Currently I am enrolled in an AP Language. The teacher is notorious for not teaching and being disorganized. Grades are determined quite arbitrarily and the structure of the class is very illogical.
Currently, I’ve taken all APs and have a 3.95 GPA. I want to minimize the amount of Bs I receive my senior year and this class is the hardest in my schedule despite having classes like AP Chemistry and AP Literature simply because there there is no rhyme nor reason in the class’s grading or in the teacher’s head. Whereas in a more rigorous but logically graded course I can put in hard work and receive the grade I’ve worked for, this class is more much arbitrary. Therefore, the chances I get a B is high.
Considering that I’m aiming for top UC and private colleges (UCLA, Berkeley, Brown, Cornell, USC), would dropping this class hurt me more than getting a B would? I asked my counselor and she said that she evaluates course rigor “overall”, so I took this as meaning she’d still give me the “most rigorous” check.
Congrats on your high GPA! For a competitive application, 3.9+ is almost certainly necessary. However, classes like AP language are as well. If dropping means that you take honors or regular English, I’d say persevere because you might get an A in AP Lang, but getting an A in a non-AP class is useless because it’ll mark you as a weaker applicant anyways. If you can take a comparably difficult AP course, I’d say switch, but otherwise stay.
Message me for more advice if you need it!
Is this AP Foreign Language or AP English language and composition?
In any case, a B in an AP core class is not a problem. A B- or C is. If you feel reasonably confident you can get a B, I’d keep this class. Also, if you were to drop it, what would you take instead and what’s the rest of your schedule like?
If it’s a foreign language - I don’t think a B will hurt you. If it’s English, if honors is available, you might want to consider switching. Both my kids got into selective universities without AP English (including Harvard for the older one). The older one did take AP Latin, the younger one stopped with Latin 4.
If your applications are submitted then you would have to contact each school to let them know you dropped the AP Spanish and that would be a bad thing. I don’t’ think one B senior year in an AP class will hurt your chances.
Getting B may just be the single best thing that could happen in your life. Do you want to know why?
Because you will stop fretting over being perfect, and start doing the best that you can regardless of the grading system, and start to become a student who loves learning for it’s own sake, and start becoming the person who isn’t afraid to fail and this all just might lead to success beyond your wildest dreams.
Those who are too afraid of failure can never be successful.
Be humble or be humbled. Those are really the only options.
Whether or not the teacher is actually like this, this is life. You will have professors like this. You may have a boss or superior at work like this. Your dealings with local, state, and federal government will be like this. I agree with ClassicRockerDad. I’d add that you should take or not take a class because of your interest, not for some grade strategy. Try to do your best in this class and chalk it up as a learning experience. In any case if you don’t get into a selective U, it won’t have been because of one B. Gook luck!
OTOH, if there is a better teacher whose class you can get into - it’s worth trying to do that. One lesson I learned in college is that you don’t have to put up with bad professors most of the time. (Obviously you may be stuck if it’s required for your major and no one else teaches it, though one course I put off in my major finally got taught by someone quite good my senior year when I took it.)
No school on this hemisphere would reject you solely on one B in an AP Language class. You need to shake that thinking.
Every spring, I tell college-admitted HS students who happen to be particularly high strung – to purposefully get a C in a valuable core class – just because it’ll do them some good to loosen up a bit.
Thank for all your advice everyone. I am far from perfect, I’ve already received a B in the class last year (Same teacher for the honors class) and as well as in an AP social science course, so I am as “loose” as I’d like to be GPA wise LOL.
There is no other teacher, she is the only one. This language department at our school is particularly lacking (multiple teachers fired so far, this is a new teacher).
If I dropped it I’d have no other class, just an open period.
I appreciate the advice about learning and enjoying a class for it’s knowledge but to be honest a foreign language is not something I enjoy nor something I have an interest in pursuing in college. So that point is moot. The only reason I’m taking the class is for course competitiveness to be honest, and that may sound sad but it’s the reality of being competitive for college today, IMO.
I do however agree that in life, there will always be incompetence from higher figures of authority and it’s something I’m going to learn to deal with.
I’ve decided to not drop the class and tough through it.
For UC’s getting a B in senior year, has absolutely no adverse effect, but dropping the class could have! Only if you are waitlisted they may ask you for your senior year grades. However if you get less than B it can cause you trouble.