Hi, My daughter is planning to take AP Lang, AP Spanish 4, AP Statistics, AP Music Theory, choir along with APUSH or dual credit and AP Bio or AP Environmental science next year for her junior year. She feels dual credit will be easier compared to APUSH. Is that really the case? Also please advice on AP Bio Vs AP Enviromental science. Basically she wants to choose classes that can boost her GPA.
Please advice.
Thank you!!
The first thing to understand is that a lot (most?) of colleges do not use weighted GPA. They will however look at rigor. The difference in difficulty is teacher dependent. However, if the DE class is taught at a community college, it is geared towards average students. AP classes are normally full of upper tier students. If you have a choice between 3 classes on the same topic(reg/honors, DE, AP) and pick the DE class, that tells me that you are not a top student and are just interested in possible college credits.
Not knowing anything about your daughter, taking 6 AP classes is a great way to tank one’s GPA. Trying to boost GPA by taking weighted classes is less effective if any grades are not A’s.
That said, nobody here can advise on DE USH, because the easiness of the course is dependent o the instructor. In general, when offered a choice of AP vs DE for the same subject, I advise choosing AP; it’s a known commodity to college AOs.
AP Bio vs. APES is dependent upon future plans. But be aware that APES is pretty much universally regarded as an easier course than AP Bio.
Why? What’s the end goal here? Is she needing to increase her rank because you are in an auto admit state?
If so, APES is going to be easier than bio. As for APUSH vs DE US, that will depend on the teacher and course.
If you aren’t in an auto admit state, I would rethink this strategy. What is your daughter’s intended major? I would craft her APs around her interests. Taking APs just for the sake of them, especially easier APs, isn’t going to help with college acceptances.
I also agree that 6 APs is too much.
Hi. Thank you for your response. My daughter’s current GPA is 3.85. she is intending to do Music Industry/ Music Business or Music Technology course and wants to go to USC, NYU or Berklee. She has a busy schedule with her extra curricular activities and wants to have an impressive transcript.
She needs to consider the academic workload. While it will vary according to the school/teacher, planning for an hour + of HW per night for each of AP Lang/AP Bio/APUSH is not unreasonable. For most colleges, including the ones named, the GC will grade her schedule. It’s unlikely that 6 APs are needed to get the “most demanding” rating, and there is no “super demanding” rating. Many top colleges, including MIT and Stanford, have gone on record as saying that it is not the one with the most APs that wins.
Basically, these colleges will be fine if she takes 3 AP’s junior and senior year (each =6 total).
I would stick to the 4 AP’s you’ve mentioned and take honors classes for the rest. In terms of science, she should have one year each of Bio, Chem, Physics (Physics can be regular, honors, or AP). Dual Credit US History is also fine for a student who has 4 other AP’s, especially Music Theory which is very difficult and time-consuming.
Run the NPCs and make sure you can afford the colleges from income and savings. If you don’t have savings, now’s not too late to start, setting aside what you think you’ll be able to pay each month toward college costs (it builds practice and creates a little plan to help your child as only about 80 universities out of 3,700 “meet need”. The others just want you to pay more than you can,and the little savings plan helps.)
Berklee offers very little financial aid.
Look into Belmont, Middle Tennessee State. See what you can find in Atlanta.