Do colleges weight AP Electives and AP core classes differently when
calculating gap for incoming students? Would taking AP psych(elective)
be removed from the weighted GPA since it is an elective?
My son is planning to choose between AP Psych and APUSH , so wanted to see if colleges ignore the AP electives in the GPA calculation.
Poonam
Psych counts as a social science, which is one of the 5 cores (along with English, math, science, and language).
Colleges won’t take out an academic class. The only difference Psych or USH would make is if your son is applying to highly selective colleges and the resulting schedule is less rigorous (psych won’t get the same respect as USH).
And if you are in CA, I believe they will only weight a fixed number of AP classes for the GPA calc that the public universities use. If he hasn’t had a US history course he should take one (AP obviously gives you more brownie points.) And some colleges will prefer to see a “real” history class over Psych. But if he’s interested in psychology that can be a fun class to take.
All Cal States/UC’s will weight AP courses at a maximum of 8 semesters for 10-11th grade only (Capped Weighted UC GPA). UCB/UCLA will also weight an unlimited # of semesters (Uncapped Weighted UC GPA) 10-11th grade.
All AP classes are weighted equally so no difference on “core” vs “elective” AP’s.