Online AP Comp Science vs. In-Person PLTW Computer Science Principles

AlmostThere2018
Sat, 04 May 2019 14:46:26 +0000

My S21 goes to a small (800) public HS that doesn’t have in person AP Comp Sci courses. So his choice next year is online AP Comp Sci or in-person PLTW Comp Sci Principles.

He’s pre-engineering and wants to learn coding. He knows a lot about the tech world – hardware, computers, components, electronics, etc. from his robotics team and just general interest. He has not taught himself or taken coding classes so learning to code is his main interest.

Does anyone know the pros and cons of these two courses and the difference in their content? Is the PLTW Comp Sci Principles class going to be very broad? Too basic?

He’s never done an online course, but I’m thinking Comp Sci would be fairly well suited given the subject matter. He would have a period at school where he’d go to the computer lab to ‘do’ the class. This is not super unusual at his school. He’s a very good student so I am not worried about motivation in online environment. That said, generally students say in person classes are better experiences than online ones.

He’s leaning toward AP Comp Sci b/c that would give him 4 AP classes next year which he wants for college admissions purposes. He’s taking one this year and is planning to take 5 (!) his senior year so the overall difference is 9 vs. 10 AP classes on this transcript. We are traditional calendar - 9 or 10 is on the high end for his school so I’m not sure it makes a big difference. (There’s probably a single digit number of kids who will finish 11 or 12 APs.)

He thinks the PLTW comp sci course won’t look as good – esp. since w/o the AP comp sci he would have only completed 4 APs when applying to college.

Sorry this got long – bottom line is 1) from content perspective which is better and 2) does the AP moniker really matter?

Tks!