I am currently in 10th grade interested in engineering. My school offers engineering pathway courses but they are 4.0 courses ( the content seems really low, not much quality material according to people taking them) which could bring down my over all class rank and GPA. My course is a suburban school not much focused on technology. We donot even have AP CHEMISTRY OR AP COMPUTER SCIENCE classes. So far I have taken several Ap courses including AP CALC AB AND AP PHYSICS.
My question is should take the engineering pathway or show my rigor in AP COURSES? Will colleges prefer students from my school who has done this pathway and applying for engineering over me applying for same programs without this pathway but rigorous AP coursework?
Take the rigorous AP/honors courses, if you think you will be targeting highly selective schools. What will be your math progression for junior and senior years?
My general recommendation would include two things: One is to take the classes that make sense for you. The other would be to put in quite a bit of effort (as needed) and do well specifically in your math classes, and in physics.
Are there multiple engineering pathway classes? I do not see any problem with taking one class that is not an honors or AP class.
I will take APCalC BC.next year as a junior and AP statistics senior year. They did not allow AP CALC BC this year since there is only one class overflowing with seniors and i donot get preference as a junior. But with AP BC and AP stats i will exhaust all math classes in my HS. So according to you i shd prefer AP CLASSES OVER THE LOWER CREDIT ENGINEERING PATHWAY COURSES?
Yes, that is my opinion especially as you mention your research suggests the eng classes don’t offer strong content.
Calc BC next year is great, can you take multivariable calc senior year either thru dual enrollment, at a local college, or online? Additional high level math (not AP stats) strengthens engineering apps…but only if you are interested in it, did well in Calc BC junior year, and can reasonably fit it in to your senior year schedule.
Personally, I would go as far in advanced math and physics as possible. If you are going to exhaust your HS’s advanced courses in those areas, I would start talking to them about your options. Like, do they do dual enrollment? Otherwise allow you to use college classes to fulfill graduation requirements?
I would then explore my engineering interests with ECs. Get your hands dirty building stuff.
yes I do plan to take linear algebra followed by multivariable calc in senior year from online community colleges. My local community college may not offer online courses for the same or has schedule conflicts.
Sounds good. Doesn’t have to be a community college, there are plenty of 4 year school online providers of these classes. If you do take LA and MV senior year, you do NOT have to also take AP Stats (unless somehow it’s a HS grad requirement or you want to take it).
i already took AP PHYSICS THIS SOPHOMORE year. So physics is done.
so you recommend taking AP COURSES IN MATH AND PHYSICS over the engineering pathway courses ?
What AP Physics course did you already take? If not C, does your school offer that? If so, you should look into that and consider that a possibility. If your school doesn’t offer it, you may be able to take that online too. What is your proposed science progression junior and senior years as of right now?
THANKS. I tool AP Physics C this year. I will take AP Bio in my junior year. My school does not offer AP chemistry but I also took AP environmental science and a chemistry course offered in my school through concurrent enrollment from community college. should i take AP CHEMISTRY from outside school in senior year since i would have exhausted all HIGHER LEVEL science courses in my school in 12th grade?
Please…turn your caps lock off. There is no need to scream at us…and that’s what that means.
I think you should take the AP course of study. Really, at the end of the day, you could very well change your mind about engineering so you want a broad and excellent array of courses. And you should plan to get the best grades possible for you.
You also need to consider the amount of time needed for ECs, sleep, eating, etc. And you need to have a social life too. My opinion.
It sounds to me that you will have taken plenty of rigorous math and science coursework to prepare for engineering coursework in college.
Do keep in mind that college admissions officers will be looking for students to have a well rounded HS academic background so be sure to also focus on rigorous English, Social Studies, and Foreign Language courses.
If you take BC jr year and MVC/LA sr year, you don’t need to take AP stats unless your HS doesn’t count MVC online/from a local college. If you want to challenge yourself and explore other STEM fields you could try Discrete Math (good to see how well you’d like CS) or Calc Based Statistics (good to see if you’d like Data Science).
Would you be allowed to take Chemistry 1 Jr year and Calculus based Physics 1&2 sr year through dual enrollment?
Then you need 1 course each year in English and in History/Social Science (make sure you had 1 US history 1 World/European/non US history and 4 total) + Foreign Language through level 3 (4 or AP for highly selective colleges).
If your HS has enough space left, CS or an Engineering elective can be good.