My son will be starting his freshman year in the fall. He is committed to becoming an engineer. He placed into the honors/AP track for English, math, science, and social studies. He is a straight-A student and scores in the top few percentiles on his standardized tests. Is it worth enrolling in honors/AP social studies, or would he be better off using that time elsewhere?
Does your son like social studies? Colleges want to see a well rounded student so if he is interested in the social study subjects then the extra rigor will serve him well in the college admission process.
My older son was interested in History and Science so he really enjoyed the AP classes of World History, US History and AP Government. He balanced these classes with other AP/Honors classes in English, Science and Math.
My advice is do not have your student take AP/Honors classes for the sake of taking AP/Honors classes but have them take classes in which they show interest and where they feel they can excel.
Your son is a Freshman and kids do change their mind as they progress through HS and even college. Better to have exposure to all types of classes at this point.
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My oldest didn’t take honors social studies freshman year and regretted it. That was her only non honors/AP class. It wasn’t the content, it was the other students who she felt didn’t really care about school, said she felt bad for the teacher.
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Agree with @Mjkacmom above. If your child can handle the work they should take all the honors classes they are qualified for. My older one took several non honors classes thinking it would make his schedule easier and the classroom environment was terrible. If your child can handle the courseload it will be a more pleasant experience to be with like-minded students. Too many AP classes is another question.
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Thanks for the replies. I recently read an article on prepscholar on admissions that made me question this.
FWIW, my engineering D ended up using all her non STEM APs to cover gen eds in college. She found that as useful as her STEM APs which were great preparation.
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