The AP Capstone is intended as a 2-year program. Maybe by “credit”, the guidance counselor means that Seminar won’t be weighted as an AP course in GPA without also taking Research? Not sure.
I don’t think it should be THE determining factor, but without a research project OP would miss out on the Capstone Diploma and really the entire point of going down the Capstone path in the first place: doing integrated, individual research and developing strong communication skills. My daughter liked Seminar but loved Research – it was her favorite AP experience, by far, and the one from which she derived the most value.
Seminar isn’t anything special. Research is College Board’s attempt to bridge the writing gap that exists between APs and the IB diploma and provides very useful skills that aren’t really developed elsewhere. I’m not trying to oversell it. I agree that there are other suggested paths that also have their own “pros”, but so does sticking with Research.