I’m a sophomore deciding my courses for junior year, and right now the APs I’m taking are AP Econ, AP Chem, BC Calc, AP Spanish, AP US History, and a CS/Bio post AP class. I go to one of the top schools in the country, and our AP Chem, BC calculus, physics (both regular and AP), and post AP courses are really difficult to do well in. I’m a little worried about AP Chemistry since I don’t have a good teacher this year and other upperclassmen say that her students generally don’t do great in AP chem and need to put in a lot more work compared to other students that had different chemistry 1 teachers. With the difficulty of the other classes in my schedule combined with the fact that I’m on a travel sports team next year, I think that dropping AP Chem would be a good idea to maintain my GPA- but a couple people told me that it looks pretty bad to college admissions officers when I’m going the “bio route” and haven’t taken AP Chem in high school. How true is this? I’ve taken AP bio and other biology related post APs, but will not taking AP chem in high school really put me at a disadvantage from a college admissions standpoint?
No. No college has an expectation that an applicant take every single AP science, and no college AO is going to microanalyze your course selections. For top colleges, you should have a year each of bio/chem/physics, plus 1 or 2 of those at an advanced level.
Are these couple of people students or experienced GCs? Consider the source.
@skieurope Thank you! The couple of people that I asked were students who graduated from my high school last year, so I thought it was worth looking into. Does this apply to HYPSM as well? I won’t be taking AP physics or AP chem, but I have taken AP bio and AP CS.
“I go to one of the top schools in the country”
Given that, I bet you have a good advisor and college counseling staff. Ask them what they think.
@doschicos most of the money our school gets is put into our research labs, since STEM is really only what we’re known for- my counselor told me that she’d get back to me since she wasn’t sure, but hasn’t said anything else (even after I’ve attempted to follow up) 
If you will major in chemistry, you should take AP Chem or whatever the most advanced chemistry course your HS offers. Otherwise, I agree you don’t need to take AP Chem for any college.
@1NJParent Thanks! I’m not too fond of chemistry and am planning to major in biology.
Yes. As an example, Harvard says:
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/preparing-college/choosing-courses
Well, it’s a bit better than HS students who have yet been through the admissions process, but they are still people who are giving advice based upon a data point of one (or maybe a couple more).
As a sophomore you should take Honor Chem. It is okay to take High school courses in High school