How important is an AP Science

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

My D17 is beginning to register for her senior year. She’s mostly and “A” student with some “B”'s in some AP classes and has a 33 ACT along with 6 AP classes through junior year. We are looking at some LAC up and down the east coast and she’s spoken with some admissions officers who believe she’s a good fit.

She is NOT good at science and prefers history. For her senior year the ‘usual path’ for kids like her is either APES or APBio. The APES teacher is extremely hard and the APBio classes are double periods. She is NOT looking forward to the possibility of either class.

Should she suck it up and take APBio (along with AP English and AP Stats - total of 4 AP periods since APBio is a double period) or simply take a physics class (non AP) and add on two AP electives like APEcon and APGov? She already has three years of honors sciences (Bio, Chem, Earth-Science), but how important is it to have an AP science, which she will absolutely hate, vs taking a regular science and two AP classes she will enjoy?

2

In her case, a year of physics would be better than an AP science, IMO.

3

Regular physics would be better. The trifecta (one each of bio, chem, physics, at any level,) is part of core classes checked to evaluate rigor. So, she loses nothing in terms of rigor, she learns the scientific and quantitative approaches of a new subject, and can avoid two classes she dreads (but doesn’t need).
If she wants to major in Humanities or social science, she needs to have foreign language up to AP preferably, statistics, as many AP social science/history classes as possible as well as a strong English/Humanities background.

4

If she doesn’t want to take an AP science and she doesn’t want to go into STEM, she shouldn’t take one. It’s better for her to take an Honors or even standard science (especially physics).