I’m currently a freshman choosing my courses for next year. The prerequisite is a B+ final grade in US History I H, a class I have right now. I just got a 92% on the midterm, the highest grade in my class period. I also had an A- last quarter and an A this quarter. Electives depend on which ones i get out of my priority list but here are my core classes I’m choosing:
English 10 H
AP American History (or US History II H…)
Chemistry H
Algebra II H
French V H
(Also I know this is a lot of Honors but currently in 9th grade I have English 9H, US Hist I H, Bio H, Geo w/ Trig H, and French IV H)
What does your counselor suggest? APUSH is often a very heavy workload class – not that the material is so difficult but lots of reading and writing. Our school starts after Labor Day so when my son took it as a junior last year (after 2 years of global history), he found himself pretty crunched for time. He did not love the textbook used but the teacher really made it a pretty interesting class.If you love history and can manage the workload (ask around to see what it is like at your school).
APUSH is not a cupcake AP class. Lots of reading and homework. If your goal is attending a highly selective college then starting AP’s sophomore year makes sense and APUSH can be a very interesting course, particularly if you have a highly engaged teacher which often happens with AP level courses
I took apush in 9th grade and got a 4 with little studying. If you take so many classes and French 4 as freshman, I’m sure you’re smart enough to do well in apush too.
Will you have time to dedicate to APUSH, either through a study hall or after school? If history is where your interest is, and you can reasonably fit it in, try it. I would recommend you check to see who the teacher is, that will make a difference.