Some students at my high school say it’s a must if one wants to go to UCI. Is that true?
I want to major in science by the way.
The UC’s expect you to take the most challenging courses at your high school:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/
Being a science major does not get you out of meeting the B requirement of the A-G requirements.
You do not have to take AP English courses to get into a UC, but as @aunt bea stated, you need to take challenging courses at your HS. Both my son’s did not take AP English courses and were able to get accepted into some of the UC’s. You still need 4 years of English to meet the a-g course requirements but it does not have to be AP.
I plan to take 8 AP classes in total, not including AP Lang and Lit. Is that good enough or should I just take the APs for English?
@freegirl Hope you are still there to see this. My S1 was accepted to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCSB, and UCI. He only took 3 AP courses total, and did not take an AP English course. He did have a 4.0 and very high test scores, though. He was only offered Regents’ Scholarships at the last 4 schools.
One of my roommates didn’t take any AP classes (her school had a very limited selection and was very picky on who they let take them) and got into UCD at least, considering we’re seniors here. Mind you, we started in 2012 and things are likely different now.
The main thing when it comes to schedule rigor is to take advantage of your opportunities. If Person A’s school only offers 4 APs and they take 2 or 3, that looks better than Person B only taking 2 or 3 APs when their school offers 12.
I forgot to add that my S1 graduated only two years ago, and his school offers more than 15 AP classes. At graduation, many of his peers were surprised that he had taken only a few APs and that he had only reached AP Calculus AB and not higher.
UCB puts a limit on the AP courses that they will count. I think the same for UCLA. You can still get admitted to the UC’s by not taking AP English and AP Lit, but you should take other AP classes in place of it. My son got into several UC’s and did not take AP English or AP Lit, but he took other AP/Honor courses. My second son took AP English and will be taking AP Lit.