<p>I have to start thinking about courses for next year, and I have narrowed it down to two options. One courseload has 4 AP and 1 Honors level classes, while the other has 3 AP, 1 Honors level, and 2 regular classes. I'm leaning towards the ladder because I'm more interested in the courses, taking an additional math course and regular history in lieu of AP level history. I've talked to my guidance counselor and they will not allow me to take AP world history and the math course.</p>
<p>So in summary, which would be the more advantageous set of courses:
4 APs, 1 Honors, 0 General, 3 Math/Science classes
3 APs, 1 Honors, 2 General, 4 Math/Science classes</p>
<p>I have a private meeting with my guidance counselor on Friday so I need to make my mind up soon.</p>
<p>The APs are English Literature, both Physics C, Biology, and possibly World History. The other math/science courses would be differential equations (honors) and statistics. I’m more passionate about taking the math and science courses, but I’m just nervous because I know schools like to see students taking rigorous curricula. I’m almost done with my school’s graduation requirements but all I have left is 4th year English and World History or Euro History. The other courses are flexible.</p>
<p>Differential equations is plenty rigorous, so to take that class should be a no-brainer (you want to take it out of enjoyment, but it is also a “challenging” class). You also shouldn’t pass up ANY classes that really pique your interest, so I would also take statistics (I’m assuming your school’s statistics class isn’t some relatively remedial class, though).</p>
<p>That being said, there are advantages to taking some of the APs you mentioned. English Lit, Physics C, and World History are all APs that could potentially give you college credit. Since you need to fulfill an English and history graduation requirement anyway, that would be good reason to take the APs to challenge yourself (if you think it is within your limits).</p>
<p>It’s kind of hard to tell from your post what your decision ultimately comes down to. Does taking an AP level English or history class prevent you from taking diff eq & statistics or something?</p>
<p>We have to have our schedules approved by a guidance counselor, and generally they do not accept schedules with 6 classes unless 2 are regular level. This means I could either take the AP history class or the regular history class + statistics.</p>
<p>Take what interests you most, and don’t worry about how it might affect your GPA and class rank. Assuming “diffy-Q” is at a local college or somewhere other than your high school, it’ll be looked at as challenging yourself.</p>
<p>A quick question about taking college courses: At what point should you put/ not put down your mark? If you were getting an 80 in a college course, would you put it down? What about a 70?</p>
<p>Um, it doesn’t really make any sense to treat differential equations as just an honors class, since it requires calculus, which is an AP class (although it might just be honors in your school, probably not though). So, I would think that colleges would actually see your schedule with 3 AP classes as more rigorous, even though there are less AP classes.</p>
<p>“A quick question about taking college courses: At what point should you put/ not put down your mark? If you were getting an 80 in a college course, would you put it down? What about a 70?”</p>
<p>I think you have to list all your grades, including all your college classes. Once you take a course it is part of your transcript. I would ask the admissions office about this.</p>
<p>Since I’m an international applicant, I didn’t complete the grades form. My high school transcript doesn’t even show I’m taking the course lol It’s just something I listed in my application, so it’s pretty much up to me whether I want to put the mark down or not. </p>
<p>So what’s considered a decent college course mark?</p>
<p>Well, what if I put it this way – even if you took all the math courses that a university offered in high school, well none of those would be designated as “AP” – oh you were a slacker, no? ;)</p>
<p>The point is “AP” actually doesn’t indicate rigor necessarily at all. In fact, I have had discussions with people on how some AP courses are not rigorous enough at all. So take the more interesting schedule, which certainly seems to do the opposite of compromising rigor.</p>
<p>i’m a sophomore in high school and i was wonder which is the prefered lever for college, ap or honors. I have the choice of taking US History Honors or AP US history next year. I don’t know which one to choose. Btw i have a 4.3 GPA and I’m ranked in the 15 percentile of my class. Is that good? Would colleges like that?</p>