I was wondering if I should take Ap World freshmen year. Some people say to take it but some say to avoid it at all cost. Currently I am planning to take all honors with Spanish 2 and orchestra. Will colleges look down at my application? Some of my peers are planning to take AP world and i’m afraid that my application won’t be able to match theirs.
What does your guidance counselor say? Does you school allow all freshmen to take WHAP? IMO, it’s doable if you are ready to study and practice DBQs and FRQs.
I took WHAP freshman year and I thought it was an incredibly rewarding experience that made all of my other APs in the future a lot easier, especially the English and Social Studies ones. Speaking of them looking good on your college app, an A in WHAP will certainly be more impressive and GPA boosting than an A in a regular or honors world history class. Even a B will show that you’re challenging yourself, but if you end up getting a C or below, you’re far better off not taking WHAP.
I would also decide on taking WHAP based on your interests. I find history to be very interesting, so I didn’t mind studying for the class, but if you absolutely hate history, you’re probably going to be very miserable in the class and not do very well.
Another note: I took WHAP 3 years ago when the AP Test and class was solely content-based (memorizing history facts), but all the AP History classes are now based on interpretation of historical documents and having an understanding of the main historical concept, which I found to be much easier when I took APUSH and Euro.
What is the normal progression of History classes in your HS?
What does your GC say?
How were your grades this year?
Some people can handle this. For others, it may be a good idea to see how you do taking all honors classes and then maybe take it sophomore year.
Freshmen aren’t allowed to take AP courses at our HS…probably for good reason.
It’s a calculated risk when this is for 9th and you have no idea (and can’t tell us) what your hs abilities, grades, and scores will be, where you can aim for college. You don’t just “take” the class, you need to do well and get a top score on the AP test, to make it swing for you. Imo, better to take honors and prepare for the next level of rigor. Or take AP World Geog, which is the AP intro at some hs. Lots of kids don’t even get AP til later. Even tippy tops aren’t admitting based on a count of AP. It’s much more than that.
Some thoughts on AP classes:
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Stanford U says:
“We expect applicants to pursue a reasonably challenging curriculum, choosing courses from among the most demanding courses available at your school. We ask you to exercise good judgment and to consult with your counselor, teachers and parents as you construct a curriculum that is right for you. Our hope is that your curriculum will inspire you to develop your intellectual passions, not suffer from unnecessary stress. The students who thrive at Stanford are those who are genuinely excited about learning, not necessarily those who take every single AP or IB, Honors or Accelerated class just because it has that designation.” -
“The College Board needs to say a similar thing about taking A.P. courses. We have data that taking up to five A.P. courses over the course of high school helps students complete college on time. But there is no evidence that excessively cramming your schedule with A.P. classes advances you. Let us say to students, ‘If you would like to take more than 5 A.P. courses because you love the class, do so, but not to get into college.’
While in general, I agree that 9th grade is too early for AP for most kids and there is no reason for anyone to try to start piling on APs just for the hell of it, the advantage of taking APWH as a freshman is getting used to an AP class and the format of the exam. At this point, after the redesigns, APWH/USH/EH all have similar (although not identical) formats. So the skills learned in APWH will be easily transferable if taking USH or EH in a later year, even if one gets less than an ideal score on the AP exam.
But don’t take it just to look good on college applications or if the GC does not recommend the course for you.
I took APWH freshman year and would highly recommend it - as others have said, it’s a very interesting class and learning how to write a DBQ/answer stimulus questions will help you immeasurably with USH and Euro. Additionally, while I wouldn’t say it’s the “easiest” of the three AP histories, it’s certainly the one that requires the least amount of small detail memorization, so it’s probably a good introduction to the AP history format. Take it, if you’re allowed.
I think that taking WHAP 9th grade is a good idea, since you won’t have other APs to worry about. You’ll definitely need to spend time with the content, but with the changes to the curriculum coming next years I would talk to the WHAP teacher if possible.
Link to the changes- https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-world-history/course/updates-2019-20
Our district allows freshman to take it, it’s considered the easiest of AP classes to ease into. My son took it Freshman year and did fine. He finished with a 92 and got a 4 on the AP test.
I do find it amusing though that the only other AP class freshman are allowed to take at our high school is AP Bio…that’s killer lol but from what I’ve heard the kids do fine. I felt it would be too much for my eldest but my incoming 9th grade twins both signed up for APWH & AP Bio for next year…we’ll see how it goes!
Wow I did not know that people would actually take time to reply to my post(first time using College Confidential). The main reason I would like to take AP World was so I could get some AP experience. If I were not to take AP World I would jump right into 3 AP sophomore year(which I don’t think is good). The major con of AP World is that I would have to take AP Euro Sophomore year. I don’t know what happened with my 7th grade year but ever since I’ve had a hatred for European History(JK It was the teacher).I am willing to put in the study time for AP World but I am kind of a slow writer. Is it still worth it to take it. Will I be sacrificing my GPA in the long term.
I don’t have any experience with AP world history. I had a daughter take AP European History, and I did participate in some of the reading. It was an enormous amount of reading. IMHO you need to want to read about and remember an enormous amount of detail to do well in either of these classes.
You should only do this if you are sure that you want to do it. Definitely do not do it to impress university admissions staff. You can’t spend your entire high school career trying to impress admissions.
I literally did nothing in high school to get into top universities (other than fill in the applications). I did what I wanted to do and took the classes that I wanted to take. Because I did what I wanted to do, I did it well. This got me into every university that I applied to, including a very highly ranked school. I suggest that you also take what you want to take, and participate in ECs that you want to participate in.
And expect AP world history to be a lot more work and a lot more reading that you have ever experienced in any class prior to high school.