I am definitely taking both economics and Spanish, but I am just debating over which AP I should drop. So I will either take: regular econ and AP Spanish 4 or Spanish 4 and AP economics. Which one looks better to colleges and could prove to be more helpful for me in college? (If it makes any difference, I plan on going into biology/medicine in college)
Thank you!
Spanish may be more directly useful in medical practice, so taking the AP course may put you at a more advanced level to continue with study of Spanish in college. AP macroeconomics may get you at most one course worth of subject credit (perhaps none if the college has a combined micro/macro introductory course). You could, of course, take economics courses (or major in economics) in college starting from the introductory course(s).
Note that no specific major is required to do pre-med.
Spanish has a pretty low pass rate. Most people that pass the course are native speakers. If you are very confident in your Spanish skills then I would encourage you to take AP Spanish. Otherwise, take microecon because you’re more likely to get credits for that one.
For reference, my school had a 90%+ pass rate our year in both econ courses (over half were 4s or 5s) but our Spanish pass rate was a dismal 20-some%.
My advice is to choose the class that you are most excited about, as this will allow you to succeed. I don’t believe that you have to be a native Spanish speaker to pass the AP spanish class- only 2 of the students in AP this year were native speakers, and everyone except for one kid got a 4 or a 5. You can also speak to some of the colleges you are applying to and ask which one they might prefer/give more credit for.
Look at colleges of interest and see if they have requirements for taking a second language in college and if so, will a 4 or 5 on the AP test place you out of it?
AP Spanish will help you past college. If you truly learn the language, you’ll earn more in the medical field and be able to help more patients. As for colleges, it will help you with undergrad, as well as med school.
Check the AP policy of the schools you are interested in. For instance, AP Econ would be pretty useless at UMich while AP Spanish may potentially get you 8 credits.