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a year ago
Admissions Advice

Do I have to take AP classes?
Answered

I am a part of my school's Computer Science program and all of the computer classes are AP. I am genuinely interested in these classes, but I don't want to take the test because I don't plan on majoring in technology in college (I want to double major in Journalism and Urban Planning). Should I still take the AP class? I am a dually enrolled student, but I don't know if these AP classes will look performative because I just started taking them my 11th-grade year. I am in honors and I have an unweighted GPA of 3.95 and a weighted GPA of 4.13

11th-grade
11AP
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@Gerardoa year ago [edited]

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Accepted Answer
a year ago

If you are interested in applying to a top American college then you have to understand why AP or IB coursework is a key factor in the admissions office deciding who to accept or reject.

Colleges don't care for the most part what you major in because statistically college students change their major 3 times prior to picking one and graduating. What colleges are interested in is mitigating the risk of the future pool of freshmen not performing well.

Since APs and IBs are proxies for college coursework and if applicants show they have taken a lot of difficult APs/IBs regardless of the subject and received high marks, it reduces the stress for the admissions officers and gives them confidence that the applicant can perform well in college with actual college courses.

AOs want to make sure that they select students that will graduate on time with high marks because that gives them credibility on college rankings and peer recognition if their graduates get placed in great companies or move on to great graduate programs.

There are many high-achieving students who go on to be humanities majors who still grind through AP Chem, AP Physics, and AP Calc BC even though they want to be English majors. I also think it depends on what colleges you apply to. If you are thinking of UChicago or Columbia, for example, there is a heavy 32-credit core curriculum which is like taking 10 AP courses in everything from History to Math to Science. So someone with a solid track record of APs and IBs has IMO more flexibility in where they can thrive as an undergraduate student.

Only you with your HS counselor can make that determination of how many AP you want to take and which tests you want to sit for. I just wanted you to understand that colleges don't care that much about how your course rigor aligns with your intended major because majors are a moving target.

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Your chancing factors
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
1.0
4.0
SAT: 720 math
200
800
| 800 verbal
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800

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