Which AP Class Should I Take?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello Everyone,

I am a current junior, soon to be a senior. I am interested in majoring in Engineering (either Mechanical or Chemical). I will be taking 5 AP classes next year (the maximum allowed by my school). My AP schedule for all all four years of high school looks like this.

Freshman: No AP (School doesn’t allow)
Sophomore: Computer Science (Max of 1)
Junior: Calculus AB, Biology (Max of 3)
Senior: Calculus BC, Physics C (Mechanics and E&M), Economics (Macro and Micro), and Chemistry (Max of 5)

In addition of the 4 above for senior year, I have also been approved for AP Statistics and AP French Language. I am unsure of which of the two I should take. I asked all three guidance counselors at my school and all of them gave me conflicting advice.

The first one said to take AP French as it would show more humanities in my science dominant schedule.
The second one said to take AP Stat as it would help me skip the basic Stat course required for almost all engineering majors.
The third one agreed with the previous two saying that engineering would require both humanities and stat so I could pretty much pick either one.

I was wondering from the admissions point of view, which of the above courses would an admission’s officer like to see, French or Stat and why? I am going to apply to some top tier engineering universities (MIT, Cornell, CMU, Cal Tech, e.t.c) as well as my State University as a backup (which is already a guaranteed admit, according to all three counselors).

Thank You For Your Time.

2

Have you taken French in freshman, sophomore, and junior year? If you taken it all three I’d say take the AP French as colleges like to see commitment and well-roundedness, which AP French would give you. Your already taking a solid math course senior year (AP Calc BC) and AP French would round out your schedule instead of having it solely based on math-science. Also, many of the colleges you are applying to will not accept credit for your AP Stat, they want you to tale their own version of the class. When it really comes down to it though do whichever you would enjoy more, if you hate French don’t take French, despite how it would appear. If you know you’d love AP Stat, take that.