My daughter’s school offers 3 U.S. History course to 10th graders; regular, honors and AP.
She has already taken two semesters of U.S. history at community college, up to-civil war in 6th and post-civil war in 8th grade, which are equivalent to the AP U.S. History as combined. She aced them.
She is wondering if she should take AP U.S. History, or another course such as AP U.S. Government
Pros for AP U.S. History
It will be easier, since it is somewhat repeat
Her post-civil war college course was in very different format - researching and writing on major issues, rather than covering everything in detail. So there still will be a lot to learn.
She will be able to take SAT II U.S. History, as well as AP U.S. History exam after taking the course.
Take it with 10th grade mates (AP U.S. Government is normally for Juniors)
Pros for AP U.S. Government and Politics
Colleges won’t look down on her for repeating the U.S. History for grade grabbing (would they?)
Learn something new
Covering more social science fields
She plans to take European and World History in 11~12th grades.
It would be a waste of time to take a high school US history course (including AP) after completing a college course covering broadly the same subject. If she wants to take the AP or SAT subject tests, then she can do some review and self-study to fill in whatever small gaps she has before taking the tests.
Better to spend her time in school learning something new instead of obvious grade grubbing.
If the college course really only covered topics in history it might still make sense to take a survey. Will the college transcript be part of her application documents? If so, I think it might look odd. If not it would look odd not to have a year of US history on the high school transcript. If there’s a chance the college won’t accept the college credits, she might want to take the AP exam in any case.
The first thing is to establish what the graduation reqs are in this scenario, do the 6th and 8th grade classes count in her high school school graduation plan? Gov is also be required for graduation, no? If she needs both anyway, it is just semantics as to the when. AP gov is AP lite, APUSH isn’t, so pick your poison LOL. If her AP load as a soph is light, then APUSH is nice to get done and dusted. Kids here often do 3 APs as sophs so AP gov as a soph is pretty normal.
@mathmom - If those were regular credit courses, she will have to send the CC transcript. It doesn’t matter when or where college credits were earned, the transcripts have to be sent. Whether the place she ends up attending decides to award her transfer credit for the CC coursework is a completely different issue, and is entirely up to that place.
@SculptorDad - If these were regular credit courses at the CC and not a non-credit continuing education class, she needs to find out if her HS will use these CC credits towards her HS graduation requirements. Must the US history requirement be fulfilled by a course at that HS? Then she should chat up the Honors and AP teachers and find out what they actually cover in class. If they use different curricula, she might like one better than the other. If the HS doesn’t require that she take US history there, but they want a course taken while she is enrolled in HS to use for her graduation requirements, then there may be a third semester of some interesting US history topic that she could pick up at the CC or online through a 4-year college/university.
Thanks for the help. Sounds like U.S. Gov. is the way to go. She was deeply involved with election and the experience will add the value.
Her college courses were all taken as regular with letter grade, and will all be reported to admissions. She is also taking AP Micro now, and will continue to AP Macro next year (wrong order by mistake), in addition to regular history courses.
It’s good to know that AP Gov is AP Lite! She wants to take some AP Heavies with it - Calculus AB and Chemistry next year.
It wouldn’t look good if she take the not-so-lite APUSH and not ace and get 5, because it can then make her A’s on the college US History courses look less credible.
AP history and AP Government are two different subjects. For my kids,no class taken before 9th grade could count for the high school grad requirements except math and 8th grade foreign language (if you took AP French in 7th grade, it didn’t count), and both a US history and a government class were required for graduation. You need to find out what the requirements are for a diploma in the state issuing it. If your daughter had transferred to a Florida public school with the record you described, I’m pretty sure she would have to take both a US history and a US government class (not AP, of course) while in high school to receive a diploma. The course taken when she was in 6th grade wouldn’t count, and I don’t think the 8th grade one would either.
Thanks for the input. She needs to take at least 3~4 history courses, one at each year. But her school does not specifically requires a U.S. History and/or a Government course.
Well, are there 4 other courses she’d like to take? If not, it’s APUSH one year, AP Gov the next.
I changed schools a lot in grade school and up through high school. I swear I had the same history course 5 times, Christopher Columbus through WWI, and then the school year would run out. I remember 8th grade was government, but don’t remember any high school courses covering it. I always learned something new.
Personally I believe you that she can learn a lot by repeating U.S. History. But now I don’t see advantage of taking it over AP Gov. We can’t ignore college admissions given compatible choices.
After she graduates high school, many colleges will either give her subject credit for U.S. History or not require it. If not, it wouldn’t be too rate to take it at college.
She is currently taking Honors World History with other freshmen and AP Micro.
She is likely to take AP Gov and AP Macro next year. We surely don’t want to look “grade-grabbing” to the colleges by repeating U.S. history, when there is a good alternative.
Then, according to her school’s standard, AP Euro in 11th, and AP World in 12th.
She has no preference between history courses at the moment, except that she loves her AP Micro, so is sure to continue to AP Macro next year.
I wasn’t worried about her repeating and learning anything (I’m sure she would) but whether US history is required for a high school diploma in her state. If she prefers to repeat World History, and US is not specifically required, go for it.
She took US history in California, but I bet it would be a lot different in Pennsylvania. Field trips to Gettysburg, DC, Boston, NYC? Puts a different spin on it.
It surely would. Her U.S. History II was by a ultra-left professor and all about social progress.
Anyway, she is in a private school and U.S. History is not a graduate requirement, even if the school wouldn’t honor college courses taken before high school.
Luckily it does. That’s how she could clear prereq for AP Micro and AP ES as a freshman.
It would be prudent in my opinion to ask your daughter’s current school college counseling office if her middle school community college courses will be included on her transcript. I remember from the Prep School Parents that you have an unusual situation, but if it doesn’t show up on her transcript, colleges will assume she didn’t take physics. Unless you have already determined a way to reflect her middle school classes.
Did she take an AP test in that course? If not, I don’t think a college will quite appreciate almost taking the standard AP Physics 1 high school class and not taking the AP test.
However, if your D thinks she has indeed learned the material, an AP Physics test would probably show colleges that, yes, the course was basically equivalent, and yes, she learned the material. They might also give her brownie points for taking initiative and taking a CC class in a topic she is interested in.
Thanks for the tips. We would include her community college transcripts so I thought it wouldn’t matter if the courses are also listed in her high school transcript. Anyway, I am pretty sure she will be able to take AP Physics 2, C, or an equivalent college course during her high school career, one way or another.
It would be better if she took General Physics 2 at a college, and took either AP bio or AP Chem next year. Ap Psychology is an easy, “fun” AP to take as a complement to other Ap’s for very strong students .