Thoughts on giving up AP Bio or Spanish? Which is more important for college admissions?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello! I’m a Senior currently having a bit of a scheduling crisis.

I am taking a Russian 101 course at a local college Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning I have to leave early from school and miss my 7th period AP Literature class twice a week. My counselor said that I cannot miss that many days a week, so I can switch it to 2nd period. The problem with that is that I would have to miss my Spanish 3 class, which I was really looking forward to taking.

  1. AP Biology or Spanish 3
  2. AP Lit
  3. AP Government and AP Economy
  4. AP French
  5. AP Statistics
  6. Russian at college

To make this schedule work, I need to give up either AP Biology or Spanish 3.

I was wondering which would look better in terms of college competitiveness, and also if the lack of a science would hinder my chances. Is there an online Spanish class I could take?

Any help or thoughts are appreciated, as I have to decide by tomorrow!

2

In my opinion, if you are going into the STEM field, you should stick to AP Bio (I really disliked Bio, so this is not biased). This is because you are taking AP French and Russian 101, which is pretty impressive by itself. Two college level world language courses are really impressive!

If you are going into the humanities, even if it isn’t AP Bio, I strongly recommend taking a science course as you already have two languages.

About online Spanish, my county offers Spanish 3 online. I would defiantly check with your counselor, he or she can probably tell you.

Have a good day!

3

Thank you @anthonytheboy !
Any other responses?

4

I would imagine that many colleges would prefer to see a 3 year sequence of the same foreign language, regardless of major. I would stick with Spanish 3.

Or, plan B: Postpone the Russian class till some other time.

What does your guidance counselor say?

5

@bjkmom The OP is taking AP French, so s/he already has the foreign language base covered.

6

Oops, sorry. Missed that.

7

Yes. Regardless of your aspirations, 3 foreign languages simultaneously is overkill. Keep AP Bio. Personally I would drop Russian over Spanish, since you’ve made some headway (although 2 years of HS is not much in the grand scheme of things) versus starting from scratch with Russian. But taking Russian vs. Spanish will not be a deal breaker in the admissions process since you are taking AP French already.