Should I take AP Chemistry or take an Intro Programming class?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I have no ap classes for the first three years of high school (though I have 1 APUSH exam that I self studied for). I'm planning to go into ece, and want to take AP Chemistry to prep myself for when I'll have to do it in college and to get another ap on my belt. My parents, however, want me to be a little more exposed to programming, though I have a little exposure to it before (though I don't really know the languages the best). I thought that I can take a class at a local community college over the next summer to try and learn programming, but I would also like to have a part time job and my parents aren't sure that I'd be able to handle both at the same time. </p>

<p>I currently have 4 other AP classes I'm taking this year (Calc BC, physics C Mechanics, English Lit, and Macroeconomics). I'm wondering if it would be worth it to take the ap Chem, or learn basic programming since I want to be a computer engineer. I'm thinking about the latter, but also the former as well, since I'm applying to selective schools like Carnegie Mellon, ga tech, and Northwestern and a lot of applicants as well as a bunch of kids I know have taken more than one AP science. Any advice, since school starts in less than 2 weeks? </p>

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<p>Chemistry is not all that essential as a prerequisite for later courses in ECE, though it may be required or usable as a science option, so if your college accepts AP credit for chemistry, having it can allow you to skip the college chemistry course and take something else in its place (i.e. it is not worth repeating AP chemistry credit if you are an ECE major).</p>

<p>For math and physics AP credit, it would be best to try the college’s old final exams before skipping the college courses, since those are much more essential prerequisites to other courses.</p>

<p>You can always try to self-study introductory CS using free on-line books:
<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://composingprograms.com/”>http://composingprograms.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>@ucbalumnus‌ I’ve tried to learn programming on my own. It seems interesting, but it’s a little hard to motivate me just to keep going, something an actual class can do.</p>

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<p>Why do you want to be a computer engineer?</p>