Hi everyone! D27 wants to major in Business Administration or Economics in Fall 27. She’s a HS Sophomore and has taken these classes so far.
English 1A, English 2 Honors
Math 1, Math 2
Biology, Honors Chem
AP World History
2 years of language class
PE & Elective class
She will take Math 3 this summer to try to advance to Pre-Calculus for her Junior year. She is currently taking Honors Chemistry and has a B last semester. She plans to take the following classes during Junior year.
English 3 Honors
Precalculus
AP US History or AP Psychology
AP Chemistry or AP Environmental Science or AP Biology
Photography
AP Language Class
Should she attempt to take AP Chemistry during her Junior year? Math is not her strong area.
If not AP Chemistry, then should she take AP Biology or AP Environmental Science during her Junior year?
Which of these 2 classes (AP Biology or AP Environmental Science) will increase her chance of getting into a competitive UC or schools like USC for a Business major?
Which AP science class should she take during her Senior year?
Will AP Psychology or AP US History look better on her college application during her Junior year? She has an option to take either of these classes during the summer at a community college also.
Your daughter should take classes she can excel in and that she enjoys. Your daughter is very similar to mine. D24 applied into business school or Econ at most UCs and USC. She got into business school at UCB, UCI, USC. Into pre Econ/bizecon at UCLA, UCSB, UCD. Waitlisted UCSD. Her grades were 3.95 uwgpa, 4.55 wgpa, 4.19 capped UC gpa. She had good essays and solid leadership ECs. I believe leadership roles and positions are extremely helpful. She was captain Song, President culture club, VP service club, Girl Scout gold award, and gold volunteer award. All these helped her, I’m certain. No job experience. Solid PIQs.
She took 8 APs. AP Lang, Lit, Calc AB, Macro, Seminar, Gov, US, Bio. I advised her to NOT take chem since it’s one of the hardest APs. She did well in all her classes and did well on all but 1 AP test. She did not take an AP science senior year. I don’t think it really matters if you take AP Psych or Bio, but AP Bio is more difficult and challenging in my opinion. This can be good.
My suggestion is have her take APs she can do well, but also that can be challenging but not crushing. Look at the UC schools to get an idea what APs they accept for credit and/or where she can place out of certain classes if she passes or gets 4-5s.
For example, getting a certain score in Calc passes you out of first semester or quarter math. Getting a 5 in Lit or Lang passes you out of two writing classes. 4 or 5 may get her out of the US History requirement. Getting good scores in both micro and macro may get you out of Econ 1. And certain APs may give you credit. I found that Seminar unfortunately does not.
I know she wants to get ahead to take Calc AB Senior Year - but not a fan of math in summer. I did it. It was a long time ago - but it didn’t work. Math is foundational.
You can get into a UC with pre-calc. But if she doesn’t do well in pre calc because her grounding wasn’t good, etc.
APES is fine.
Neither - and USC is unlikely for all - so if you throw all your academic eggs in that basket, you still need to be prepared for rejection - and what if she doesn’t do well?
Likely US History
I feel you will be straining your daughter here.
Let’s say she goes to Arizona State or U of A or U of O instead of UCI for business, etc. Guess what - same result - potentially same cost (not U of O).
If your daughter is up for and wants the challenge - great.
If you are going to strain her, cause her stress, etc - then not so great.
I’d let her determine the pace and let her and her teachers determine the classes - without trying to game the system - which may cause stress, lower grades, and result in rejection anyway.
Foundational classes - summer is a big risk. They are very compressed and the daily attention span is only so much.
My opinions (mom of three, plus AP science teacher - chem, physics C, and enviro):
If math is not her strong suit (and she has only a B in HC this year) - no she should not go for AP Chem.
AP Environmental Science is an interesting, cross-curricular subject that I think has a lot of relevance to business/economics majors. However, it is not taken as seriously by colleges or given as much college credit.
As above, I think Enviro, particularly if she does a project and/or can relate what she learns to business/economics.
Perhaps no AP science, but another science or foreign language elective.
AP USH looks better compared to Psych in almost every comparison for almost every major. I don’t think it would be a good use of a summer to take either of these courses, though.
Thank you for your suggestions! I am also trying to advise her not to take AP Chem because Math is not her strength. She goes to a competitive public school and her friends said the AP Chem teacher is good but the material is hard, whereas for AP Bio the teacher is not good but the material is easier. So she is on the fence on which AP science class to take. I think she will do well in APES, but it’s not as rigorous and she wants to take an AP science class that shows more rigor in order to increase her chances of getting into a top tier UC. Thank you for the suggestion about looking at UC credits for AP courses. We will take a look.
Thank you for your advise! My daughter wants to go to an in state college in CA, preferably a UC. I agree with you that there will be too much strain with all these hard AP classes, hence the reason why I am seeking input on this wonderful forum. Her school is very competitive, and she wants to have a chance at a good UC. I am trying to talk her into taking reasonable classes that she can do well in, and your input is very helpful.
Thank you so much for your valuable insight! Please see my response below.
If math is not her strong suit (and she has only a B in HC this year) - no she should not go for AP Chem.
Agreed! I will show her the input from this thread to talk her out of AP Chem! =)
AP Environmental Science is an interesting, cross-curricular subject that I think has a lot of relevance to business/economics majors. However, it is not taken as seriously by colleges or given as much college credit.
This is what I see from my research also.
As above, I think Enviro, particularly if she does a project and/or can relate what she learns to business/economics.
Thank you!
Perhaps no AP science, but another science or foreign language elective.
She will taking an AP Language class her Junior year so she will be done with foreign language by her Senior year. Her counselor advised her to take regular Physics during her Senior year, as she has only taken Biology and H Chem so far. We are not sure if she will do well in Physics given she is not strong in Math. But she will have taken at least Math 3 by the time she takes Physics. Any thoughts?
AP USH looks better compared to Psych in almost every comparison for almost every major. I don’t think it would be a good use of a summer to take either of these courses, though.
If she can take AP economics (both parts), that may help her determine her interest in economics and the economics part of business. Psychology is somewhat relevant to both economics and business, so taking that AP course may have some use.
Economics and business majors commonly need to take calculus and statistics in college, though AP credit in those subjects may fulfill part of these requirements. Economics majors intending to go on to PhD study and economics or business majors who want to go into actuarial work or quant finance need to take a lot more math and statistics in college (including upper level courses mainly populated by math and statistics majors).
“Doing well” is subjective. An A grade at a school where pretty much everyone gets it will not make as much impact against getting a B+ in schools where teachers are stricter.
For Business and Econ majors, Math and English rigor are looked at most closely, besides 4 years of FL.
For the rest, as long as you are maximizing core academic subjects against electives, it’s totally your pick, depending on interest and ability to succeed against your peer group.
Subjects like Business/Economics, while sound like they are relevant to your intended major, count for very little when it comes to academic evaluation; It’s better to show relevance in your ECs and/or job experience.