<p>Engineering courses at the UC and most colleges are very tough even for the motivated. If he isn’t motivated in high school, what will change in college? I believe he has to address his motivation issue first and the sooner the better.</p>
<p>Top tier colleges make a big deal about strength of schedule, so go with the AP classes. Also, if you want to go into enigneering, the AP science classes (physics and chemistry) are calculus based while the non-AP classes are not. A better understanding of the subject matter is made with the calculus based class. You definitely put yourself at a disadvantage with the non-AP class.</p>
<p>Of course the standard response to this question isn’t whether to get an A in a non-AP class or a B in an AP class but the colleges are looking for those that get the A’s in the AP classes.</p>