Will not taking APUSH negatively affect admissions?

Applying to College
1

I have read on a few threads over the past couple years that not taking APUSH might negatively affect admission chances at tippy top schools. My daughter is taking Honors American History this year instead of APUSH because she already has a ton on her plate and she has no intention of going into history as a career.

I know admission chances are slim-to-none at top twenty colleges no matter what you do or how qualified you are. I would like to know though if, in a holistic review, the absence of APUSH is going to matter at all. My daughter is deeply invested in ECs with leadership and regional placement/awards, has straight As, etc.

She should have plenty of other APs and college courses on her transcript when she applies —

AP Chem and AP Comp Sci in 9th,

AP Spanish, AP Bio, AP English Language, and AP Calc AB in 10th (current year)

AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP US Government, and college courses (dual credit) for English and Spanish in 11th,

and AP European History plus a bunch of college courses (dual credit) for 12th.

All other core courses have been Honors (World History, World Literature, Spanish 4, and American History), and she will have had four years in each core subject (math, social studies/history, science, English, foreign language) plus art and comp sci.

So does the absence of APUSH really matter given the rigor of her overall schedule? It’s not too late to have her take it instead of AP Government next year…but she’d really rather not since she’s doing Honors Am History now (and she is interested in the AP Government course for next year).

2

No, won’t likely matter or be a tipping point.

3

@NorthernMom61 Thanks - she doesn’t want her chances anywhere diminished due to not having it on the transcript, but she also has zero interest in APUSH and I think it would be silly of an adcom to ding her for the lack of it given the rest of her academic record. Admission decisions aren’t up to me though of course. Thanks for your response.

4

There’s plenty of rigor in this schedule. Fine to skip.

5

No it will not matter. My daughter did not take APUSH either.

6

NO, her schedule as described or planned is extremely rigorous as is.
(Also, AP Euro, APUSH, AP World all require the same skills and mastery, so that having one of the three is sufficient for competitive non Humanities/Social Science majors. It’d be difference if she wanted to major in History).

7

I agree with the consensus. She has a very rigorous schedule.

8

Thanks, everyone!

9

Since she’s taking honors and AP Euro, she’s totally fine. Adcoms are looking more for what may be less rigorous AP courses when the student had the opportunity to take the more rigorous one. APUSH is usually a big time sink, she’s much better off taking honors and having less stress. Good luck!