Should I take AP Chemistry?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

Next year my current schedule is:
AP Computer Science
AP Statistics
AP Physics 1
Honors Calculus
Honors American Literature
Sci-fi and Fantasy literature
Advanced Web Page design
Holocaust and Human Genocide
Gym
Study Hall

I am going to be a senior next year and still have time to make a change. I have read that chemistry is a requirement for Computer Science and related degrees, which I am perusing passionately. However I was wondering i if I should take AP Chemistry at the expense of some of the courses I have listed for next year, and whether it will benifit me personally and college-wise. Because AP Chemistry is such a content-heavy course I was wondering if I could handle the pressure. Because it is so content heavy it is a three-quarter course at my school (which is has an 80 minute alternating block schedule) so I would have to take out some of my single quarter courses. Even so I really like chemistry, but also want to expose myself to physics and statistics.

I was thinking that I would replace Honors American literature with the less rigorous and time consuming American Lit (because I don’t care about English too much and already took the AP versions), and remove my holocaust class (don’t care all that much about it) and my webpage class (even though it could be useful for me in comp sci, I already know alot about html, css and javascript, etc, and they tend to focus on the design aspect of it all).

Other things that could affect your analysis:

  • A in Honors Chemistry, learned many topics that may appear in AP such as nomenclature, the mole, stoichiometry, gas laws, atomic structure, nuclear chemistry, electron configuration, bonding theories, solutions, thermodynamics, reaction rates & equilibrium, organic chemistry, electrochemistry, periodic trends, acid-base reactions.
  • Decent study habits, work hard on tests
  • Going to be stressed next year in particular sue to college applications
  • Am going to be reviewing my chemistry work extensively in august and September in preparation for the SAT subject test in October.

Is taking out all these courses and replacing it with another AP to rigorous for me? And which schedule will look better to colleges? And if I should take it, which classes should I remove as a CS major?

2

The only possibility I would have for you would to maybe take out AP Physics and put in AP chem if you are very interested in chem and have already taken a physics class. Both AP Physics and AP chem are both hard, but at my school (very competitive public school) only the smartest and most devoted students take AP Chem. It is regarded as the most challenging course in the school.

Otherwise, I would leave your schedule as it is. Do not take both physics and chem. Its going to be tough enough as it is reviewing for subject tests with the course load you have planned out.

3

Also I would remove the sci fi and holocaust classes and maybe move into AP Calc. Those filler classes are not going to do anything for you.