<p>i'm currently a junior at a rigorous public high school in massachusetts. this year, i'm only taking one ap course, us history. however, next year i'm planning to take 5 ap's- euro, psych, enviro, spanish, and english. that would leave my only non-ap as math, a subject i've never liked. should i stick it out and take trig next year, or can i drop it altogether? it would be a lower level class, so i'm not worried about the workload. it's just that i'd like to have a free period during the school day to study/get homework done. however, i've heard that colleges like to see 4 years of math. is that true? and do you think 6 total ap's is enough? i'm expecting at least 4's on all the exams, and preferably 5's on most of them.
if it matters, i have a good gpa and fairly strong ECs/leadership. the colleges i'm looking at are bryn mawr, oberlin, mount holyoke, smith, and umass amherst as a safety. i plan on majoring in international relations or poli sci.
*if it makes a difference, i'm going to take the ap gov test with a little bit of self studying to see what happens (my school doesn't offer the class). if i get a 4 or 5, i'll send the score, and if i get below i'll just pretend i never took it.
any advice/help/comments are welcome-thanks!</p>
<p>Why would you take only 1 AP this year and 5 next instead of leveling them? How many are available to most students? If most take <6 then you should be OK. I would still take a math.</p>
<p>taking a 4th year of math is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
unless your going to do useless stuff like art theater social studies in collehe</p>
<p>Some of the colleges on your list are selective, and for that reason I would encourage you to take a math course. You should check the admissions requirements for each college to which you apply to get a sense of what is the “minimum” requirement, and what is “recommended”. For example UMass requires 3 years of math for most majors, but for some (i.e. Isenberg School of management) 4.</p>
<p>Take math. It’s only one more year, and you don’t want holes in your application.</p>
<p>You should really take math</p>
<p>Just wanted to point out - I’m a senior without a study, and I honestly don’t mind. Seniors tend not to be very productive during studies. At my school they use it as an excuse to leave and go home or go out to eat.</p>
<p>I actually think I might’ve been really productive in study but I would definitely end up wasting a lot of time.</p>
<p>going from 1 to 5 ap’s is a HUGE jump. For those schools, I would strongly suggest taking a math course. It wouldn’t be that big, if you decided to drop on ap. Going into college with your highest math being algebra II (correct me if im wrong) isn’t a good thing for admissions and for when you get to college.</p>
<p>I’d drop AP Psych or AP Environ. and add the trig.</p>
<p>AP Psych and Enviro are not commonly offered across a wide range of high schools yet. Their competitive value, IMO, does not equal taking math. IMO.
Sure, they are good, in themselves. But, you won’t have a full year of those AP grades when you apply, nor test scores for those. Agree with Rad and nysmile. Sorry.</p>
<p>Read through the requirements for your probable major, and find out what math classes you would be expected to take at each of those colleges if you were to pursue that major. If there is any chance at all that you will need Calculus at some point, you do want to take Trig. in HS. If you are definitely not headed the Calculus route, then Trig. would be OK, but another math course such as Statistics or even Consumer Math would be more useful for your life.</p>
<p>That said, what does your counselor suggest? If your HS routinely sends students to the colleges on your list, your counselor should have useful ideas for you.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d take math just to stay in practice.</p>
<p>first off, thanks to everyone who viewed and replied (: i’ve decided to take math next year, because i agree- it’s probably good to have 4 solid years of it and i want to have a strong overall transcript.
alright, now i’m kind of freaking out over how people are saying that 1 to 5 ap courses is a big jump. at my school, it’s impossible to take AP’s freshman and sophomore year- they’re simply not offered. junior year, the only AP you can take is apush, unless you’ve skipped 3 years of math, in which case you could take calc. obviously i’m just in “normal” placement math, so apush was my only option. since my other classes are all honors, it just makes sense to continue them into AP next year. is this okay? i’m worried now :(</p>
<p>If 5 AP courses your senior year is normal at your HS, then don’t worry about it. Each school has it’s own way of organizing things.</p>
<p>thanks, happymom (: i’m feeling a little less panicky…</p>
<p>Adcoms will know what the norm is for APs and/or honors at your school. At the very least, info about this will be included in the hs profile that the GC sends with the recommendation letter. I think we all assumed this was your choice. Good luck.</p>