We are currently scheduling for next year’s courses right now. However, I am having a bit of a dilemma. I don’t really know whether to take AP English or not next year. The courses I will be taking next year include:
CP English 11 or AP English Language?
AP Calculus BC
AP Chemistry
US History Honors
French III
Advanced Show Choir
The thing is, I am taking Advanced English 10 this year, so I don’t know if colleges will view my level drop negatively. (I am doing fairly well, because I did get an A first semester). Also, it may look like I’m not taking many AP classes, but at my high school, the AP classes I am taking are considered the most rigorous, (while US history honors is considered easy).
If I dropped, I would have most time to focus on French since it is one of my favorite subjects. In the time I would be annotating English sonnets and writing analytical essays, I would get to spend more time talking to my French teacher and forming a bond, reading French short stories, and learning more about French culture.
However, I feel like the rigor in my courseload would look too light. I go to a very competitive school and the average high achieveing student takes around 4 AP’s and 1 Honors class.
In our school there’s 11th grade honors English as well as AP, on the other hand I don’t think we had US History honors anymore, most kids on the AP track did APUSH. OTOH you are already taking AP Calc as a junior - so I’m guessing you are more STEM oriented anyway. There’s no one right answer. I can tell you while no college expects you to take every AP offered if you are aiming for very selective colleges you want to take a rigorous enough schedule that your GC won’t mark you down as less rigorous.
Is there an Honor English (as opposed to AP vs College Prep)?
What do you want to major in?
What types of colleges are you thinking about applying to?
If you told me you want to major in STEM and could take honors english and want to go to a fairly competitive but not crazy competitive school, I would say that is fine.
If you want to go to a top school and there is no Honor English, then take AP.
I think you should take AP English Language. It’s basically a rhetoric course, and my kids, who have entirely different interests, loved it. It’s fantastic prep for college level reading and thinking, regardless of major.
I’d suggest AP English Language. My son is a STEM guy and is taking AP English Language as a junior now. It actually seems like less work than 10th grade honors English (and he is getting a better grade), because it is focused on the AP content, whereas the honors class had art projects and irritating things that took a lot of time but didn’t add to his ability to write. The rhetorical terminology they are learning seems quite useful for a variety of humanities subjects and for the CR part of the SAT test.
If you are a STEM kid, you can adapt some of the things where you have a choice of what to read and write to your interests. He recently wrote a speech about the issues surrounding the NSA’s spying on US citizens. For a recent non-fiction reading assignment, he read “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. He’s reading Candide now for the class (in English), but you could read it both in English and French.
Unless there is a problem with the AP English Language teacher at your school, I’d recommend the class.
There is only AP or college English junior year :(
I plan on major in Nursing (I'm not sure if it is STEM or not though; although i am a guy, so it helps)
My reach schools are UPenn and Amherst (very competitive I know :), but my targets are UCLA, UC San Diego, University of Michigan, etc.
I go to a very competitive school, so for AP and honors, you have to work really hard for an A. And typical juniors usually take 3-5 AP and honors, but they usually choose the easier ones such as AP Stats or APES. I’m only considering not taking APENG because I feel like I might be overwhelmed with work since I am taking the harder AP classes offered at my school, and I’m pretty sure they both apply to nursing. In addition, I don’t really want to spend a lot of time annotating books and hours writing critical thinking analytical essays when I can actually be able to spend my time focusing on reading French (my most favorite subject after Chemistry) short stories, spending a few lunchtimes a week with my french teacher to learn and get to know her better. that way I not only get to have fun, but also get an awesome letter of rec since she is known to write awesome letter of recs. Last year, one of her recomendees got into Pomona College, another got into one of the grande ecoles at Paris, and one got into cornell (out of the 15 students she recomended from her French AP Class).
Im just not sure that taking two extra AP english classes (I will have taken 6 AP and 4 honors in four years w/o the APENGs) would be worthwhile when I can spend that time studying for Science Bowl competitions, taking the National Chemistry Exam, and learning more french.
My child’s STEM program requires the students take AP Lang (11), AP Lit (12), AP World (11). STEM isn’t just science, math and engineering courses. Of the three, she enjoyed AP Lit and World the most but she felt AP Lang was the most useful. Take AP Lang.
AP Lang is a great class. Not only does it make you a significantly better writer (probably half my class ended up being published writers within a year), but it also helps you quickly and efficiently analyze arguments and rhetoric which makes tests like the SAT CR section unbelievably easier. At my school the class is notoriously hard and time consuming, and is almost never taken by STEM students, but those who did take it nevertheless found it incredibly rewarding.
Hi, so my totally no professional opinion on your future, take AP English Lang. I’m taking it this year and our teacher is including some stuff about writing college essays. But, ask people at your school if you should take it or not. If a total witch teaches AP and some really nice person teaches the other one, well, you can decide.
