Hey guys, I would really appreciate your help. I’m a rising junior who’s planning on applying to competitive colleges, and I can’t decide if I should take AP Psych, AP Physics C, or AP Stat. Here’s the basics:
AP Psych
I only want to take this because I’m going to be a psychiatrist, but the first semester is unweighted, which hurts my WGPA, and potentially rank. Do colleges care?
AP Physics EM and Mech
I have to take both because of my school, I’ve heard it is really hard, but I heard it looks great on transcripts. The thing is, our only physics ap teacher scores about a 3 on the teaching scale, and I’m worried about not getting a good score on the exam. I’ve taken calc ab (couldn’t do bc because schedule conflicts, so I’m doing bc this year) and the concepts were pretty easy. I also took pre-ap phys last year, and it was confusing, but not necessarily difficult…does that make sense? Except the magnetism unit was tough on me.
AP Stat
The in-between course, although I would prefer AP Phys, except that Phys C is super hard. However, I was planning on taking this my senior year, so if I take it as a junior, there are no more math classes for me to take at my school. WIll it look bad on my transcript if I don’t take a math class senior year then?
Thanks guys!!! Please post!
The best course to take would be the one that makes your counselor fill in your common app evaluation saying that you took the “most” rigorous course available at your school.
@sophie9999’s advice is spot-on.
Also, most colleges want to see 3-4 years of math (some require 4, you would have to look at college-specific requirements, which can be found in the Common Data Set for the school), so is there no other math classes for you beyond AP Stat?
Can you take calculus bc this year?
What else do you have on your schedule?
If you thought pretty AP magnetism was hard, you’d find physics C too difficult. Can you take AP physics 1 instead?
Are you taking another science this year? What would you take senior year if you took physics C?
@yonceonhismouth yeah since I’m taking bc this year, stat is my only math class left.
@MYOS1634 I posted that I was taking bc this year, does bc help?
My schedule junior year
Band (2 blocks)
AP Chem
AP Eng 3
AP US HIst
AP Capstone
AP Calc BC
??? AP Psych/AP STat/AP Phys
Senior Year
Band (2 blocks) --idk about this yet
AP Bio
Anatomy
AP Eng 4
AP Capstone II
AP Govt/Economics
??? AP Psych/AP Stat/AP Phys
But I have to take stat, so I’m either dropping psych or phys.
OMG do NOT take AP chemistry (one of the hardest and most time consuming AP’s) AND AP physics C together!! It’s setting you up for GPA murder.
Don’t take anatomy (only important if you plan on going into nursing) and take regular physics or physics 1 senior year.
And you do NOT need another AP… However you do need level 4 of a foreign language, had you reached that yet?