I am wondering if I should take an elective class that interests me, or take more AP’s. Since the beginning of high school, I have taken 3 AP classes, and plan on taking at least another 3 senior year. My school offers a total of 8 or 9 AP classes in addition to maybe 3 or 4 more dual credit. If I’m aiming for engineering at a top school, would it hurt my chances if I would a manufacturing or auto mechanics class rather than another AP. (AP’s are weighted at my school and I feel confident i would do well.)
Without knowing additional background, if it were an AP vs an academic elective, I’d say it’s up to you. But AP vs. a vocational elective, go for the AP.
There isn’t an answer to that question right now because every school is different. It comes down to grades, SAT/ACT, and your essay. If you’re a top student, you’ll have a better chance. That being said, there are lots of great ABET accredited schools with abundant opportunities for a good engineering job out of college. Pick something that’s affordable and a good fit for you. Don’t look at rankings, they’re nothing more than inflated popularity contest.
The thing is the school you apply to will look at how many AP classes are offered at your class before evaluating your application. So if your school only offers 8-9 AP classes and you have taken 6 of those 8-9 classes, I don’t think you need any more. Plus, taking a manufacturing or auto mechanics class will be more helpful in landing you an internship/co-op then another AP class. However, if you are looking at it from a financial perspective, you can always save more money by taking more AP classes. Hope this helped!
What STEM APs does your school have? My advice is a bit different than @skieurope - I would say that an AP in a core subject, especially a STEM (for engineering) subject, is better than a vocational elective, but, say, an auto mechanics class is better than an AP which isn’t a core subject.
@apquestions Many of the more selective colleges, especially private ones, limit the number of credits that an incoming student can receive from AP classes. So it doesn’t always save money.
I’m in the “pretty much any AP class is better than an auto mechanics class” category.
Course rigor is typically #2 or 3 on the list for “engineering at a top school”.
OP, what AP course will you have taken, and what else is available?
I’ve taken AP world history, AP US History, AP English, and AP Chemistry (At my school, we call it an AP, but its really just dual credit). I will take AP Physics, AP Calc AB, and AP Government. Other AP classes available are AP Psychology, AP Bio, and AP German
You may want to take AP Bio, so you have the three science APs, which is really helpful for acceptance to a STEM program. You also need to do AP Calc BC, if it’s available. You can forgo AP German. AP Psych is a relatively easy class.
As much as I want to, I’m not sure if I would be able to take AP Calc BC. At my school, both AP calc classes are sequential. If you doubled up on math classes freshman year (I was originally going to, but didn’t think ahead and dropped it for an PLTW engineering class), then you would take it senior year. Would it be worth the effort to ask my guidance councilor if I could skip AP Calc AB?
Unless you have a gameplan for learning the AB material on your own, no. No college has an expectation that any student take BC, particularly if they do not have the proper foundation.
To answer this we would need to know what courses you are taking and what you want to study.
If you said AP Chem vs. Cooking, i would say take AP Chem.
if you said AP Env Sci when you already took Bio, Chem and Physics and you don’t really care about AP Env Sci, then I would say take cooking.