We have to pick classes for next year soon, and I’m really stressed about what I’m going to take. I’m not exactly sure what I want to go in but I know it will be something math/science related, probably medicine or cs or physics. Currently what I’m thinking about choosing is:
AP BC calc
AP physics mechanics
AP environmental geoscience (unfortunately required otherwise I wouldn’t take geoscience)
APUSH
honors spanish 4
honors english
I’m not sure if those are the classes I should take though. I’m also interested in taking AP computer science cause I have some experience coding and I really like it so I want to take that at some point, but I also want to take AP physics mechanics junior year so that way if I like it I can take AP physics E&M senior year.
I’m definitely taking AP calc and honors english and honors spanish, but as far as APUSH and APEGS I’m torn. Both of them only have academic and AP options at my school and are both required, so I really don’t want to take the academic version, but I don’t know if I would be able to handle 4 AP classes and get all As. So I’ll either take the AP option of both or of only one and only take 3 APs.
Thoughts?? I’m planning on applying to ivies/top colleges so I feel like I should take all 4 APs. But should I take AP physics or AP computer science?
Register for all 4 APs and ask what the policy is if you find APUSH too hard (APES is quite easy for a science-minded student). If APUSh is too time-consuming, will you be allowed to “drop down” to regular US History? Or, if there is a community college nearby, would you be able to take US History 101 or 102 or both, starting in the summer and continuing during the year?
Have you taken 1 class each of Bio, Chem, and Physics?
@MYOS1634 yeah we have a 2 week period at the beginning of the school year to switch in and out of classes without it showing up as a dropped class on applications. I’ll probably do that. I’ve taken honors chem and honors bio (I might take AP bio senior year but idk) but haven’t taken physics. I’m debating either taking AP physics mechanics junior year and then AP physics e&m senior year or taking AP computer science junior year AP physics mechanics senior year. Would it be better to take both physics courses or just one and computer science? If I ended up taking both physics I might be able to work the cs class in senior year but that wouldn’t be definite.
If you want to major in medicine, take AP Bio. If you want to major in cs, take AP comp sci. If you want to major in physics, take AP Physics mechanics in junior, then AP Physics E&M in senior.
Check with the Physics teacher whether you can jump right into AP Physics Mechanics without a previous Physics class. I’d advise Physics junior year and CS senior year. You’ll need both if you want to be in any type of STEM field.