<p>I have a schedule conflict... next year, I can only take a high level in either math or english and the other class has to be level one.</p>
<p>Should I take AP calc or should i take an honors english class??? Which would look better?</p>
<p>Math > English, at any level (2+2=4 is more elegant than “The cat ran fast”)</p>
<p>Note that I’m a math person. If you are a passionate creative writer, maybe the English class would be more useful.</p>
<p>^above poster’s advice is stupid. people who can do math are a dime a dozen. people who can write are not.</p>
<p>however, it really depends on what interests you more. although an english AP is better to self-study than calc, if you’re planning on that option…</p>
<p>If you know already what you would be interested in studying in college, then choose the course more useful for your tenative major. If you don’t know, then take the class you’d enjoy the most.</p>
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<p>lol . . . a bachelor’s in mathematics is way more impressive than a bachelor’s in english. mathematical aptitude is much rarer than being able to write well. an example: in academia, economics involves quite a bit of mathematics, but undergraduate degrees in economics dumb the math way down so frat boys can get a degree. </p>
<p>people who do math are not a dime a dozen. now, i’m not saying that mathematics is the more useful skill–I would say that being able to write and speak well is much more useful.</p>
<p>Unless you are more interested in humanities for college, I would simply go with AP Calc because it’s more impressive than an honors course and if you do well, you get possible credit from college and a boost for your W GPA :]</p>
<p>Btw, I’m more of a writing than a math person lol</p>
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First of all, I do a decent amount of writing and won some sort of minor honor with the National History Day competition thingy. That certainly doesn’t make me talented or even remotely unique at writing, but I can express myself in a reasonably lucid and clear manner. Being able to write clearly is important in order to communicate, but being passionate about creative writing is not.</p>
<p>With that little diatribe out of the way, the OP should assess their individual interests. If all we are considering is the appearance of a class on the transcript, AP Calc is preferable. If, on the other hand, the actual benefit to the OP’s education is relevant, the correct choice is whatever class evokes more interest and/or passion.</p>
<p>Definitely whichever you’re interested in more. However, I would certainly say that AP calc is really useful and could potentially get you out of college classes. (Note that I go to an engineering school so I may be a bit biased toward math/science)</p>
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<p>AP Calc is way more likely to get you credit, but I’m not aware of too many colleges that actually give you the A (for any AP class), meaning that the class goes on your transcript, it gets you out of intro-level requirements, but it doesn’t actually affect or improve your GPA. That’s one of the primary arguments for retaking say AP Physics, is that it’s an easy A in college if you’ve already taken the class once.</p>
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<p>By that statement you demonstrate how very little you know about most Honors English classes, which have absolutely nothing to do with “creative writing,” and everything to do with analytical writing. P.S. Honors “English” denotes Honors English <em>Literature</em> or Honors English (Expository) Writing in all of the cases I personally know. In most rigorous high schools Creative Writing is an elective in a separate department, such as Arts, and is often not even considered a core course – and certainly not one of the 4 required h.s. English courses.</p>
<p>Yea I agree; it depends on which area you want to major in in college (humanities vs. math/science) and which one you like more.</p>
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I have taken honors English classes, and quite frankly learned nothing about how to improve my writing. That may say more about my school’s English department than anything else though… </p>
<p>In my experience the best way to improve your writing skills is by joining your school’s competetive speech and debate team. Working on debate cases requires good analytical writing and the ability to write quickly under pressure.</p>
<p>Regarding the creative writing point, the poster I was responding to said “people who can do math are a dime a dozen. people who can write are not”. I naturally assumed that s/he meant creative writing, since analytical writing is not a particularly unique skill. Certainly there are people who excel at it, and they may be rare, but at the high school level such writing should not be uncommon. If it is, your school must be even worse than mine.</p>
<p>Dear noimagination:
Math is nice, but words move people. </p>
<p>Sorry you aren’t talented enough to write.</p>
<p>p.s. Analytical writing IS a particularly unique skill. Most Americans have no idea how to really write…just open a newspaper. People in this country seem to have problems realizing what Mark Twain put so eloquently:</p>
<p>“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”</p>
<p>^ Most Americans are idiots who have equal difficulty doing long division and defining “subliminal”.
Personal attacks are so fun, especially when they have no root in reality. I have never said that words and writing are not important, just that there is a difference between knowing how to do something well and being passionate about something.</p>
<p>The OP is the only one who can make this choice. By high school, I would hope that all of us present have learned enough of both writing and math to survive in the real world. It comes down to a question of interest and passion.</p>
<p>“but it doesn’t actually affect or improve your GPA.”
I meant your high school W GPA. Atleast it’d affect mine :]</p>
<p>Calc AP would look more impressive to an admissions counselor and it probably would bring your GPA up if you do well in the class, so I would pick doing Calc.</p>
<p>Ok so the OP’s question is easy because his choice is between AP Calc and Honors English, but what about this situation:</p>
<p>Due to scheduling conflicts, you can either take AP Calc AB OR AP English Literature (generally considered a harder course than Ag Lang)</p>
<p>So what would “look better” for colleges?*
AP Calc AB or
AP English Literature.</p>
<p><em>Clearly the correct answer to this question is whichever class the student is more interested in, but since this is CC, just for theoretical *</em>***s and giggles, let’s frame this question solely in terms of which is more prestigious and looks better to the admission departments at top colleges (assuming that your grade was the same whichever class you took, say an A)</p>
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<p>Literature is nice, but Mathematics is the bedrock of Modern Society/Technology.</p>
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<p>People that can get an A in AP Calc are a lot less common than people that can get an A in Honors English. Who cares how many people have true writing ability.</p>
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<p>Honors English =/= unique skill. As you said, it doesn’t even take real talent to get a writing job in this country.</p>
<p>Yeah wait what the hell is that guy talking about, you think journalists can’t write? Are you serious? Have you ever actually OPENED a newspaper before in your life? (Not your local paper, the NYTimes or Post or something)</p>
<p>College administrators have said often that they value high-level critical reading and critical writing more than a high (for example) SAT Math score. That said, that comment is in isolation. If the student has demonstrated brilliance in mathematical thinking throughout school, that student will be valued equally, as an admit, as the student who is a brilliant critical thinker in non-quantitative fields. And bragging about any particular poster’s A in an “Honors English” class doesn’t cut it for HYPS, nor does it cut it for me, since I do read and grade the papers of upper-level writers. Unlike many high school teachers of mid-performing schools, I know how to distinguish a true high-performer (reading and writing wise) from a mediocre one, and believe me, so do the Ivies. Very few A’s in English classes are deserved, except for the truly challenging classes given by demanding teachers with high expectations. Not to mention, there are a bunch of quite poor writers with “writing jobs” in the private & public sectors.</p>
<p>It does indeed take both real talent and effective, tested training to produce excellence in the writing, and in the precision of analytical thinking on which that writing depends. </p>
<p><em>Additionally</em>, yes, the field, or the college-within-the-U applied to, does make a difference in evaluating the importance of quantitative vs. quantitative. Since most of the Ivies have a Core requirement which includes both modes, they really want to see high performance in both, but they do not measure that high performance by just a class taken or a score earned. They look much deeper than that. For example, humanities students who have excelled in upper-level advanced math in school, and done well but not 800 on the SAT quantitative are not scrutinized as severely if they are not applying to the engineering school, for example. And vice-versa for engineering majors.</p>