I will most likely choose Cognitive Science as my major but will choose neuroscience/psych if my college doesn’t offer Cognitive Science.
I can only take one ap science course because of space on my class schedule. So which one would benefit the most.
I was initially thinking ap chem but then some have said ap bio would be more beneficial because it’s general science.
Please give thoughts!!
Both are fine to take and both are useful. Take the one that is of greater interest to you.
Most schools like to see these 3 science courses on your HS transcript and not all need to be AP classes: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Take the AP class which most interests you.
I agree if you don’t already have bio, chem, and physics you should take the one you are missing, regardless the level. If you already have taken all 3, take the AP that most interests you.
You need Chemistry Honors before you take AP Chem, or Biology (Cp or Honors) before AP Bio (you could try AP Bio without an earlier bio class if pushed).
If you’ve already taken biology, chemistry, and physics at the regular or honors level, you can take whichever you like best.
In terms of major, for cor cognitive science, I’d say AP Bio would make the most sense (and AP Psych to have a better idea of what you’re getting into :p)
Either AP Chem or AP Bio is fine and one isn’t better than the other so pick whichever one interests you the most! I’m assuming you have already taken a year of Bio, Chem, & Physics? You should have one year of each (not necessarily AP), then for your 4th year take an AP that interests you!
I would guess that this is very high school dependent. At our kids’ HS, AP Chem and AP Bio do not require taking a prior Chem or Bio class, and it’s actually not possible to do so within the curriculum. Students take
Officially AP Chem is designed by Collegeboard as a 2nd level class that supposes prior knowledge in chemistry, however ofc a high school is free to package basic principles first then the AP content in whichever way works for the students. 
The AP Bio curriculum covers some biochem topics that would be directly relevant to your intended major. While the AP Chem curriculum covers mostly inorganic chem, some of the content in the curriculum will be directly related to the concepts you will cover in Organic Chem, which will likely be one of the most difficult courses in your intended major.
I would look at your performance in prior bio and chem courses. If you have A’s in both, then choose the one that you feel you would benefit the most from in terms of another year of introductory science instruction. If you don’t have A’s in both, take the one in which you received the lower grade. You will probably need to take the introductory course in both bio and chem for your intended major. As a neuro/cog sci major, you likely won’t be able to test out of these classes even with a 5 on the AP exams, but the AP curriculum and tests are great prep for these courses.
Everyone’s prior advice about taking one year of each (Bio, chem and physics) is also a priority. You will want a solid foundation in all three before taking the required intro courses in these classes for science majors.
Agree – as long as you have taken HS level biology, chemistry,and physics both AP class options would work equally well.
Consider things like which subject you prefer, if one class has a teacher you like more, if either works better for your overall schedule etc.
What year are you in high school? You tagged Yale. Was that intentional or are you looking more broadly?
I would suggest Chem since that is what most need need before college Bio. (Bio has a lot of chemical reactions…)
At my kids’ high school, they go straight into AP sciences without having ever taken high school level Bio, Chem, or Physics. It is possible to take AP levels without having had high school science.
I would suggest that you take the one with the best teacher, with the best reviews. If they are both extremely well taught, know that AP Bio will probably be more interesting, but AP Chem is more useful, because you don’t need Bio to do Chem, but you do need some chemistry to do AP Bio (which will be superficially taught in the AP Bio class). My kids joked that their AP Bio class WAS their high school chemistry class.
I am a rising senior who has taken both AP Biology and AP Chemistry.
Like others have said, if you have already taken pre-requisites (if your school has any), then I would take the AP course that you can take. If you have the option to take any one of them, I would first look at interest.
For my school, I had the option to take both, and so I did. But, I had very different experiences in both classes. My AP Chem teacher made the class much more easier than other AP Chem teachers, and so while the class was somewhat easy, I had to do a LOT of self-studying before the AP Exam. My AP Bio teacher made the class slightly more rigorous, so there was less self-studying involved.
Regarding the curriculum of each class, AP Chemistry I feel is a significantly harder class. There are concepts towards the end of the year, that if you have not taken a Chemistry class before, are very hard to grasp. Both touch on important bio concepts, like reactions, organic compounds, etc. However, AP Biology does use DNA studies and Genetics as a significant part of its curriculum while AP Chemistry does not.
I would choose based on teacher reputation. At my kids’ high school, AP Chem was poorly taught, and the only way anyone ever did better than a 2 on the exam was through intensive self-study and/or tutoring. (Everybody loved the teacher as a person, but even students who aced the class did poorly on the exam.) AP Bio, on the other hand, was well-taught and had a high pass rate on the exam.
They’re both challenging classes when taught properly, and both valuable. See what you can find out about the teaching and the pass rates, and choose that way.