Rising senior here! I signed up to take AP Chinese next year, but I’m really on the fence about this course. I’ve been taking Mandarin for the past three years, but I’ve lost interest in the language over time. While I do get good grades in this class, I constantly feel like I’m behind my peers since I’m one of the few non native speakers in the class. I’ve taken 5 APs in the past (maximum allowed by my school) and done extremely well on all of them, and I’m taking 3 other APs besides Chinese next year. If I don’t take AP Chinese, I will get to have a free period (or study hall), and after having a full schedule last year, I really wanted to be easier on myself during senior year and give myself time to enjoy life. Will it pay off to take a course that I’m really not interested in and most colleges don’t offer credit for anyways, just to show that I can handle rigorous coursework? Will it really have an impact on how admissions officers view my application?
The issue is not that it’s AP. The issue is that it is the fourth year of the language sequence. This will only matter if any of your colleges request 4 years of foreign language. If none of your choices request that, then it’s not an issue. If you’re targeting colleges that request 4 years, and there is not a non-AP Chinese 4 option, then you have a decision to make.
Whether it has an impact will depend on your target schools. For schools that recommend or require 4 years and your peers will have completed an AP level, it is less rigorous.
My kids took classes they were not interested in. On a certain level, it’s sort of expected. However, when my son really wanted to drop from IB English senior year to take regular English I was totally supportive. In the end, he switched back to IB because the school had new teacher that the kids seemed to like.
The thing is there are tons of native speaking Chinese that take AP Chinese and SAT subj tests to dress up their credentials. To them, they can close their eyes to get 5 or 800 on the subject. As a result, if you cannot get 100% from taking them, you mind as well not to take it.
I was told about this by a kid I know who has graduated from Berkeley already, there is no gain for him to tell me that.
Why should you care what others are taking it for? Unless you tell me the teacher is seriously curving the grade and you are being affected, your only concern should be about yourself and whether you learn something from the classes.
It has to do with the redeeming quality of your college application. If so many applicants have perfect score on one subject and yours is not, it will effect your application status, however small it is.
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2017/Student-Score-Distributions-2017.pdf shows “total group” (includes heritage speakers) and “standard group” (does not include heritage speakers) AP score distributions for the foreign language AP tests.
But it should be obvious to a college admission reader that an AP or SAT subject test score in a foreign language without associated high school courses (or only the top level course) is likely due to knowledge of the language as a heritage speaker.
Since the OP will be a high school senior, any AP score from the Chinese test will not be available to have any effect on the traditional timeline for college admissions during his/her high school senior year.
The OP should note that colleges may have foreign language graduation requirements. A higher level completed in high school, or a higher AP score, may allow the student to place higher in the sequence and allow completion of such a requirement in fewer (or no) courses in college.