<p>i was wondering how big of a difference there is between honors classes and AP classes, as colleges see them. i've been hearing that APs are a lot more impressive, but since they aren't necessarily harder, is that always true, or does it depend on the high school? at my school it's basically just the label changing by junior or senior year, and the difficulty just increases because they're at higher grade levels- my one AP class right now (i'm a junior and it's basically the only one available) is fairly difficult but not as hard as 2 of my other classes, both honors. so i was wondering, does the label really make a difference, or will they see honors courses and AP courses as around the same level? i just don't totally get it...
thanks for your input! :)</p>
<p>sorry, posted this in the wrong thread- just ignore it, i’ll repost in admissions XD</p>
<p>The most important difference is that at the end of an AP class you take the AP exam and if you score a 4 or a 5, colleges will give you college credit for the class. It won’t help much to reduce courses in your major - you will just have to take a harder class in order to complete the requirements for your major, but for electives it can knock off a few courses and help you graduate sooner or have a lighter load one semester or quarter. For example, if you take AP Bio and you are a bio major in college and the major requires 10 biology courses you will most likely not be able to count AP Bio as one of the 10. You may start in a higher biology course as a freshman or you may be allowed to repeat freshman biology. However, if you are an English major, and you are required to take 2 science courses to graduate (in addition to the English classes for your major), then the AP Bio class will count as one of them. Different schools, however, have different requirements. This is the most stringent. Some state schools will allow the courses to count toward your major, I think.</p>