I am a rising junior in high school. I have gotten all A’s and A+'s my freshman and sophomore years. I am in the marching band and a few clubs. I am currently enrolled to take AP Seminar, APUSH, AP Calc AB, AP Physics 1, AP Language and Composition, Spanish III Honors, and a mandatory Theology course. I fear the workload will be way too difficult to manage and impossible to complete by deadlines. Would it hurt my chances to get into colleges like Stanford, USC, or top UCs if I drop APUSH for normal US History? If so, which class would be the least impactful to drop? If anyone has had to juggle similar classes, I would enjoy some feedback on your experiences.
I don’t think it would hurt your chances that much, if you can you can try to enroll in US history at your local community college. That’s what I’m doing instead of taking APUSH since I’m taking 8 college credit classes next year
The people who get into Stanford are the ones who can handle that load.
But can you handle that load?
Why AP Seminar? Why not drop that?
^ I agree. Take the challenging cores - or at least take the highest levels of classes related to your major (if you can do well in them). AP Seminar is just an elective, so that would be the one I’d sacrifice if you don’t think you can manage all of what you have listed.
IMO this is something you should discuss with your teacher and guidance counselor. None of us know you, know what kind of student you are, know how difficult the APUSH is in your particular HS etc.
If you are looking towards uber competitive college like Stanford they will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the college letter of recommendation saying you have taken the most rigorous course-load available at your HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If you guidance counselor says that your schedule without APUSH will have you on track to get that most rigorous box checked then you should be fine.
APUSH is a lot of memorization. Its a great practice class for college history classes and English classes, and biology classes where you memorize a lot of information. Stick with APUSH. You can do it ! Your high school load is much easier than a college load. For instance, most colleges students calculus is the pace of BC calculus, and you are taking AB, half as slow. The whole point of school is to juggle, struggle and manage the load. The tests in Physics 1 are much easier than college physics exams. Any AP class is easier than the equivalent class at Stanford or other top schools, so you for sure can manage this and you just need to get organized, and learn study skills now. That will only help you, in college. The more stress it is, the better you learn to manage stress. If you get a B, so what? Bs make a student interesting! The college actually learns more about what you love, if you get one or two Bs.
All top schools look to see if you are taking the hardest curriculum that your high school offers. If you don’t take
the hardest curriculum, especially if you want to be in a humanities or social science major, they will notice. APUSH good in that it forces you to memorize a lot of information, with the support of high school level expectations. AP classes are “spoon feeding” high school classes that are a tiny bit harder than honors classes. Most APUSH teachers spoon feed, by giving quizzes that don’t count against you, and letting you drop low scores! . If you take US History in college, no spoon feeding, you will read about 500 more pages of history than APUSH requires too, and write a LOT more essays than APUSH requires, but APUSH is a good start for you.
I would drop the AP Seminar one if I had to drop something. I haven’t seen any evidence where it helps any applicants as far as admissions goes.
The 4 other AP classes that you are taking is what a typical top-level student would take. I would keep those.
Thanks for the feedback! I decided to drop AP Seminar and keep APUSH.