Hi, I wasn’t sure what forum to put this in so college admissions it is.
I plan on being an electrical or computer engineering major and I need to know if I should go to certain lengths to get a class before college apps. I am a Sophmore and I hope to get into selective schools. The class I am referring to is AP computer science A, the teacher says that he will only accept students that have taken AP computer science principles previously but, I want to have AP CS a on my apps as well as principles of engineering (the class I would have to give up if I had to take AP CS p before AP CS a and I wanted AP CSa before junior year). I was hoping to take a 101 computing class at the cc in the spring to show the teacher that I could handle ap cs a. (I’ve taken classes there before）
My questions to you are, should I take the college class in hopes of taking apcs a before junior year? Will APCS p be good enough for college apps？Should i just take ap cs a senior year?
(IDK if this helps but here are my schedules and grades freshman and sophomore years)
my freshman year schedule was as follows:
1.accelerated math 2-3a s1 B s2 A
2. Ap Human Geography (only AP offered scored a 5) S1 B S2 A+
3. Introduction to Engineering (a college course offered by the high school) s1 a s2 A+
4. Pre - ap Language arts 9 s1 a s2 a
5. Biology (honors not offered) s1 B- s2 a+
6. Wrestling 100%
(Chinese 101 was taken at a local community college over the summer 100.71%)
this year my schedule is
AP Chem
Chamber Choir (highest level of choir if that counts for anything)
Precalc
AP euro
Principals of Engineering (a college course offered by the high school)
Pre-ap language arts 10
(also Chinese 102 at a local community college during fall)
You don’t need CS at all in HS to be an EE or ECE major, so no, you shouldn’t push your school to let you take CS early.
Be sure you take physics and make it to calculus before you graduate. Colleges will see your senior year course work and mid term grades.
Do not sacrifice core courses for any electives - be sure to have 4 years of science, math, and english; and 3-4 years of history and foreign language.
for anyone who does block schedule or 2nd semester senior dual enrollment classes there is a place to put that on the common ap and/or have the guidance counselor include that info
As other have written - you do not need CS classes, you need to take calculus, and any other challenging math classes provided by your school.
The main reasons that colleges like seeing math and engineering ECs on applicants to engineering programs is that they prefer that an applicant understand what engineering actually means, and that the applicants have demonstrated the math skills and talents required. At the end, engineering is mostly about mathematics and a way of looking at the world. Many kids think that they want to become engineers because it is a high paying career, and in this day and age, it is highly prestigious. They figure that anybody who is reasonably smart can do it. However, being smart is not good enough. You A, have to be REALLY good at math, and B, have to think of the world in terms of problems and solutions. These two are, in fact, strongly connected, since a strong understanding of math requires seeing math as problem solving.
While I’m very much against planning your high school curriculum and activities for the purpose of getting into the college of your dreams, high school is about exploring interests and developing a skill set. So if engineering interests you, expand your activities related to engineering both at school and outside. Engineering skills are useful for a very wide array of fields and interests, so this would not be a waste of time whatever the outcome. However, only do this if these activities and classes genuinely interest you, or if you think that you would find them interesting.
PS. If you want to go into computer engineering, knowledge of coding is not as important as if you want to go into computer science, since coding is one of the major tools used by computer scientists.
It is not essential to take AP CS A in high school for an EE or ECE major. AP CS principles and the college principles of engineering course that you have listed should be fine in terms of confirming your personal interest in that major.
Of course, make sure that you take math to the highest level available to you, and take physics, in addition to the usual high school college prep base curriculum (including English, history / social studies, foreign language, and art / music).