<p>I am a Junior in High SChool and I have a schedule conflict for m,y senor year. Overall I have to drop one class in order to have enough room for all the other classes I want to take and need to take.
I just wanted to know which combination is more suitable if I want to take Marine Biology in college:
AP Biology (2 Credits, 2 Mod class)<br>
AP Psychology and AP Environmental (1 credit each)<br>
I still have to take my Fine ARts and P.E so yeah…
Also, what is the chance of getting into an Ivy League school if you have a 3.0-3.5 GPA but outstanding SAT/ACT scores and great community involvement and extracurricular activities?</p>
<p>I would recommend AP Bio, in part because APES is one of the most difficult AP exams to score highly on. The AP curriculum in any subject is far broader than what can be taught in a year of high school, but APES is especially broad.</p>
<p>Can’t help you with the Ivy question. My understanding is that you’ve got to be competitive in all areas in order to be competitive at all, but I could be wrong. I hope I am.</p>
<p>All things being equal, if you want to get a jump start on the biology, I’d say go with the AP Biology. Even if you don’t pass out of first year biology in college and retake it, the pre-exposure you’d have gotten will let you use the class to dive deeper than you might have had it been the first time seeing some of the things. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you’ve got time. If you know that the teacher for AP Biology is really sucky, but the teachers for the others are really good, or if you’re <em>REALLY</em> interested in trying out psychology or ES, you may want to factor that into your decision. </p>
<p>You should take spdf’s comments about the APES under serious consideration, too. </p>
<p>Regarding your chances of getting into an Ivy League school, unless you have some extraordinary things among your accomplishments that you’re not sharing, I’d say as things stand now they’re remote. But then, why would you want to go to an Ivy League school? Honestly, when I think of marine sciences, the Ivy leagues are not among the first schools I think of. If you search CC you’ll find threads that talk about schools with really strong marine science programs; if you know you want to pursue marine biology, one of those may be a much better fit for you, and give you a stronger start on your career.</p>
<p>(ps: if you have your own reasons for being passionate about going to an Ivy League school, beyond just “because they’re prestigious”, then I think you should apply no matter what others tell you, including me. But you asked a straightforward question and deserved an honest response).</p>
<p>
Not quite true. I should know; I’ve written the majority of posts on CC about marine biology. :D</p>
<p>Brown has a decent marine biology (formerly aquatic biology) program with ties to the Marine Biological Laboratory, and Cornell has quite a strong concentration in marine biology as well as its own marine lab. Princeton and Yale have extremely strong ecology programs, and the other Ivies are no slouches. After all, the most important thing for an undergraduate education in marine biology is a strong background in the sciences and a good research background, and any of the Ivies would be acceptable for that. I agree, though, that many of the strongest programs in marine biology (Miami, UCSB, Hawaii, Eckerd, etc.) are not at Ivies.</p>
<p>Getting back to the question at hand, I would strongly recommend AP Biology. AP Psychology and Environmental Science are nice icing to have if you already have other strong AP classes, but you need to have the background in biology.</p>
<p>I’m a high school sophomore, and I also want to go into marine biology. I’ve heard some very good things about University of Miami’s marine science program, and that is the college that I want to go to. If you can get into an Ivy that has a good marine biology program, go for it, but if not go with Miami or some other college that might not be Ivy level</p>
<p>Okay. Thanks everyone. I will take everything to consideration.</p>