I’m trying to help my daughter with course selection for next year (her sophomore year). She’s very quantitative and is considering an engineering career (although I’m not sure she knows at all what that entails). She has room in her schedule next year to take one more course and would like to take something that is weighted +1 for GPA/class rank purposes. At our school at AP and Project Lead the Way (PLTW) courses are +1. My inclination is to advise her to take the PLTW so that she can learn more about engineering. But AP Psychology is also of interest to her and she wonders if the AP “looks better” to colleges than PLTW (even though they both will provide the same GPA boost). Any thoughts?
No, especially since many HS’s limit how many APs freshman and sophomores can take. There is certainly no advantage to her taking it as a sophomore vs. a later year.
If she’s interested in engineering, IMO, she should take PLTW. She has 2 more years that she can fit AP Psych into her schedule, if she so chooses.
Both types of courses can get you college credit. So neither “looks better”. I would say take PLTW so she can explore engineering. AP Psych or Psych 101 will be there if she wants it.
Thank you for the responses. I think she will pursue the PLTW. If she does the program for the next 3 years of high school it’ll mean she can only take about 2-3 actual AP courses over the course of her time in high school, but I’m hoping that will be fine for top colleges…if indeed they consider PLTW similar to AP.
She could also self-study AP Psych! It’s a popular self-study choice, and if she has interest in the subject it might not be too hard for her. I’m doing it this year and it’s so refreshing to be able to learn about something interesting without deadlines, homework, or tests. Your school probably won’t give school credit for self-studied classes though, and it may or may not help her college admissions chances, but it’s something to look into, especially if she likes psych. Good luck!
By the way, the College Board has some kind of new program with AP and PLTW, I don’t know a lot about it but it might be something to look into!
https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/exploreap/the-ap-experience/ap-project-lead-the-way - not sure if it’s actually worth much but it might look good if she decides on engineering as a career.