Hello,
I’m kinda worried about my course rigor for Junior year. I registered for 4 APs: Psychology, Biology, Pre-Calculus, and English Lang. But for history I decided to go the DE route(conjoined with sociology). Most of the smart kids at my school are taking AP USH and I’m worried colleges may look down on my course rigor because I decided not to take AP USH. Is this a mistake?
Is that DE course at a college or is it taught by teachers?
In any case, taking DE US history and DE sociology won’t be “looked down” upon since you have a rigorous schedule already.
If you truly worry, make one of your 4 senior APs a history course (world, euro, could even be African American history& culture) with I suppose AP Calc or AP Statistics, an AP science, and another of your choice.
Make sure you have level 3 or 4 in a foreign language if you’re aiming for selective universities.
The DE courses are taught by a college professor AT my school. I’m only worried cause AP USH seems to be one of the most popular courses taken junior year alongside AP Lang.
What colleges are you aiming for?
What APs have you already taken?
I’m aiming for the top UC’s and CSU’s. I have taken no prior AP classes. I was originally in AP Bio and Computer Science Principles sophomore year but my bio teacher had too many students in her class and she had to kick a couple sophomores out, due to scheduling conflicts I also couldn’t take computer science.
Do the DE courses count for your capped and uncapped UC GPA?
If they do, you’re fine.
If they don’t, you have to balance the time it’d take to do well in APUSH if added to an already full schedule with the risk it’d lower your overall grades.
Btw, make sure to mix things up a bit - these universities literally offer 100+ majors and students only apply to a handful. Hence, bottleneck and many disappointed applicants. Invest time in learning what majors allow you to reach your goal even if, especially if!.. their name makes them less “obvious”: for instance, software engineering vs. CS, Agribusiness or Supply Chain Management vs. Business Management, Packaging vs. Marketing …
Also, some CSUs are more residential and offer special programs, such as Chico, Sonoma State, Humboldt… Adding one of these as a safety, for someone aiming for UCs, is a smart move.
You can also start looking into private instate universities (USC, LMU, St Mary’s..): run the NPC to see if they’d be within budget. If not, cross them out.
Look into WUE and what majors they accept.
Join the mailing list at private universities such as UPuget Sound, Whitman, Willamette, Gonzaga… And occasionally click on links they send. If one of them turns interesting, you’ll have accumulated enough “interest” points to ease your admission. This way, if your “top UC/CSU” plan fails, you’ll have lots of excellent fallbacks.
Yes, DE classes are treated like AP classes for the purposes of the UC GPA - they also receive the one point “bump.” Better yet, as long as you pass, you are assured of receiving credit for them so you should be able to knock out a breadth requirement or two by taking these classes (I am unclear - is it one semester of US history and one semester of sociology or a year long class including both?).
One semester DE Hist, one semester DE Sociology. They’re paired, so no one is allowed to take just one.
All the better - so, as long as they are UC transferrable, should you choose a UC, you will get credit for two courses (assuming you get above a C-).
Are you taking US history at all? While not required by colleges, it is a bit unusual not to take it.
US History is a UC requirement so if you do not plan to take any HS US History, make sure the DE course covers that requirement.
one year of U.S. history or one-half year of U.S. history and one-half year of civics or American government
My understanding is that the OP is taking a semester of DE US Hist (which would be the equivalent of a yearlong high school US history course) followed by a semester of DE sociology…Perhaps OP can clarify that.
Yes, the semester DE US Hist course is equivalent to a full year of US History, so I would get credit for it. I also do get a full year worth of elective credits from sociology.
Honestly, I guess it’s smarter to get guaranteed college credits for both history and sociology if I pass the classes. Whereas if I just take AP USH, if I pass the class, I would need to get (most likely) a 4 or 5 to get credit JUST for history.
The thing is almost all the top students at my school are taking AP USH and I feel colleges may look down at my classes because I chose DE instead.
I did hear that if a school offers a class as an AP and DE, they would prefer the student take the AP class. I think it would be smart if I take the DE version instead because I never been in an AP class for an entire year, so I don’t exactly have prior knowledge on how to study for these tests, so jumping from 0 to 5 AP classes probably isn’t a smart move.
Should I stick with my current plan? (Btw, probably irrelevant, I am taking DE Art this summer, so I guess by then if I choose DE, then I would have prior experience to how these types of classes operate).
This varies from college to college, and from one DE course to another.
If you are targeting UCs and CSUs, then you can use https://assist.org to check how the DE courses may count for subject credit at each campus (assuming that the DE courses are from a California community college). You can check campus web sites for AP subject credit.
To check a-g subject coverage of high school and community college courses for UC and CSU admissions, you can use University of California A-G Course List
The UCs will see them as basically the same.
If you attend a UC. And that’s the issue for many students - AP credits will often be accepted at private schools and out of state public schools. California DE may or may not be accepted by those schools. If you feel certain you’ll be attending a UC/CSU, then you should be good. If you might go elsewhere, AP is “safer.”
I’m not exactly sure where I may go, it depends on a lot of factors. So I guess I’ll go the AP route… just in case because I am not set just on UC’s, a lot can change from now and in 2 years. So I think this is the safest option, primarily because I am trying to get as much credit as possible.
Most top private schools won’t offer any credit for either DE or AP.
For them, that background is the default preparation.
Either would show you have challenged yourself.
The difference would be whether you would attend, say, ASU rather than UCSC for instance, though I don’t think ASU won’t accept CA CC credit and UCSC definitely would.
In any case you’d still get credit at OOS publics for the 4 APs you’d take Jr year and the 4 (?) APs you’d take senior year.
In any case, my advice would be to NOT go from 0 to 5 APs and to take the DE classes you want to take.
Most colleges won’t make a difference wrt admission.
The very real risk is that you take on more than you can chew and can’t take or pass the AP exams, or, worse, have too many AP classes and can’t to well in them or have to drop down/withdraw.
Or you could drop 2APs and take APUSH instead but based on what you have explained here it doesn’t sound optimal for you.
Just an idea, but have you talked to your counselor about this question? They might have some guidance on whether this DE class is or is not seen as less rigorous than AP US History.
Well, I think the AP class is considered more rigorous because it covers history all the way back to the 15th century, while the DE course (as I have just learned) goes back only to 1865. Although, I have already read the first 5 chapters of the USH book and I think I would like that class more anyway.