Taking AP Classes

Applying to College
1

I’m planning on going to college to get a psychology degree and complete a pre-med program. The only classes i’ve really taken that relate to either of those are honors bio (required class), honors chem (required class), honors phsyics (required class), honors psych, AP psych, and post-ap neurobiology. It’s my senior year next year and I was wondering if I should take AP Chem or AP Econ. A little bit of background:

-I have to take an econ credit to graduate.
-I want to eventually get an MBA so i am interested in business/econ.
-I know I will be able to get an A in AP Econ
-I will probably be able to get an A in AP Chem but it’ll require more effort
-I did not do too well in honors chem (i got a B).
-I’ve heard AP Chem at my school is way way easier than honors chem and most people who get B’s in honors chem can get A’s in AP with a decent amount of effort.
-I took honors chem in 10th grade and would be taking AP Chem in 12th grade, so there is a year’s gap
-I’ve heard they teach AP Chem as if everyone has forgotten honors chem so it shouldn’t be too difficult to catch up again
-My course workload next year is sort of a lot, but I don’t have any other classes related to psych or pre med next year
-My school also has an option to do a self paced online econ class from may-july that will give me an honors weighting and fulfill my credit

So my question is, taking all that into account, would it be better for me to play it safe with AP Econ or should I go for AP Chem + summer Econ to try to impress colleges (especially considering im going into premed).

2

Here is where the logic in your post falls apart:

Colleges will not be impressed with your schedule - or anyone’s schedule. Top colleges get tens of thousands of application every year, and I would assume the number of times an AO said, “This schedule impresses me; let’s admit him/her” is zero.

So to answer your question as to if you should take AP Chem or AP Econ: you should take both, particularly if you are considering top-tier colleges…

A couple of other points (and I am purposely avoiding the MD/MBA discussion):

That’s very common.

No college expects a HS student to specialize. Regardless, college psych is more intensive than AP Psych, and virtually every med school will not accept AP science credits to fulfill prereqs.

3

i can’t take both because there isn’t room in my schedule, but if i were to take one would it be better to take a slight risk with my grade to try to show that i’ve improved from honors chem to ap chem, or should i go on a completely different path and take ap econ even though it’s not related to any other class i’ve ever taken?