Hi there! I have quite a few questions about this because no one has really given me a good answer. I’ve just been wondering recently if the top colleges would look at AP Human Geography as a history course? I know Stanford’s website says that you should take three years of history in high school.
My school just started offering AP HuG for sophomore history credit this year. Before it was either World History or AP Euro, but now AP Human Geography is one of the choices. I looked on the UC website and they accept it as history credit, but would not taking AP Euro affect my chances of getting accepted to Stanford? Stanford doesn’t accept AP credit for either class. I’m going to major in environmental or civil engineering and I’m certainly going to take AP Physics and Calculus, and many other APs.
Also, on the UC website for AP credit, it shows that for AP Euro they give you 8 credits but only 4 for HuG. What exactly would the extra credits do for me? Would it let me skip a class in college?
Please let me know what I should do. I’ve been worried about this for a while because I’m just really confused. I have heard AP Euro is very difficult, but AP HuG at my school isn’t super easy like I’ve heard it is at most schools. I feel like the information learned in Human Geography would benefit me more, but maybe Euro would prepare me for my junior and senior year. Plus I have way more friends taking Euro next year and the class will have way more smart kids compared to Human Geography. Either way, I just need to know which would be best for me! Thank you so much!
AP Human Geography is considered a history/social sciences class. Be aware that many top schools do not give credit for this though.
From a course rigor point of view, AP European History may have a slight edge, but I don’t think that taking one over the other would have a tremendous affect on your college application. If it were me, I’d opt for Euro, but take whichever one interests you more.
Trevor Packer, College Board’s head of AP, tweeted that AP European History is much more valued as a history class than any other history class. I’d say that, if you are trying to impress colleges with your course rigor, you should go with AP European History. I think you should especially take it since you are going to be a sophomore this year and it may be one of your only AP classes. You can dedicate more time to it. Maybe you can take APHG as an elective junior or senior year. Best of luck!
My counselor kept telling me that AP Euro doesn’t matter and that APHG will look just as good since I’m not majoring in history… Is that true? I’m planning on majoring in Engineering.
^^Depends. If you truly find HG more interesting then take it over Euro, but if you’re wanting to impress admissions, Euro is the better option, as told my Trevor Packer.
This really should not be part of the equation. Yes, Euro is viewed as more challenging, but if one is more interested in APHG, and if the choice of one over the other does not impact the the GC’s rating of course rigor, impressing a hypothetical college AO is just folly.
Call or email them. If it’s just a few particular schools you are worried about, it’s fairly easy to find out. If there’s a direct phone number or email for the registrar, that’s probably a good place to start. They won’t tell you if they prefer one over the other, but if taking APHG does not count towards your 3 years of history courses, that they should answer. And if Stanford and a few other colleges accept it, then you’d likely be safe assuming most would.
In general though, I’d recommend taking Euro as your history class, and maybe adding Human Geo as an extra elective if you are that interested in it and think you can handle both.
Okay thanks, that’s a really good idea! I don’t think I’ll have room to do that though… I’m planning on taking AP Physics I and Chem junior year and AP Physics II and Computer Science senior year, plus I’m doing engineering classes. Thank you for letting me know though 