Hi all! I am currently a junior in high school with a 3.4 GPA. My poor grades freshman year were due to a personal circumstance, although I have shown an upward grade trend by receiving straight A’s sophomore year. This is my first year taking honors and AP courses. Here is my schedule:
AP Psychology
Chemistry (College Prep)
Honors English
Honors Spanish
Algebra 2 (College Prep)
Honors US History
I aspire to pursue science in college (hopefully biology). My main question is, would it make much of a difference to colleges if I switch my college prep-level chemistry course this year to Honors Chemistry? Or should I stick to CP and have the opportunity to take AP biology senior year? I would like to attend a highly selective college.
Thank you 
Hi! First off, I’d like to say congratulations on having done so well thus far for sophomore year! Your drastic improvement from freshman year is very admirable. On a side note really quick: when you apply to colleges, make sure to tell them about your personal circumstance freshman year in your application, there is usually a spot for this. Anyway, if you’re thinking about pursuing science at a top college, you should definitely take the highest science courses possible throughout high school. If you wanted to switch any class at all (which I still don’t recommend doing unless you’re trying to move into a higher-level class), don’t make it a science course. I’m not sure why you want to switch out, maybe it’s because you don’t like Chem, find it difficult, or the class is weighted the same as AP, but I will tell you that it is worth sticking with, especially for AP Bio. I took AP Chem my junior year and found that I was able to use concepts that I learned from Chem in AP Bio. The Honors kids were unfamiliar with some of these concepts, or otherwise did not have a very solid understanding of them. I didn’t do all that well in Chem, but definitely reaped the benefits of braving the challenge to stick with the class since I am doing so well in Bio now, unlike a lot of the Honors kids. AP Bio is a great class, and top colleges are going to want to see that you have taken the top courses in ALL areas of science for your desired major. Good luck to you!!
Thank you soo much, I really appreciate it :)! However I might have worded my question in a confusing way. I wanted to know if it were more beneficial to change my CP level chemistry course to honors this year. My other option would be to stick with CP this year and have the opportunity to take AP biology next year. I am not sure which looks better on my transcript although I am more passionate about biology. Does adding one more honors course junior year make all the difference?
If you can handle chemistry honors and are allowed to switch, why not? Talk to your current teacher first though.
Second, biology currently has the lowest ROI along all majors. Look into bioinformatics if you have programming aptitude or start thinking about other majors that aren’t overrun with pre-meds, most of whom won’t get into med school and will thus clog the market.