The title sums it up. I can take 2 of the following 3 classes: AP Comp Sci Principles, H Physics, or Italian 4. CS Principles would be interesting and good for GPA boost. Physics might be important since I’ve only taken bio/chem so far, but I’m really not a science guy. I’ve also heard 4 years of foreign language is important, and I feel I might forget all my Italian before I have to take it again in college if I skip it senior year. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but my other courses are AP Calc, AP Lit, AP Comparative Gov, and an elective. Thanks for any advice.
What is your intended major?
If I were in your shoes again, I would have taken more foreign language if offered those three choices.
All three of the courses seem desirable:
AP CS principles: good idea to take to get an idea of what CS is about, regardless of whether you intend to major in CS or not.
Physics: good idea to have all three of the basic sciences (the other two being biology and chemistry).
Italian 4: good idea to reach level 4 in a foreign language.
Is AP comparative government a requirement, or related to your intended college major? Is the unnamed elective? Would you consider dropping one of these to take all three of AP CS principles, physics, and Italian 4?
There are some colleges where not having taken physics in high school will be seen as a negative. So I would take physics, and then Italian 4 because knowing a foreign language will give you benefits for life.
@Burdened Probably going to apply as undeclared. Might pursue business, film, or english.
@ucbalumnus Government (at AP, honors, or reg) is a required class. The elective is Journalism, which I would prefer to keep as a stress reliever (love writing).
@ciervo Most of the colleges I’m applying to are the most competitive (Stanford, UCs, NU etc). I hope not having physics wouldn’t be a deal breaker for those.
On a related note, I’m leaning towards AP Comp Sci Principles because I feel like I could use a fourth AP. I worry that it wouldn’t look good to go from 4 APs Junior year to 3 APs senior year, plus I want to strengthen my GPA/class ranking a bit more before admissions.
I think you should take H Physics and Italian 4. I think having physics and a fourth year of foreign language will help your app more than an 8th AP class.
AP CS principles is a good course to learn for the knowledge, but do not expect the AP credit to be worth anything in terms of advanced placement in college. Also, in terms of college admissions, agree with #5 that not having the complete set of sciences or the fourth year of foreign language may be seen as academic deficiencies by admission readers at highly selective colleges.
An alternative if you do not take this course is to go through a course that AP CS principles is modeled after, such as http://cs10.org .
@ucbalumnus Bummer that AP credit would be worthless, but the class does seem interesting. Thanks for the link, will look into it.
Any other opinions? @skieurope I respect your opinion on these forums, would be interested to hear what you think.
Comparative government fulfills the requirement? I’m not doubting you, but every HS I’ve seen that has a gov requirement specifies US gov.
Anyway, if the choice is to pick only 2 out of the 3, I’m in agreement with @ucbalumnus . Since you are targeting some top schools, they mostly all suggest 4 years of a foreign language and bio/chem/physics. So I’d opt for H Physics and Italian 4, Note that having these courses will not improve your chances for admissions, and not having one of these courses will not always be a deal breaker. But why risk it? 
Additionally, I’m not a big fan of taking classes where I’m not going to get AP credit; you’ll get a better CS experience in college, IMO.
Given the prevalence of CS in society, I would recommend that students not taking AP CS principles in high school either self-study a similar college course (like http://cs10.org ) on their own, or take such a course in college if offered.
Note that this is not the same as AP CS A or many colleges’ introductory programming and data structures courses aimed at CS majors; such courses could be rather uninteresting for a non-CS major who wants to get an overview of what CS is about and how it is relevant to everything else.
The AP credit should be the least of one’s concerns.
@ucbalumnus Agreed; I’ve expanded upon my earlier post accordingly.
@ucbalumnus Since a college course might be a lot more rigorous than Comp Sci Principles, I’d rather see if I have a knack/interest for CS in high school. The online class looks great, but I have no time management skills haha, and doubt I would be able to complete it without the pressure of a grade and a teacher to help.
@skieurope Do you think colleges would consider it weaker to go from 4 APs junior year to 3 senior year? It seems like the consensus on this thread is to take H Physics+Italian, but I don’t know if it’s worth a slight drop in class rankings or GPA by not taking the weighted course. Plus I’m worried the counselor won’t check “most rigorous course load” since many students do 4 APs senior year.
Another option is to take AP Bio senior year instead of honors physics, and I could use the AP credit as well. That way I can show that I took a rigorous science senior year, but it might look repetitive considering I’ve already completed honors bio.
The college courses that are the models for AP CS principles are meant for non-CS majors (although sometimes they do entice students to become CS majors), so that they are not the hard core CS courses for CS majors. However, the CS 10 course linked above is a one semester college course, while AP CS principles is typically a one year high school course (this is similar to many other cases where high school and college courses overlap in material covered).
You will need better time management skills in college than in high school.
Is your class rank close to a threshold that matters (i.e. you are in Texas, and your rank is very close to the 7% or 10% threshold for automatic admission to the public universities), and does your high school weight AP courses more than the other courses?
Have you asked your counselor whether your course selection will affect whether s/he indicates “most rigorous course load” for you?
Skipping physics to take AP biology still means you will not have the full set of science courses.
@ucbalumnus Definitely working on the time management skills. My class rank is not close to a particular threshold. I’m currently ~20/730, and would likely drop down 4-5 spots if I only took 3 AP courses. I asked my counselor what it would take to get “most rigorous course load”, and he was very vague about it. AP courses are weighted more than other courses (honors and regular are weighted equally).
Why not ask him, “if I choose two out of these three courses (with the other courses listed in the schedule), does it matter which two I choose in terms of whether you will mark ‘most demanding’ course selection on the counselor report?”?
Rank 20 or 25 out of 730 means top 2.7% or top 3.4%.
Stanford and Wesleyan are two of the colleges that specifically mention taking physics along with biology and chemistry, as well as 4 years of foreign language. Here is what Stanford says:
http://admission.stanford.edu/basics/selection/evaluate.html
and Wesleyan:
No.
I just found out that AP Studio Art is an option, which I would take along with honors physics (so no Italian or Principles). I think it might show some variety in my transcript and I would get the GPA boost, plus I really enjoy art. Any thoughts?