Hi all, I’m a student attending an international school outside the US. I’m aiming for the Ivy League, and I have a US Citizenship, I am Korean by ethnicity, but I am Canadian-American by nationality. I want to major in the social sciences/humanities in university. I was picking courses for my junior year and I have a limit of 3 ap courses in junior year. The total APs I can take for highschool is 7, 1 sophomore, 3 junior, and 3 senior. I’m taking AP Lang, AP US History, and AP Chemistry as of now. However, my parents and I have been ripping out our hair whether or not we should take AP Chemistry. Our counselor told me to drop it, saying that it was time-consuming. I have not taken any standardized test yet, and I plan to finish my SAT 1 and at least one subject test in my junior year. I feel like I do need to study for those (though I have studied them in my summer, but I don’t feel like it’s sufficient). We’ve asked around a lot, and we have different opinions. Some say that colleges want to see me challenge myself and try to get out of my comfort zone, and I should reach the maximum number of AP courses possible, as dropping AP Chem will mean that I only take 6 APs. This means that I would miss the maximum of 7. On the other hand, some say that if you are applying for political science, no one cares if I can do AP Chem very well and that I should center my APs around what I hope to major. I also feel like doing AP Chem will require me to put in an immense amount of time to study for. Please give me some advice? Would appreciate it so much.
The reason we even considered AP Chem was because I did decently on Honors Chem, but I did need a tutor for that.
You know, the Ivy League schools are all different.
Highly competitive schools want you to take the most rigor available to you. Is there another AP option besides chem you could take instead?
If you’re genuinely interested in social sciences/ humanities, have the right ECs, and have other AP science, you could be fine skipping AP chem.
But if you’re thinking ss/hum is an easier admit, if your activities point heavily to stem, adcoms might question your interests.
Could you take AP Physics as a junior?
If you’re genuinely interested in social sciences/ humanities, have the right ECs, and will have other AP science, you could be fine skipping AP chem.
But if you’re truly thinking stem, AP chem helps. We don’t know, from your limited posts.
If you’re thinking of Ivy League and can’t handle AP Chem, you probably shouldn’t be thinking of Ivy League.
You realize that there is more to life than just AP classes, right? Honestly, this is beyond an unfair characterization when you know nothing about the OP. Many HS students get into Ivy League schools without being STEM braniacs. Here are other, similarly meaningless, permutations of your post:
"If you’re thinking of Ivy League and can’t handle AP Music Theory, you probably shouldn’t be thinking of Ivy League "
"If you’re thinking of Ivy League and can’t handle AP Spanish Literature, you probably shouldn’t be thinking of Ivy League "
Now perhaps you would make those same statements, in which case, I would still disagree with you.
Back to the OP, I agree with other posters who asked whether you can swap it with another AP class (or class of comparable rigor).
What are your other options that you can take instead of AP chemistry?
What other courses will you be taking?
Will you finish at least one each of biology, chemistry, and physics (not necessarily AP) by high school graduation?
@skieurope I know you’re trying to be PC here, but most every smart kid in 11th grade takes APUSH, AP Eng Lang and some sort of an AP science, most often AP Chem. And this doesn’t even include taking something like AP Calc BC. If the OP wasn’t talking Ivy League, then ok whatever. If it was a choice of say AP Calc BC versus AP Chem and you could only take 3 classes, then ok. But the OP didn’t present it that way. When you go off to college you’re taking 4 classes, presumably all college-level classes, not 2.
Looks like the disagreement between various posters here can be cleared up if the OP provided more context, such as the answers to the questions in reply #9.
Also, it may matter whether the choice of courses will affect whether the OP’s counselor will indicate that the OP chose the “most demanding” courses and is an “outstanding” or better student overall when it comes time to write the recommendation for colleges.
6 out of 7 AP sounds good.
I don’t think most humanities kids aiming high necessarily take AP chem. I think AP bio. And though more of these kids now take BC, many just take AB, depending on what’s available and schedule conflicts. It’s just not critical for a humanities kid to mirror what a stem kid would need to take. (Assuming no chance OP will end up applying stem.)
Much more important, if OP intends to state poli sci, is get some local political experience, if possible. Or advocacy in your community. Show that energy.
AP chem is a senior year class at many high schools (and not all high schools offer it).
Typically, unless you live in NYS, a student on the honors track would take biology (H if offered), chemistry (H if offered) and physics (honors or AP1), then one AP science. Most humanities/social science students would take APES but could take another AP science or could take honors anatomy and physiology or marine science, etc.
Since the number of APs you can take is limited, I’d focus them on your area of interest. What other APs can you take beside AP Lang and APUSH?
But typically 6 v. 7 wouldn’t make a difference (unless thy involved a major subject like calc for a STEM major or English for a humanities/social science major) .
I was actually going for polite restraint. 
OP is a rising junior in HS, not a college student; when you’re in HS, you also have to deal with the classes that the HS requires.
Actually most do not. Most take AP Lang and APUSH. Then there is a huuuuge drop-off to the next most common 11th grade AP.
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2017/Program-Summary-Report-2017.pdf
Now it may be different for the high school(s) with which you are most familiar, but the “typical” science progression is as @MYOS1634 laid out.
Regardless, what “most” kids do does not really matter. What’s important, as @ucbalumnus and others mention is what is available for the OP at his/her school, keeping in mind that the school is a private, foreign, international school where the common advising suggestions of how to work around a HS’s restraints will likely not apply. But it would really help if the OP returned to clarify.
Hello all, @skieurope @MYOS1634 @ucbalumnus @lookingforward @momofsenior1 @bopper @ProfessorPlum168
Thanks for all the insight into the subject, but I do believe that there should’ve been more clarification on my part, my bad. I have homeschooled from 8th to 9th grade, and in the 9th grade, where I would’ve taken honors biology, I took earth science. As for other alternative solutions, we have thought of them of course. If I had the option between AP bio and AP chem, I feel like I would do better at bio because I’m better at memorizing things. But I haven’t taken the honors course for bio because of homeschooling and there is a prerequisite to take honors bio for AP bio. I could sort that out with my counselor but that’s definitely not 100% certain I can. I am also taking honors physics as of now with AP Chem, and doubling up on sciences is difficult. The only viable options seem to be to drop AP Chem or honors physics. My GPA was great, we don’t do unweighted so I can’t really give an objective view, but it was around a 4.39 weighted in my sophomore year (our school requires us to take all honors courses for our core subjects and only 1 AP maximum in sophomore year). My dream school is Yale. I don’t have any standardized testings done yet and I still need time to study for those, that’s mostly why I’m asking whether it’s truly necessary for me to take this class. I feel like I need to allocate my time well this year. I also have some MUN conferences and debate competitions I need to prepare/attend, hence again why I’m asking for this class. I personally think I could do AP Chem as I do have an amazing tutor but through lots of time poured into it. Thank you again for taking your time to comment.
I also take honors precalculus, I am not in advanced math, and the maximum math level that is offered at our school is AP Calculus AB
Just to clarify OP, your school requires an honors pre-req before taking the AP science classes? My daughter’s did too and she had to double up on science classes to get in both AP chem and AP physics C before graduation. That said, she’s a chem e major and her top schools were crystal clear that they wanted to see at least one of those classes, preferably both.
If you are planning on pursuing poly sci, I think you are probably OK dropping AP chem this year. If your course is taught anything like my daughter’s, it was a ton of work (AP physics as well) so you are smart to worry about time management. Yale and the other schools you apply to will see on your high school’s report that your AP options were limited.
Precalculus in 11th grade is one year advanced by US standards. Presumably, you will take calculus in 12th grade.