How important are AP sciences for a computer science major?

Applying to College
21

FWIW in regard to online AP science courses (in response to a comment by @lookingforward ) - not all online AP science courses lack labs and discussion! For example, ChemAdvantage, the provider through which my daughter took AP Chem last year, has an active discussion board with TAs and, frequently, the teacher, 24/7. She discussed problems and asked questions daily and there were always a few people (including a TA) available, no matter when she signed on. She rarely had to wait more than five minutes for a live online discussion (there are students from all over the world). Labs were done at home with kits - they were real labs with real equipment (and there were real messes sometimes which affected the floor of my basement…). Webassign was used for homework and the exams were in the style of the AP exam (curve and all). ChemAdvantage students outperform the national average in terms of AP scores, and the course was fantastic.

Sure, there are dud online courses out there, just as there are bad teachers and lackluster students in some brick-and-mortar schools. There are some wonderful online AP science courses though, so online AP science courses are worth considering as long as you do your homework and research the providers.

22

@SculptorDad Although I understand that AP CS and Stat themselves may not be equivalent to AP Physics, I was wondering about not taking AP Physics specifically in regards to the Princeton University Computer Science courses(at the university itself), which are almost definitely quite rigorous courses. You mentioned to “change my target colleges,” but I was just wondering if you are referring to colleges like MIT, Standford etc or even ones like Georgia Tech, UIUC etc as I mentioned that those were mostly my targets. Do you think self-studying AP Physics and doing well on the AP exam would be sufficient?

23

Something’s missing here. What exactly is this P progeam? I’m not finding it.

As an example, Ga Tech asks for:
"English - 4 Units
Math - 4 Units
Science - 4 Units
Social Science - 3 Units
Foreign Language - 2 Units

For most students, 4 years of science means one of those cores at AP level.

24

@Mathkid123

My opinion is the same.

Absolutely not. Self-studied AP exams have minimal effect on admission to your target colleges. What they look at is your taking the course shown on your transcript.