Does AP Psychology look bad to admissions?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello all. I’m new here and I’ve really tried to find a post on this but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. I’m terribly sorry if this post has already been done.</p>

<p>So to give a little background info, these are the AP Classes and Honors my school has regularly</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
English I Honors
Honors World History</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
English II Honors
Algebra 2 Honors</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Pre-Calc Honors
AP US History
AP Language
English III Honors (can’t take both English III honors and AP Lang)</p>

<p>Senior Year:
AP Government
AP Literature
Usually AP Calculus, but for this upcoming school year everyone signed up for AP Statistics because the pre-calc teacher was so bad. What a shame huh?</p>

<p>And AP Spanish and AP Psychology are offered both junior and senior year</p>

<p>Now here are the classes that are offered if enough people sign up and they can find a teacher for it
AP European History
AP Statistics
AP Biology</p>

<p>Right now I am a sophomore. Here is my schedule for my junior year</p>

<li>AP Language</li>
<li>AP US History</li>
<li>Pre-Calc Honors</li>
<li>Spanish 3</li>
<li>Dance Team</li>
<li>AP Psychology</li>
</ol>

<p>So senior year I would be taking

  1. AP Literature
  2. AP Government
  3. AP Calculus (since there is going to be a decent Pre-Calc Honors teacher)
  4. AP Spanish
  5. AP Biology (my regular biology teacher is preparing the course for my senior year)
  6. Dance Team</p>

<p>One problem, they are offering AP Euro my junior year. I love History and Psychology, so this is a tough decision. I want to either be a doctor or a lawyer (haha way opposite careers on the career spectrum) so I figured psychology would be the best class to take. Then I started doing my research on college message boards and from people at school who have taken AP Psychology, and they all say the same thing: easy A, easy exam, EASIEST AP</p>

<p>That’s great and all, but do admissions look down upon AP Psychology because it is “obviously the easiest AP”. I’m not taking AP Psychology for the extra grade point on my GPA, but for the learning experience (as corny as that sounds)</p>

<p>So then there’s the option of AP European history. Sounds interesting and I definitely wouldn’t mind taking it, but as you can see, my heart is into AP Psychology.</p>

<p>So I called the admissions of my dream school and asked “Would it look bad if I had taken AP Psychology instead of AP European History?” and “Does AP Psychology look bad on a transcript because it is considered the easiest AP?”</p>

<p>The answer: “We won’t mark you down for taking AP Psychology instead of AP European History.” (Now that I think about it, this is kinda obvious since they are two completely different subjects) and “An AP class is an AP class”</p>

<p>These sound like strong answers in typing, but the admissions advisor seemed a little unsure.</p>

<p>So then I have the option of taking AP Psychology my senior year and dropping dance team. But I don’t think that is the best idea, because it means I’d only have one year on dance team. I don’t think that would look too good to admissions officers.</p>

<p>So pretty much what I wanted to know is</p>

<p>Is AP Psychology looked down upon by college admissions officers? </p>

<p>And any suggestions or advice or experiences in AP Psychology and AP Euro would be great.</p>

<p>Thank you for reading</p>

<p>-Samm</p>

2

<p>No, I doubt AP Psychology would be looked down upon. Some schools require you to take psychology to graduate and then you won't even have to take it anymore. Or you can take AP Euro and self-study Psychology, or vice-versa.</p>

3

<p>Absolutely not. You have read on CollegeConfidential that colleges look down on AP Psychology because it is an "easy AP". To the best of my knowledge, there is no written evidence to substantiate this claim. What you have read on this site is speculation by teenagers your age...</p>

4

<p>Three years of history and government should suffice. AP Psychology is not looked down upon and having one history class in junior year should be enough.</p>

5

<p>No AP looks bad.</p>

6

<p>Nope. If it's got an AP exam, and you do well, it's just as valid as any other AP. Get a 4 or 5 and there's no problem.</p>

<p>Same goes for any AP or IB class until well researched information comes out otherwise.</p>