AP Psychology vs. AP European History vs. AP Bio

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

I am currently a senior in high school and I am trying to decide whether I should drop AP Psychology or AP European History for a study hall during which I would take AP Biology online (the AP Biology class in my school is full). I haven’t taken a higher level AP science course in high school so far (only AP Physics 1 and did not score well on the exam), and taking biology is very important to me because I am interested in becoming a vet in the future. I am interested in AP social science courses as well because I hope to study history or international relations in college, though psychology is very interesting as well and ties into many other areas of my interest.

Is dropping an in-school class for an online course a bad idea? And if so, does anyone have any thoughts as to which AP social science course I should drop?

2

What is your schedule? What science classes have you taken?
In general, it’s better to not drop a class in school for a class online.

3

Is there any chance you can talk to the teacher and see if they’d be willing to let you join their AP Bio class? You can’t really do labs in an online setting and labs are important in science classes! Missing out on the labs is a big deal.

I’d say stay in your other AP classes. Don’t drop to do online AP Bio.

4

@mademoiselle2308 There is a set cap for AP Bio for lab safety reasons, so they can’t even add just one more student. Would taking an online course still be a problem if I could perform the labs at home? The course comes with a lab kit that has many of the labs covered on the AP Bio exam.

@IAmNotCreativ My schedule is as follows:
Technical Writing
AP Lit
AP Psych
AP Euro
AP Stats
French
Biotech
Science Inquiry

So far, I’ve taken AP Physics 1, Honors Biology, and Honors Chemistry.

5

@awsmyyy In my opinion, the labs really are best to do with a teacher in person. Are you going to have a microscope at home to look at the parts of plants? How will you do the cat dissection at home? Will you have the materials to run an agarose gel to look at DNA at home? (These are things I did in AP Bio many years ago.) Labs are SUCH an important part of science. I feel you need to do them in a face-to-face didactic setting, especially for safety reasons. But maybe others will offer different perspectives from me.

Any chance the AP Bio teacher would let you come in early or stay after school while he or she grades papers to do the labs to try to get around the cap?

6

Have you taken AP Calc? Could you take AP Chem instead?

7

@IAmNotCreativ I have already taken AP Calc, and AP Chem conflicts with my schedule. :frowning:
@mademoiselle2308 In my Biotech class, we do many biology-related labs such as DNA extraction, working with gel electrophoresis, and PCR. Given this lab experience, would taking an online AP Bio course still not be the best option? I am worried that I will seem less competitive to college admissions officers compared to other applicants who have taken AP Bio and also want to major in the sciences.

8

AP Biology, due to the labs, would be incredibly difficult to self-study. Perhaps your school offers some other bio-related class, like microbiology or genetics? AP Chem would also be useful there.

9

I firmly think labs should be done with a teachers, @awsmyyy , but it is ultimately up to you. I truly think self-studying lab based sciences is not worth it. Also, you already you taken an AP level science, I think you are good competitive-wise.