My senior year I’m taking
Honors Biotechnology III
Honors Biotechnology IV= Forensic Science
4A Honors BioInformatics
AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics
AP Chemistry
AP Literature
I have one more slot left and it’s between these 2 classes:
AP Psychology
AP Microeconomics
Pick the class that will seem the most impressive to college admissions for a STEM major if I had straight A’s in these classes.
Don’t pick a class to impress colleges - they won’t be impressed. Choose the class you like better/has the better teacher/has a better track record on AP exams/you will do better in.
Which type of STEM major? That covers a lot of territory. If you are interested in health or medicine I’d go with AP Psych because nearly all pre-health anything requires you take a psych course and AP Psych will cover that course. Others will need to advise on economics. I can see it being useful for nearly anything but not required for much as a STEM major.
I agree with @skieurope
Take the class you are most interested in, as this will appeal more to colleges than taking APs just to take them.
Your schedule is quite lopsided - 6 of your current classes are STEM, with potentially one Literature and one Social science. Is there any way you could replace AP Stats (which, for a stem student, is just a filler and will more or less be disregarded by college adcoms) with AP Psych (which is an AP Lite too, but at least shows some versatility)? Then add AP Micro (which should count as 1/2 class).
5 STEM, 1 Humanities, 2 Social Sciences = a bit more balanced.
What type of colleges are you aiming for?
(Note that most highly selective colleges will expect you to have reached level 4 in a foreign language).
Take whichever class interests you more/has the better teacher etc. Taking AP Psych or AP Econ will make no difference for college admissions.
Most impressive-no pick the one that is most meaningful for you.
@MYOS1634 3 biotech and bioinformatics are required. And I my parent is making me take stats and calc at the same time. Chem I have to take for a mandatory school program that I’m in. She said to stop at 4 AP’s so she’s making me take a regular weighted psychology class instead so my schedule will be:
Honors Biotechnology III
Honors Biotechnology IV= Forensic Science
4A Honors BioInformatics
AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics
AP Chemistry
AP Literature
Regular Introduction to Psychology and Sociology
@lostaccount Thanks I would have done the econ class but my mother took that option for me so I’m taking intro to psychology & sociology instead
Why do your parents make you take ap stats ? Do they realize it’s a class meant for good students who can’t or won’t take calculus, and as such doesn’t matter precisely since you’re taking calc ?
In addition stats is an important class to take in college, because regardless of major you can list it under " relevant classes " on your resume for internships. And no employer cares what you did as a junior in high school.
Finally, have you reached level 4of à foreign language ?
@MYOS1634
I honestly have no idea what’s goes on in my mothers head if I’m being honest here and I don’t think she really cares what I think. Seriously considering going to my school to argue that a parents veto in a students schedule is just irrational. And I got to Spanish 3 with straight B’s as my final grade in each one. This year I didn’t want to take it so I stopped.
And my mother decided I shouldn’t be taking 5 AP classes so I’m taking a regular basic slacker social science class my senior year.
So I went from
Freshmen year: A in regular L.S.N gov
Sophomore year: B in APUSH
Junior Year year: A in world History honors (so far)
Senior year: regular introduction to psychology and sociology
Which I think is absolutely ridiculous imagine what college admissions would think when they see I haven’t taken a regular social science since freshmen year.
Here, your mother’s right - it’s okay to take regular psych/soc considering the rest of your schedule.
However, AP Stats doesn’t really make sense since you’re taking Calculus. You nede to replace it with a (weighted or not) Humanities or social science. Your schedule is too lopsided, and unless you’re a genius (USAMO, Intel…) this schedule will hurt you for admissions.
To me i see you are taking an AP Math, English, Science and a reg Social Science and a bunch of STEMy electives…nothing wrong with that! The only thing i might change is ditch the AP Stats and do AP Psych but the way you have it is fine too. What are your SAT scores?
From Personal experience AP Micro was far more interesting than AP Psych, also Micro is a more common sense-y class (IMO) so I didn’t have to study nearly as much as I did for AP Psych, which seemed like a bunch of memorization to me.
@booper
My sat score was a 1610 and my act was a 22. Yeah needless to say they suck ass and need much better improvement I know.
@Jcannon1023
I wish I could take AP micro because at my school psych is a lot of work but my mom said no to me doing 5 AP’s and she stopped me at 4. So it looks like this question is no longer relevant. ;(
False. THERE are people who take AP calculus AND ap stats together. It’s very common in my school
Just because people can do that does not mean that people should do that, particularly if it results in a lopsided schedule, as the OP is proposing.
Sure, people can take both, especially if they need to fill a free period (but Stats is better taken in college for a variety of reasons and it won’t “add” anything to a transcript that already has calculus).
In OP’s case, though, the list of classes is so lopsided that it should be switched out for a Humanities/social science.
@MYOS1634
I’m considering a statistics minor which is why I’m taking stats and plus I really want to. Also I wanted my math schools to seem as on point as possible since it’s possible I could be applying for an engineering degree when I apply a college. And I would take psych from what I’ve heard it’s a lot of work and I’ve already have a lot going on some Im gonna save that until college. It’s micro and macro I wanted to do because at our school we only have regular or AP social science classes. I had in interest in Econ which is why I wanted to do them.
My D is trying to decide between Econ and Psych too and I was wondering if engineering majors get to take as many gen ed courses like these as other students do. If so, then it doesn’t matter because whichever one she doesn’t take in high school she can take in college. If engineering students are limited in their ability to take courses outside of major requirements, then it is a more important decision because she may not get to take these in the future. Anyone familiar with course requirements for engineering students?
As for the loop-sided thing, I thought developing a spike was a good thing vs. being well-rounded or have I just been reading too many prepscholar blogs?