Hi I’m currently a high school sophomore picking classes for my junior year. As a student, I’m usually able to grasp things quickly and do well in school but I’ve never really grasped science as a whole. When I say struggled I mean I’ve gotten Bs never Cs but it’s always a science class. Next year I’m taking AP Lang, APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Comp Sci, college level business, 7th period theater (I need a VAPA to graduate) but I’m stuck on whether I should take AP Chem or Honors. I’m on the road to (hopefully) getting into Ivy League school (Yale & UPenn are my top choices) but I don’t know if I should bite the bullet and take AP chem or play it relatively safe and take honors. This year I took AP Bio which is notorious in my school for being the 2nd hardest class, right behind AP Chem. In past years, so few people have signed up that they simply didn’t have the class but this year it look like they are. I really want to be an ivy league competitor but also don’t want this class to be taking up all of my time and letting my other classes slip. Any advice is appreciated!
Ivies do care about academic rigor, but given the rest of your schedule it seems unlikely that choosing not to take AP Chem would be the determining factor in admissions. Your course load looks pretty rigorous and good grades are also important so if it is a subject you dislike and struggle in then it sounds like it’s a smart choice to take just honors.
Of course there’s more than academics to get into top tier schools as well.
I’d reccomend taking a Chemistry class before AP Chem, if you take it at all. At my school at least, you are expected to already know the basics before you do AP.
No
Agree 100%
@Lagging thanks for being so helpful! I know there’s more than getting into ivies it’s just a dream I’m working towards 
@BurgerMan1 at my school there’s no intro course you’re pretty much just thrown into it and expected to do well that’s my dilemma
Bump
So there’s no regular Chemistry course? AP Chem is only chem course? You can’t talk honors and then AP?
At my school, Honors Chemistry was the equivalent of pre-AP chem.
@BurgerMan1 there is a regular Chem course but it’s for people that aren’t advanced. At my school you take a different science every year. (9th-Physics 10th-Biology 11th-Chem 12-AP physics, physiology, or environmental science)
Ivies want to see you take the most rigorous schedule that your school offers. They compare you to kids at your school since most of you have the same resources.
@DoctorMD slightly debatable. Plenty of kids from my school who take one regular class (not even honors–regular! the horror!) junior year in favor of advanced classes in other subjects get into top-tier schools (e.g. MIT, UPenn, Columbia). Honors Chem will not be very detrimental to OP’s college chances unless their school is extremely, extremely easy. It seems like it’s a relatively rigorous school, however, so they should be fine.
Honors Chem for sure. I know people who got away with taking no AP sciences other than AP Physics 1 and C who still got into MIT (they took Honors Bio and Honors Chem freshman and sophomore year, as they are required, but that was about it). If you’re not applying as a science major, it doesn’t matter.