Hello I was looking to get some advice on AP art history versus AP psychology for senior year . Daughter is looking at business major. She is open minded and interested in both. teachers are similar too. Which would be a better idea to do? again interested in both so need to think about what looks good for colleges to be practical.
and what which one is easier to get a 4 or 5 in ?
The one that interests her more.
Either
Depends on the individual plus the track record of the teacher
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also depends on what other courses she has taken. some colleges will like seeing an art class in her transcript, although psych has probably more relevance to her business angle.
but absolutely she should take the one she is interested in. both my kids took AP psych and often came home talking about neat stuff they learned.
art history is not considered an easy class, usually. lots of memorization- but that’s fine if your kid likes art.
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Please also advise of AP environmental science pros and cons. Again my daughter is not rigid in her opinions or interests. She wants to do one AP science for senior year but is not going into engineering or medicine. She has done honors biology, honors physics and honors chem
If she’s more interested in ES vs Bio or Chem, then she should take ES.
The big con is that fewer colleges give credit for ES vs Bio or Chem.
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As a Californian, I’ll add the reminder that UCs - should she want to apply to any - require one year of fine arts credit. In that case, she would need the AP Art History which would cover that. Psych would be an elective. Both are great classes. AP Art History, in my opinion, is hard - but if you genuinely like art, very satisfying.
AP Enviro is a fine class - but in terms of an AP science, she should take whatever is of the most interest to her. I don’t think one will outweigh the other in terms of admissions - a fourth year AP science will be seen favorably.
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What other classes is she taking? It’s hard to evaluate in a vacuum. She should be taking 5 cores: math, science, foreign language, English, and a social studies.
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She is taking AP lit, AP spanish, AP statistics, AP environmental science ? for science . social studies is the question … AP psychology or art history.
She is also doing chorus elective and PE
If she has colleges she’s interested in, I would recommended looking at what credits she would need and if taking Ap Art History would be more beneficial toward college or if Ap Psych would. I think behavior and things covered in AP Psych could connect more to a business major than AP Art History. ( This might be just in my state, but where i live for Ap Art history most schools only take a 5 for it to count as a credit in College but most take 3-5 for AP Psych to count as a college credit)
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Thanks! Here’s another question. Can she do both AP art history and AP psychology? she has elective options but then she will be doing 6 APs in senior year. other option would be to do non Ap non honors courses like virtual business and business law. would that make sense ?
You and she know her skillset best. But 6 AP’s is a lot considering that she has the hidden class - college applications and essays.
I’ll add that the workload of any particular class is heavily dependent on the teacher, but the workload in stats, psych, and ES is generally not overwhelming. Spanish will depend on her current comfort with Spanish and the teacher. Art History will depend on her memorization skills.
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Does doing non honors classes like virtual business and business law make sense ? wont help her GPA if she gets less than a A
Why not both? But if she might take intro psych in college, i would say art history, for life enrichment. Only later on, visiting museums throughout my life, did i fully appreciate the art history class i had in 12th.
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Any idea what state she will be studying in and what APs are accepted for credit at her most likely colleges? For example, our daughter regrets not taking AP art history because she’s at a Texas college now and has to take a fine arts credit to graduate. She could have knocked it out before college by taking that AP class.
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No idea of colleges yet. But she will apply to UC schools. out of state. NY colleges and U pitt, Drexel and UCAS schools too. Rutgers.
For the UC’s, her chorus/choir if it is at her HS will fulfill the VPA (Visual performing arts) requirement and I would imagine for most schools she is considering.
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No, those classes usually don’t help with admissions. They are electives and colleges are far more interested in her rigor and performance in core classes.
They may show a bit of interest in her proposed major, but they would have no significant impact on the strength of her application.
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thought of that but 6 APs in senior year may be a lot…
Art history is closer to humanities than social studies.
Is either art history or psychology:
- needed to fulfill a requirement for high school graduation or admission to any college of interest (e.g. state universities that require an art course)?
- a potential choice of college major, so sampling it in high school can help determine if the student is interested in that subject as a college major?
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