How important is it for me to take a social studies course senior year of High School if I’m aiming for Ivy leagues? I personally was originally planning to take 4 AP courses senior year since I couldn’t during Junior year (moved into a new school/got course selections very late and was not eligible due to tons of summer work). AP Spanish, AP Bio, AP Stats, and AP Psychology are what I’m planning to take.
But when I told this to my brother in Freshman year college, he advised that I reduce the number of AP’s, especially AP psych (since our school’s AP psych teacher is not known to be very engaging and it is over all grueling work).
My other option is an Honors course on Genocide, or just not taking a social studies course senior year altogether and doing something creative like an art independent study (Already planning to do Jazz Band though).
So, my question is:
If I’m looking to get into an Ivy league university (say Yale for example), would not taking 4 years of social studies courses affect my chances for admission significantly, even if I replace it with a unique or creative course? Or would replacing the AP with an honors course in social studies be viewed as any lesser?
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advanced!
It may affect your chances. Highly selective schools such as Ivies want to see that you took the most rigorous options and dragged everything for four years. I would AP Psych.
It’s more important that you maintain (or in your case, surpass) the rigor of your junior year courses. I would not avoid taking a class because it is “grueling;” that would not be sending the right message to colleges.
@skieurope In my case, it wouldn’t be avoiding the class just because it’s grueling. It would instead be replacing it with a course which is more interesting to me, and may be more unique/creative. I am not planning to replace it with a study hall, but rather replace it with something like an honors art course. This may give me more time to pursue the many extra-curriculurs I love (like rigorous dancing). Thoughts still?
IMO, if you’re taking another class that you feel is more interesting and is an honors course, I think it’s fine. Of course, it’s more important that your GC concurs that the rigor is equivalent.
@Skieurope Okay thank you! Yeah agreed. As a final question, do you think it would make a difference if I took an honors art course (that is unique+more time to do extracurricular) or an honors social studies course (which would allow me to fulfill the 4 year social studies goal)?
We had this discussion last year for DD because she was having trouble fitting all of the classes in along with electives, etc. Finally called a few key schools to ask about their perspective on senior year courses. Bottom line - all of the selective schools want to see the rigor of the senior year match or exceed prior years (if on an upward trend) and all expected to see a full academic load (not overload necessarily). They did not care if she dropped one class to take an additional class in an area of interest (e.g. drop science to take two social studies, or visa versa), they just didn’t want to see her going from 5 academic classes Frosh-Junior years and then drop to 4 academics, regardless of what she did with the time.
No difference. Takes whichever one you enjoy more, and in which you can perform well.