Always appreciate the great insight on this forum!
My D26 is going through course selection for next year (junior year), and we’re trying to determine which science courses to take. Students are required to take bio in their junior year at her school. Usually, the kids that did well in honors chem the year before take AP Bio. This is what my daughter had planned to do. However, the new “recommendation” is that you should take regular bio first and then AP Bio your senior year if interested. New for this coming year is that there is also no longer an honors bio course - the choice is regular bio or AP bio with, again, a “recommendation” to take regular bio. However, if she really wants to, she could take AP Bio directly AGAINST the recommendation.
Interestingly, the head of the science department has said that kids that want to take an AP can take AP Chem AND regular bio at the same time. Two lab sciences at the same time, with one being an AP, seems aggressive to me. My daughter wants to do it (she’s not really thinking about college, but likes to max out what she can take and would use the opportunity to take dual enrollment physics here senior year). She also is now nervous about AP Bio given the recommendation and feedback from this year’s AP Bio class. She doesn’t believe bio is her strong suit.
I’m curious about others opinions on this. I will say that the new recommendation for all juniors to take regular bio is because a lot of students in the recent AP Bio class really struggled with the material. This seems like a somewhat new development as my understanding is that juniors took AP Bio in previous years with at least some success. But I get that if kids are having trouble, that they need to change the curriculum, so having some bio first before AP does make sense.
The other bit of a wrinkle is that they’re NOT offering honors bio this coming year. So you either pick regular bio or AP - nothing in between. If there were an honors bio class, I don’t think I’d be concerned at all, but I am nervous that my daughter will find a relatively slow pace of a regular bio class boring. It also doesn’t seem like it looks great on college apps, but I think that’s explainable in both a counselor’s letter and/or the additional info section on the application.
Curious if anyone would recommend going against a school’s recommendation and just taking AP Bio. Or if the preferred alternative is double up on sciences with AP chem and regular bio.
Interesting. In our high school kids take biology (honors option) in sophomore year followed by chemistry jr year. Those who want to do so take AP Bio as a senior.
If she has not had any biology, I would not start with AP bio. What sciences has she already had?
My children’s high school requires regular bio and chem prior to the AP version of either (school does not offer any honors courses). Doubling up on science is common. AP Chem plus regular bio seems like a good option for a student not particularly interested in biology. AP Chem in 11th and dual enrollment physics in 12th shows rigor in science.
Our HS requires students take honors bio, chem, and phyics before enrolling in the AP level class. But every HS is different so I recommend she work with her teachers and guidance counselor.
I would shy away from two lab sciences in a year unless one is a real science whiz kid.
Keep in mind that junior year can be hectic with studying for standardized tests and, in many cases, taking on leadership roles in ECs, starting to visit colleges, etc. It is great to take a rigorous schedule but don’t overload.
My kid’s school is the same. Regular or Honors Bio in 10th, and then AP Bio in 11th or 12th. In your daughter’s situation in which she is not particularly excited about Bio, older kids have reported high difficulty, and her teacher has recommended regular Bio for her, I would definitely recommend that she stick with regular Bio. That’s a pretty typical route.
I think regular bio and AP chem is fine. AP chem is one of the hardest AP classes and challenges most students. Like yours, my kid took AP chem junior year. He has a real knack for chemistry, and had already taken honors bio. Parents are bio and chem professors. Although he probably would have been fine, we still wouldn’t have recommended he double up on AP chem and AP bio in the same year.
Our kids’ HS does what others here have said and requires you to take the non-AP version of chem or bio before you can take the AP class.
But AP curriculum is standardized. So while your HS requirements are different than some of the others on this thread, it doesn’t change the fact that she’d be going into AP bio cold. That, along with the fact that she’ll also be in AP chem, AND feels hesitant about doing both? I think it’s best to not do the AP bio. The worst outcome is that she might be a little bored in bio class, which is not a bad worst case scenario!
I have a few questions:
• Is AP physics offered at her HS, or just dual enrollment? How is the dual enrollment course described? If AP physics is offered, which ones (there are 3 different AP physics courses)?
• If they offer honors bio during her senior year, would it work out to take physics plus honors bio? She wouldn’t be bored by the pace of the bio course, but if she finds it a little too challenging, her grades will have less of an influence on college apps than junior year grades would.
• Does she know what she might like to study in college? It can be challenging for parents and kids to know which AP courses are the most helpful for certain majors. And different colleges/majors can be pretty restrictive with what scores they’ll allow for credit.
She’s taken honors physics freshman year and honors chem this year. She’s done well in both.
This is my take as well. It’s showing honors/AP/DE every year in science, so should be ok.
This is a concern of ours as well, but she has shown a lot of interest and ability in science. We’re not too worried about the classes per se, but it would certainly be taxing along with her ECs, etc. But she’s confident she can handle it, so she might just have to experience it to know for sure.
Yep, this is fair and I think we’ve come around to this assessment as well. If she were really excited for bio, this might be different, but this is her least favorite science subject at the moment. That said, she’s had remarkably little exposure to bio, so we’ll see what she thinks at the end of next year.
AP Physics is NOT offered at her school. She’s actually petitioned to have it added, but she goes to a relatively small school, so I’d suspect this is not likely to happen at all.
Taking bio her senior year is actually a thought we had as well. However, it looks like her school requires bio in the junior year.
As of today, it’s astronomy/astrophysics/physics. She’s particularly interested in taking the DE physics course her senior year. She’s taking Calc AB her junior year, so she’ll be able to take a calc-based DE physics course, which she’s pretty excited about. But who knows what she’ll decide when she gets there. I presume it’ll all change anyway.
And thanks everyone for the comments here! I do think we’ll probably advise her to take regular bio and AP chem. At the very least it aligns to what she wants to do AND she’s excited about taking AP chem since she wasn’t sure she’d have the schedule space with DE physics her senior year.
Given this, I think the strategy to maximize her physics, math, and chem coursework is totally the right choice. That’s what my engineering major kid did, and it worked out perfectly. AP bio would be unnecessary, and she’ll still have plenty of science rigor but she won’t be spreading herself too thin. If she decides to study something that requires bio in college, she can just take bio in college.
Regular bio&AP chem, alongside Calc AB (+history, English, World Language) would be rigorous but doable and well- suited to a kid who likes science.
DE calc-based Physics will show rigor in the sciences and maximize her profile for the major she’s interested in.
