Hi everyone!
I’m a junior I high school this year and im taking 4 APs this year. The other non AP classes are dance team and pre calc. My apush class is extremely hard, and the grading criteria and quizzes we have have also been extremely hard and it’s only the beginning of the year. I also think that dropping this class would give me more time to engage in more community service/ volunteer activities and more time to focus on getting A’s in everything and dance, but I’m not sure if regular history looks bad in college applications especially since I’d like to go to a UC.
My question is: Will not taking APUSH be looked down upon by colleges?
Thank you:)
It’s not specific to APUSH vs. regular USH; it’s all in context of how rigorous your schedule is.
Ask your GC. If not taking APUSH is the difference between him/her rating your schedule as “most rigorous” vs. “very rigorous,” then colleges, they will care. For the UC’s, if you will be at or over the honors cap, I doubt they will care.
I would ask you:
- What do you want to major in when you go to college? STEM? History/English?
- How competitive a college are you looking for? Are you looking for a college that only wants “most rigorous”?
- What does your guidance counselor say?
One thing you might want to consider: APUSH is great at giving you skills to excel in the Critical Reading section of the SAT. It is almost unique in this regard. Both of my kids credit their excellent APUSH course with helping them score a perfect 800 on the CR section. They had different AP teachers, but those miserable DBQs they did in class gave them the exact skills they needed to do well on the CR. Even if you hate history, I’d stick with the course for this reason alone. Your AP test scores don’t do much to help in admissions, but your CR score certainly does!
Eh. I never took an APUSH course in HS and I didn’t find it disadvantaged me at all; I got an 800 on the SAT Subject test in US History and everything. And I don’t think not taking APUSH hurt my CR score either – I think CR is mainly about reading a lot.
APUSH is considered one of the most difficult and time consuming AP classes. It also presents a biased, PC version of USH and skims many significant events - so don’t assume you will learn much history from it. Consider making it an option and get your rigor in another AP subject.
You’re living in America, why not take APUSH? The class wasn’t that hard, but you have to read ALOT! Also the AP Exam for APUSH was a lot easier than AP World History.
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