To take or not to take APUSH

I’m a sophomore and will be taking AP Physics I & II, AP Lang, AP Computer Science A, AP Chinese, and Pre-Calc Honors during my junior year.

I chose not to take APUSH because

  1. I do not find AP US History interesting.
  2. I believe that I am already stretching myself very thinly by taking 4 APs and being involved in 4 extracurricular clubs and other outside of school activities.
  3. With the very, very limited free time I have, I will be doing ACT and SAT II prep.
  4. I know that there is a very strong chance that I will burn out this year.

I have taken WHAP and am currently taking AP Euro.

If this matters, I will be majoring in something STEM-related. The majority of my extracurriculars relate to STEM. I do not plan on doing ANYTHING related to history in the future.

However, a college sophomore has told me that my WHAP and AP Euro credit might not cover ALL required history courses in Gen Ed in certain colleges.

Would it be worth it to change my schedule and take APUSH instead of Regular US History just for college credit?

Don’t take it if you think it’s too much.

I say stick with regular US and take the CLEP exam for credit if you’re so adamant on not taking any History classes in college. Also, how can you be so sure that adding APUSH will cover the history requirements? Double check that first. I know some colleges limit you on how many credits transfer over.

Good luck! (:

Ahh thank you for your advice?

What is CLEP? And how would I check a college’s Gen Ed requirements?

You’ll need to check every individual college’s list of accepted AP courses. For my daughters school, she needed APUSH and government to get out of the gen ed distribution. AP Euro got her credit, but not out of the gen ed requirement. Other schools on her list required history even with 5s on the AP test so it really depends.

That said, APUSH was a ton of work for her and with your already rigorous schedule, you don’t want to set yourself up to struggle.

@needtosucceed27 Look up [College Name] General Ed requirements and [College Name] AP credit - should be easy to find. I can’t be of much help at this if I don’t know what colleges you’re looking to apply to. It’d be easier to contact the schools, but honestly, 1 more year of History in the future won’t be too bad.

Consider taking Communtiy College classes and check how they can transfer over. If your cc offers it, take an online class with them.

CLEP is another standardized test by College Board that can grant you college credit depending on the college.

Also note that for many colleges, particularly at the top tier, APWH and AP Euro (or even APUSH) will not cover any of the gen ed requirements.

Similarly, the more highly ranked the university, the less likely they will accept CLEP credit. If it’s a private university, assume they won’t accept it.

Back to the OP’s question. I agree 4 AP’s are enough. If it were my schedule, I would take APUSH and push APCS to senior year. But it’s not a big deal either way, IMO.

nothing is impossible if you put in the hard work, but if you think you will burn out then don’t take it. I’m taking it right now and I can say the class was very interesting, but extremely annoying with every SMALL detail you have to remember. being expected to know the date, name, event, act, etc. for the least important details drove me crazy.

Your schedule is super rigorous already. You don’t need to take APUSH.
In addition, if you major in STEM, you’ll be happy you can take a “fun” class in a social science alongside your hardcore stem classes - in college, balanfing your schedule is an important skill to develop, and you’ll have lots of choices (psychology, economics, anthropology. )
Few colleges require a US history course specifically, typically only public universities in specific states like California.

True. However, basically every US HS requires one to graduate, although it obviously does not have to be AP.

Yeah, in my opinion taking AP World History AND AP Euro was a mistake. Not sure how your school allowed it before taking US History. Does your school require it to graduate?

It’s not uncommon. APWH is commonly offered to freshman/sophomores. AP Euro at many schools is offered as a senior elective, it is much more common to be offered to sophomores. APUSH is a traditional junior course.
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2017/Program-Summary-Report-2017.pdf

There is no real reason to take all three, but I was not going to comment on past choices as it’s water under the bridge.

Op says s/he plans on taking regular us history, which I think is fine as long as she/he takes one more social science senior year (does not have to be AP).

If you don’t want to take APUSH, then don’t take it. Simple as that. However, I would consider looking at what your AP courses will get you in college. For me, I wanted to pursue something in the healthcare field and the school I currently attend was very generous with their AP score policy. Because of that, I ended up taking many of my pre-req classes very early and now I’m taking classes I really enjoy before I head into the professional years of my program.

I would take a look at the AP policy at the schools you want to go to and ask around at the info sessions too. See if your AP Euro and AP World History will place you out of certain required classes. Also, I would go by the advice that the older members posted, it’s really helpful!

Hope this helped and best of luck!

@suzyQ7 @skieurope Yes, I do realize that that was a big mistake. I didn’t know anything about college admissions before my sophomore year, so I thought that taking the most amount of APs available would seem “impressive”. Looking back, that was completely wrong, and I regret taking AP Euro this year.

At my school, WHAP and AP HUG are offered to certain freshmen. AP Euro is offered to certain sophomores and is not a senior class at my school (there is only one senior in my class).