<p>I see that it is required that one takes 3 science classes in high school and recommended that they take 4. I was wondering if it would harm my chances if admission if I only took 3 years of science. Instead of science my senior year, I would have a internship involving politics.</p>
<p>If four years of science is recommended, then it goes without saying that it would have a negative effect if you only took three. They don’t make these recommendations just for the heck of it. The question becomes how much of a negative effect, and that could be anywhere from negligible to significant depending on what the rest of your application looks like. All you can do is apply and see what happens.</p>
<p>Well they didn’t ever directly say recommended… Maybe I should’ve mentioned that, I say it on college board big future… Maybe I should just contact an admissions adviser</p>
<p>My friend’s son went to American 6 years ago. He did not take four years of science or four years of language. It was strange, since he is very good in both math and science. He was accepted but he was in CAS not SPA or SIS. He also did not receive any merit aid.</p>
<p>I think the key difference here is that you wouldn’t be just not-taking science. You’d be taking some other legit opportunity that precludes your taking science. There’s a world of difference there, IMO.</p>
<p>I had the same issue, because I’ve taken Chem, Bio, and AP Environmental Science, but my senior year schedule is too packed to fit physics in without going insane, so I called my admissions rep, and she said that if you are meeting your high school requirements, it doesn’t make a difference to them.</p>
<p>I took this straight from the AU website “Freshman applicants who follow the U.S. educational system should have completed at least 16 college preparatory secondary school units. We require that you have 4 units in English, 3 units in academic mathematics, including the equivalent of 2 units in algebra and 1 unit of geometry, at least 2 units of laboratory science, at least 2 units of social science and 2 units of foreign language. Successful candidates for admission have usually completed a rigorous college preparatory course of study that goes beyond the minimum requirements above.”</p>