Hey everyone! I’m at a private school with not many classes that ca be chosen, and instead they give us the classes necessary to graduate. By default, I am taking…
- Precalculus
- Economics
- Biology
- Media and Culture/English
- A.P Government
Recently, I have been hearing that I don’t have a sufficient amount of A.P’s for my junior year that set me in a competetive level. Our school is ow offering to take online courses, and I’m most interested in A.P bio, A.P chem, A.P Stats, A.P Psychology, A.P Calculus, etc.
Can anyone give me advie on how many A.P’s I should be taking in my junior year if I’m applying to top notch schools like University of Michigan, Ann Arbor? With the SAT 2017, what AP classes should I take to pursue either an engineering or career in medicine? I don’t want to stress myself out too much with soccer club season and SAT coming up? Any advice and help would be greartly appreciated! Please, and thank you.
What AP classes do you have to choose from?
For medicine AP Chem, AP Bio and AP Psych would probably be the most helpful. AP Chem is generally considered the most difficult of the three. AP Bio and AP Psych are generally not too difficult as far as AP classes go (with Psych generally considered the easier of those two). If you do a pre-med track in college you will learn about all three of these categories (and be tested on them for the MCAT) so any would work.
AP Calc would probably be most relevant for engineering but it is also one of the more difficult and time consuming options on your list.
AP Stats is generally considered one of the easier APs as well but maybe not as relevant for your interests.
If you’re worried about taking on too much I’d recommend Psych or Bio.
As far as number of APs junior year goes, it depends on YOU and what you can handle as well as how many APs your school offers and allows others to take.
Could you substitute AP Bio for your Regular Bio or is it a Honors Bio? College admissions will look at your course rigor which means how many of the tough classes did you take of the available ones at your school. You don’t have many AP classes because there haven’t been many available and colleges will not hold that against you.
Since you are taking Pre-Calc this year, next year you can take AP Calc. AP Psych is an interesting one that my daughter enjoyed and is not too high pressured. AP Chem is very, very demanding and in our school system, you must complete Honors Chemistry before you can enroll in AP Chem.
As far as preparing for the SAT, I think you need to start practicing on Khan Academy at this point instead of focusing on course selection to prepare for the SAT.
Only take as many APs as you can handle. Every student has a cutoff, and yours might be different from another student’s. I don’t recommend filling up your schedule with as many APs because that will cause a very stressful year and leave you with little confidence in your studies.
I think you need to include some science class if you are interested in pursing a career in engineering or medicine. I would go with AP Bio and you can leave AP Chem for senior year if you can handle it. AP Chem is a very intensive class and has the smallest class size in my school for an AP. AP Psych is more of a social science that falls under “Social Studies/History” and is not as rigorous in comparison to AP Bio.
Do you have a foreign language class?
Save AP Calc for senior year.
Good luck!
My school automatically picks sincce we are a new private school and we are IB certified. We have a choice online for A.P classes, and read my question above for what classes I am interested in. I took ap lang in sophomore and ap gov now in my current junior and hoping to get a good response from you guys on what to take in addition.
Thank you @penngirlpending I am taking Arabic for my third year. (Just want to tell you in advance ill be colying and pasting my following question to other reapondees). I am thinking of taking economics out of my schedule and teplacing bio qith AP Bio. Would this make sense? I’m not very sure how important economics is as I’m already taking a social class called A.P government.
I took 1 ap in sophomore year and until I get a fully sure answer, then I have 2 junior year. If i take A.P bio then its 3 junior year. I’m just scared aome colleges will say WOW HE ONLY TOOK 3 IN TOTAL FROM SOPHOMORE TO JUNIOR YEAR? HE SHOULD BE CHALLENGING HIMSELF! But what if I take most A.P’s in my senior year, will they know what classes I’m taking senior year when I apply because obviously no senior has there classes done in the beginning of the year? Do we need to finish it in order foe them to notice the A.P’s that someone takes in their senior year?
I think you shouldn’t remove Economics, because you can replace your current biology course with AP Biology, so you’ll be able to take both classes. If you aren’t interested in economics, you don’t have to take it. AP Gov only covers some economics, but doesn’t go in depth.
Colleges won’t say anything based on the number of APs you took. They know to determine your level of effort based on how many APs are offered at your school, and how rigorous the APs you took are. Besides this, you have to obtain high grades in those classes, because C’s and low B’s aren’t going to convince them.
Hmmmm, what if I took AP bio in the summer and replaced my Econ class with AP Macroeconomics? People were telling me that’s a smart thing to do.
Check my last 2 replies @floridamomof3
@Lagging @lindsgal check out my last 2 responses
Yes they will - at least with regards to first semester classes and with most schools second semester as well. It will be on your transcript without a grade by it.
Colleges will look at your rigor in relation to what your school offers. If kids at your school take only 3 from sophomore to junior year they will not think you’re slacking. If most people took more then your rigor will likely be considered lower.