My son took five AP classes his junior year. He made A’s in all the classes but only had a 2 in APUSH. He had a really terrible teacher; I knew he was in trouble when I asked him where they were at Spring Break and they hadn’t gotten to the American Civil War. My daughter took it the same year with a different teacher and got a 4.
There is no magic formula for admission or to getting merit scholarships, but the more a student can do, the better. For that reason, yes students should take APUSH.
I see very few mentions of the FINANCIAL benefits of AP and dual enrollment classes. Even with free tuition through merit aid, college is extremely expensive. The six hours earned from APUSH equals 20 percent of the credits typically earned in college in one year. If the cost of college is $25,000 per year, then the value of taking and passing APUSH is $5,000. There is no reason why a student with access to a four-year university shouldn’t graduate with about 60 hours of AP and dual enrollment credit, thus saving a full two years of college expense.