<p>Dealing with a heavy senior year schedule as you can see here:</p>
<p>Multivariable Calculus
AP English Literature
AP US Government
AP Spanish Literature
AP Computer Science A
AP Physics B
3D Design</p>
<p>Can't drop any of the other ones besides AP Spanish Lit and AP Comp Sci A because of 1) graduation requirements, 2) UC a-g requirements, and 3) relevant coursework to college major (engineering).</p>
<p>I don't want to crash and burn first semester with college apps.</p>
<p>So parents, should I drop AP Spanish Literature or AP Comp Sci? Will be applying primarily to engineering programs. Took AP Spanish Lang last year. Applying to Ivies and top UCs.</p>
<p>I would think for an engineering type, AP compsci would be more fun. You already have one AP Spanish; that’s all you need to get out of the lang requirement, right? And it’s only CS A, not AB…can’t be all that stressful. :)</p>
<p>I like both of them equally. I like the cultural depth and inherently routine, predictable way the work in AP Spanish Lit is like. However, I also like the independent, innovative nature of and the applicable use to engineering offered by the AP Computer Science class.</p>
<p>I’ve heard college students complain that “introductory” college computer science courses aren’t really introductory. Students are more comfortable in them if they have some background in programming. </p>
<p>So from that point of view, AP Computer Science might be the better course to keep in your schedule.</p>
<p>Courses equivalent to AP Spanish Literature will be offered at your college, and you may want to take one as an elective if you enjoy studying Spanish.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you have any facility for programming you could teach yourself AP Comp Sci (which now barely covers a semester’s worth of material) in a few weeks over the summer.</p>
<p>S last year could not fit AP Spanish in his schedule. Many colleges let you “test” at the beginning of the year for language, place you in the appropriate course, and if you get an A or B in that class, you retroactively get credits for the previous cours(s). My S did not want to continue in language at his college, but his university is very generous when it comes to AP and CLEP credits so he took a CLEP test at our local junior college over the summer and was able to get 14 credits of language at his university. This took care of his language requirement. If you already know the university(ies) you are interested in, check out their policy on CLEP. Also my son took the Computer AB test without taking the class (or really studying) and he got a 5, but he did have previous knowledge on programming in JAVA and a few other languages.</p>
<p>You cannot obtain a job in CS after HS. Spanish is very useful no matter what you end up doing. This is my opinion. You ,make your own conclusion/decision.
Anyway, at D’s HS, they allowed only 3 AP classes / year…just a fact, conclusion is yours.</p>
<p>In regard to college placement test. It is very worthwhile to place as high as possible in Foreign Language. D. has placed into 3rd year (no AP Spanish in her HS). The 3rd year Spanish was the only Spanish she took at college. It was one of her best college classes and she was able to speak after that one semester class, even 2 years later! We witnessed that on our trip to Mexico, it was pretty unbelievable.
Spanish is very important and continues to be so at D’s Med. School. Opens many opportunities in the future.</p>
<p>A more pragmatic view might be, given the difficulty of your other courses and the fact that you feel the need to drop a class in order to give more time to your other courses, which AP course is the least demanding? My guess is comp sci because I think the Spanish lit course is quite challenging. If you are concerned about maintaining the highest possible GPA, you might want to drop Spanish lit. If you are less concerned about the above, I agree with Mathmom that the current AP comp sci course covers a minimal amount of material and will not prepare you to skip any comp sci courses in college. In addition, it will probably not give you credit anywhere except for elective credit at a state university. If you do well in Spanish lit, you will probably receive credit almost anywhere. Just some things to think about.</p>
<p>If you’re dropping a class to reduce your load so that you have time to work on apps, then I think the appropriate question to ask is which will take more time? None of us can answer that because it depends on the student, school, and teacher.</p>
<p>From a college application/admissions perspective, I don’t think it matters.</p>
<p>Both classes are useful, although Spanish Lit is really supposed to be focused on reading Spanish literature and writing literary criticism essays in Spanish, essentially the equivalent of AP English Lit & Comp, but in Spanish. It’s the kind of class you’d typically place into in college based on your AP Spanish Language scores.</p>
<p>I’m with mathmom on this one. Comp Sci is something you could self-study. AP Spanish Lit is not. If you plan to take more Spanish in college, keep the AP Spanish Lit. If you don’t plan to, then take Comp Sci. AP Spanish Lit teaches you to write well, as well as speak.</p>