminar? What do the student’s learn? Is it a Core class?

Okay so there are two sections, AP Capstone Seminar and AP Seminar. Can’t really tell you much about the latter, but the former is basically a research class. CB gives a stimulus, you use it to form a question, then from that question you use at least one of the stimulus and find your own resources. Then, write a research paper. You also have to be able to give a presentation.

If you’re trying to see if you could take the class online/ take the exam without taking the class, I don’t think that is possible. The AP score comes from a combo of materials: research report and TEAM (yes, you have to work with others) Presentation that your teachers gives a score on, then the actual exam.
SO, in short, you wouldn’t be able to because your teacher actually weighs in on your score, you need other people, and some materials have to be turned in before the actual exam part.

Thank you @cfigueroa20. Do universities consider AP Seminar a “core course”?

This is not a core course. Core courses = english, history, math, science, foreign language.

Sorry some of the information is wrong. The first year you take AP seminar https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-seminar

It is a year of learning how to do research and actually write a paper on a topic of your choice. My son did both years and it was filled with kids that had AP Lang etc.

The second year is AP Research https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-research

This is the meat and potatoes. My son learned about many different ways to conduct research and wrote an intense research paper. Both classes are self driven with very little teacher interaction and done this way on purpose. Both you do live public speaking also which is great.

So my son was not a good writer at all. His papers sucked basically. He was a stellar student besides this. He took these to help him improve his writing skills. That it did. He aced first year college writing and the professor actually made some very positive comments about his writing style and ability compared to others.

He took a leadership program based on research his freshman summer and all ready knew all the different mechanism for all the different types of research
He used what he learned while doing his own research also.

If you ask him those two AP classes where his most useful that he took.

Not only is it not a core course, few universities give credit for it. That said, depending on the student and the teacher and the subject material, it can be beneficial. For the OP, it’s a moot question, though, since the HS does not offer.

It is a bit of a strange situation - some high schools count it as an actual English class for graduation credit but for many it is in addition to a typical ELA class.

My son’s school it was an AP class and couldn’t use it as a core

It varies by HS. Some house it in the English department; some in the social studies department. I’ve even seen Catholic schools put it in the religion department. But certainly for colleges, if the UCs are any indication, it will not count against the 4-year English requirement even if the HS considers it English. Any student should do well to consider that it will be viewed as an elective.

Thanks for the info.
@skieurope, yes it is a moot question since my high school does not offer it. I was just curious about the course and if it could be a candidate for self-study AP exam credit. Got my answer. Thank you.

@skieurope there have been kids at our high school that have taken AP seminar and AP research with only 3 traditional ELA classes:
Honors 9th grade ELA
AP English Language,
AP English Literature

I know students who have gotten into Yale, Harvard, and Cornell with that schedule. I do agree with consulting individual colleges to avoid issues since not every college recognizes them. The UC colleges are not a big thing where I live so I don’t know anyone who has ever applied to one.

If the goal is actual college credit that is also not very likely to happen with AP capstone.

Out of curiousity I looked at the 6 New England state flagships
I found that UNH specifically says no credit for them
UMass Amherst, UConn and UMaine Orono doesn’t list them for credits
URI does give credit
UVM says it needs course work for further review