AP vs Magnet courses

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I am a Sophomore in a citywide Science & Math Magnet Academy and am trying to plan out the next 2 years of HS. The Magnet courses are considered college level work (courses have been reviewed by a committee of educators, incl. university personnel).

My first question is will the AO look at the Magnet courses as equally to the AP courses ? I am unsure as the Magnet courses do not have a final test similar to the APs.

My second question is, would it be detrimental as a future Biology student (have not narrowed it down further yet), to not take the AP VA & US Gov in senior year? I would end up with only 2 APs (Eng Literature & Latin), but then have 6 semester Magnet Science/Math courses (MultivariableCalc, DiffEquation, Biochem, OrgChem, Microbio, AnalyticalChem).

2

First with the names of your magnet classes even if a college isn’t familiar with your school’s course types they will easily see that they are typically advanced courses. Your school will send information which most likely explains that as well. I don’t think they will care that they don’t actually say AP. For instance AP math ends at Calculus BC and your math classes are higher than that. I’m sure they will count them as rigorous though it is your guidance counselor who tells them if you took the most rigorous coursework available (sounds to me like you plan to).

As to getting college credit for them that is something you would need to talk to individual colleges about. Since they are not actual college courses coming from a college and on a college transcript I don’t know how that works. Perhaps start by calling a local college admissions office who is probably very familiar with your school’s advanced classes to see how they are typically used there. Your guidance counselor may know more about that too.

3

The School Profile that the GC sends to colleges will explain how the classes work.

But if you want to get credit for those classes in college, you need to take the AP tests unless you get college credit for them at your HS.

4

Thank you for taking the time to answer.

If all goes as planned and expected I will have at least 9 APs (HumanGeo, Chem, Bio, Calculus BC, EuroHist, EngLang, EngComp, Latin, USGov). I just don’t want to take APs at the cost of a chance taking the magnet science/math courses that really interest me.

Not sure my HS is giving college credit for the MG courses., though I do not believe so. However, maybe I could potentially test out of some basic courses in college or it would just make the beginning of the semester easier.