Hello. I am a junior in high school and am currently contemplating over which classes I should take in senior year. I have achieved an A in Biology Honors in 9th Grade, a B in Chemistry Honors in 10th grade, and a B (most probably) in AP Physics B (currently enrolled). These specific classes were very challenging for me and I do not look forward to taking AP Physics C in senior year, or any science for that matter. As an individual interested in pursuing Business/Finance/Mathematics in the future, would it hurt my acceptance to the very selective colleges if I decided to take no sciences at all and center my schedule off of AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Literature, and some other Business classes? Also, in addition to your response, could you suggest your opinion on AP Environmental Science? Will this class help my acceptance at all and catch the officer’s attention or is it just a waste of time (for me, at least)?
As with most answers, it depends on the colleges targeted. Very few colleges require/request 4 years of science, particularly for a non-STEM applicant. IMO, it’s more important that you have, which you do, a year each of bio/chem/physics.
It won’t hurt
Take no class to catch the AO’s eye, because none will. Assuming that you’ve met the recommendations of your targeted colleges, take the class that interests you and/or is aligned with your future plans.
This is fine, except that nobody here knows your HS curriculum. If the business classes are targeted primarily to to kids not targeting selective colleges, it may be better to wait until college if the class pace is too slow. HS Accounting in general is nothing like what you’d find in a selective college. If the business class is targeted to honors kids, it’s fine.
“Very selective.”
They’ll notice the B’s in those two sciences and AP ES won’t make those go away.
But will this be seriously accounted for? Especially for Business Schools?
What are the target schools? You said very selective and haven’t yet revealed more of your picture. .
Competitive holistics look at it all. The tougher the admit, the more each piece matters.
Apes > typical hs business classes. An exception would be a dual enrollment business principles class or an AICE Business Class.
Hs business classes aren’t similar to top business school classes, in the same way middle school physical science was very different from AP physics.
In short: take a science, honors or apes, and get an A ; it does NOT need to be physics C which is mostly for future stem majors and wouldn’t be expected at all.
My school offers College Accounting and I have heard from the student body for it to be pretty difficult. This class allows you to sign up for college credit to local colleges, though I may defer from this option because I am, specifically, aiming for target schools such as: UPENN, Michigan University - Ann Arbor, NYU, MIT, and University of California, Berkeley. Would this class, College Accounting, be an exception from a “typical business class,” as “MYOS1634” puts it?
Yes, it would, if it’s taught at a college. However for Penn you want as much math as possible, it’ll be more important (if you can do dual enrollment math it’s thus be better than dual enrollment accounting.)
Note that your list includes public universities, some if which are logically oos for you. What’s your budget ? In particular, UCB has no financial aid for oos applicants (no UC does), UMich has some for very low income applicants only but most are expected to be full-pay, and NYU has lousy aid. Have you run the npc’s and shown the results to your parents? If not, Do so asap.
APES is a very good class. I am taking it right now in my senior year in high school and because of that class, I am majoring in environmental geoscience as a result in college next year. In terms of difficulty, it is not as hard as other AP sciences, but it does help you build up critical thinking skills. If you dont take any sciences classes it may not look that nice on your application just because colleges compare you to other applicants that apply. I would recommend taking APES because then you got every subject covered.
Good luck
If you want to do math in college, you should learn as much science as you can.
I would take APES over any business class. Colleges would rather see a science class than a business class. It isn’t a high deal, but for the schools you’re considering, you’ll want four years of science.