<p>Will a college be unimpressed if you opt for economics instead of continuing in a traditional history course Sr yr? thanks</p>
<p>Each school is different, but I recently read (I think in a Jay Mathews column, and I think it was a Stanford prof he was quoting) that schools aren’t that impressed even with AP economics. However, my kids’ school requires economics to be taken senior year in order to graduate. I think if the student has had Ancient and Medieval, and Modern European, and American History, then anything goes senior year.</p>
<p>Depends on:
The college, the traditional history course, the rigor of the econ course, etc. Lots of variables.</p>
<p>I would not advise a kid interested in top 30 type of schools to leave off Am Hist or Euro in favor of Econ. Econ taken post a calculus class is pretty rigorous… but is not a substitute for history.</p>
<p>What’s the problem with taking history???</p>
<p>My daughter is taking AP Econ this year.</p>
<p>She took AP American junior year.</p>
<p>It depends on the course load that they are taking, and previous classses. My daughter has a tough load this year and AP Euro is known to be the toughest class at her school.</p>
<p>On a similiar note–some of her friends are taking AP Enviromental Science instead of Physics/Bio/Chem. They are taking Enviro because they are taking AP Euro.</p>
<p>As stated in another post–there are other variables to take into account.</p>
<p>I think many of them will look at HS econ as an elective. If you haven’t maxed out your history sequence, it won’t be looked at as equal. Take 4th yr history AND econ if you are inclined.</p>
<p>In my mind, it’s kinda like when kids would ask, “if I take accounting instead of 4th yr. math, is that ok?” answer: No accounting is not a substitute for math.</p>
<p>My daughter had a similar dilemma during her senior year of HS: She had a strong interest in econ, and would have been glad to take both AP Economics (a one-semester course) and AP European History (two semesters), but her school allowed each student to enroll in only one AP social studies course a year. Everything we heard confirmed the notion that colleges tend to assume that HS economics courses aren’t very rigorous, and she reluctantly decided in favor of AP Euro.</p>
<p>On the one hand, she did get into Yale–where she is now seriously considering an econ major. On the other hand, when her guidance counselor called the regional rep after she was deferred EA, the rep said they’d been a bit puzzled as to why my daughter had put econ or applied mathematics as a potential major, when she’d never even taken an econ course. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My take is, one should take a course based on one’s own interest and not what colleges will think of it. Why pander to them? We already know how fickle the colleges are, anyway. :)</p>