Hey! I’m a rising senior and I’m needing to choose an option for English next year. I did Honors English I & II during my freshman and sophomore years. Then (because of AP Stat) I could only take on-level English III. Here are my options for English classes:
- AP Literature & Comp
- AP Language & Comp
- Dual-Enrollment Freshman Comp I/II
They all hold the same weight for GPA so which would look better on my application?
Other courses I am taking next year are AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Phys C, DE Government, & AP Economics.
For English, a lot depends on what kind of college you might be attending. We found public institutions were more generous for AP credit than highly-ranked private ones.
At the schools my children were considering that granted credit for AP courses, AP credit was granted for EITHER AP Literature OR AP Language, not both. Mine took AP Language their junior year and took the AP test; they took AP Literature their senior year and did not take the test (test was not required at their HS).
For the dual-enrollment option, look at the websites of the schools you are considering, and see if credit is accepted for Freshman Comp taken at another institution.
I don’t think that any of these would “look better” on your application, so take the one you think you’d enjoy the most.
It depends on the college. For the colleges you are interested in (including in-state public universities), check which of your options gives the most subject credit and advanced placement. This will tell you which one that college thinks is most rigorous and useful. Be prepared to find different answers for different colleges.
The dual enrollment course may be hardest to evaluate, since only some colleges have listings of transfer subject credit from other colleges (most common with public universities and same-state community colleges). AP credit listings are more easily found on college web sites.
In my opinion, DE is only a good option when you’ve exhausted your high school’s offerings in a core subject - e.g. taking calc 3 when your school only offers though BC. In addition, DE courses may be less fulfilling and needlessly harder because CC teachers are not pedagogically equipped to deal with HS students. That’s from personal experience. I’d recommend one or the other of the APs, but don’t have any insight as to which if any might be more effective. Good luck.