Hi, I’m currently a Sophomore in high school. I’ve already selected my courses for my Junior year and out of the three APs available (US History, English Language and Composition, and Physics), I decided to take only one (language and composition). I qualified for all three but I’m currently taking AP European History and while I’m doing well, it’s been difficult and I’m told it’s nowhere near the hardest AP. Because of this, I thought I probably wouldn’t be able to handle more than one AP at a time, but now I’m worried that might look bad to colleges. I was planning on taking one more AP my senior year but that’s still not many. So basically, should I see if I can pick up at least one more AP before my schedule is final? If so, which one? (I’m pretty much just okay at math, science, and history). All the other classes I’m taking are honors except for my foreign language if that means anything. Thanks!
If you were my child I’d encourage you to add AP English Language. It helps for SAT/ACT, and for colleges that accept AP credit, it will likely save you a freshman English class. At our school it isn’t too much extra work, AP US History is a bear at our school, almost pushed my straight A daughter over the edge! DS18 took it DE and it was much less work, DS20 plans to take it DE too. AP Physic 1/2 often doesn’t usually help with degree requirements many schools is just considered ‘elective’ credit.
My son took 2 AP exams his freshman year, 4 sophomore, 5 junior and is currently taking 5 in his senior year. But he joined current HS in 7th grade (they started offering 6-year program), so that is why so many APs. Some colleges told him he can graduate in 2 years as they would accept all those APs. But most colleges would just put him in more advanced classes and not count any credits.
Relatively speaking from my kid’s standpoint, APUSH is pretty easy, AP English Comp is easy. AP Physics, depends if you’re taking about 1/2 or C. C is a good class to have, but potentially very difficult and at minimum requires a good deal of Calculus. I don’t think 1/2 buys you much.
Looking ahead, AP English Lit is way harder than AP English Comp but is useful for passing out of mandatory English classes at the university level. Same goes for Calculus BC. Calculus AB is also good but you only pass out of one semester of Calculus.
APUSH + AP English Language + an AP science and even AP Calculus AB for kids who are doubly accelerated in math are pretty common for juniors to take by themselves, but you are right to be cautious about taking several of them at the same time. I had AP English + AP lab science + Dual Enrollment US History I and II and Honors math my junior year and it was rather time-consuming, although I managed to get all As and 1 B first semester and all As second semester.
If you are more inclined towards the humanities, I recommend you take APUSH, AP Lang, regular physics, and Honors math (at least Algebra 2 or Pre-Calculus if you’ve done Algebra 2 already). Also, try to get to the highest possible foreign language that you can even if it means taking unweighted / not advanced classes.
What math class are you in? What’s your current GPA?
What math class are you in? What’s your current GPA?
Seconding @r2v2018 's good advice above.
If you are applying to competitive schools, they will want to see that you are taking a challenging courseload
AP Euro is one of the hardest social studies classes, if not the hardest in the social studies field. It has the lowest rate of getting a 5 out of all of the social studies classes. It is by far the hardest AP course in my school, other than being on par with AP Chem and APUSH. I would add AP Lang to your schedule. Who told you that AP Euro isn’t that hard? I don’t think I have ever heard that before. Social studies is my thing, and I struggled for a 92 last semester. My teacher is extremely good, though. She does NOT play. We have unit tests every week, map tests, DBQs and LEQs every week, and she does review sessions over the weekend to help us prepare for the AP exam.
@ab2002 pulled from here: https://apscore.collegeboard.org/scores/about-ap-scores/score-distributions//
5’s on euro: 9.3%
5’s on world history: 8.5%
understandable because world history is the whole world from the beginning of civilization to the end while euro is only europe from 1450 to now
and @siennc i definietly recommend you taking apush. even though it’s going to be a lot of work (i took apush with lang and macro), it has taught me such much about us history and my teacher was one of the best i’ve ever had. plus i think it’s important to know our history considering we have kanye saying that “slavery was a choice” and that it was the black’s fault for not revolting (oof really shocked when he said this).
@MYOS1634 I’m currently in regular Algebra 2 and Precalc/Trig Honors next year. My school does weighted GPAs so mine is around a 4.9.
Then it sounds like you should be able to handle 2 APs.
English language that you’ve already picked plus either AP physics 1 or APUSH.
Sounds like you’re doing well in algebra2H since you’re being moved up to precalculus honors so AP physics 1 would make sense.
APush if you’re interested in our country and want to know more than a regular class teaches you, which will include a lot of stuff you’ve already studied (APUSH goes beyond the ‘greatest hits’ and also teaches to closer to our times.)
Ask your GC: if you struggle too much, can t.tou drop down to honors US history or honors physics after 2-3 weeks?
@3scoutsmom I’m pretty sure OP said he was doing AP English in his post.
As you get closer to college, you should be able to handle more college level classes. So probably you could take at least 2 AP classes next year.