<p>i’m trying to work out my senior schedule and i thought i had everything worked out, but last week the AP english teacher came in and talked to our class, and from the way he described it i feel like it might be too much for me to handle on top of everything else next year. i kinda don’t want to take it, but i’m worried that dropping down to project english (at the accelerated level) will hurt my admissions chances significantly. i’m planning on talking to my current english teacher about it but we’re on vacation right now so i can’t talk to her for another week, and i’m kind of freaking out about this.</p>
<p>here’s my planned schedule:
**AP Euro<a href=“hardest%20humanities%20class%20in%20our%20school”>/B</a>
**AP Calc AB <a href=“still%20considering%20BC%20though”>/B</a> AP French Honors International Relations
**Peer Mentoring <a href=“huge%20time%20commitment”>/B</a>
**Chorus<a href=“just%20my%20elective%20to%20have%20a%20break%20during%20the%20day”>/B</a>
**Bioethics<a href=“my%20attempt%20at%20having%20a%20science%20course,%20btw%20i’ve%20already%20had%20a%20thread%20about%20missing%20science,%20so%20please%20don’t%20try%20to%20convince%20me%20to%20take%20physics%20since%20i’ve%20already%20made%20my%20decision%20there”>/B</a> English- either AP or Project AE</p>
<p>-will the workload with AP english be too much? i know i can get the best answer from my school but i’m hoping some of you can tell me about your own experiences
-does taking only 3 APs look ok if i’m taking other challenging courses like IR and Peer Mentoring?
-i’m scared that i won’t do so well in AP english; so which would hurt me more- a B or even C in AP or an A dropping down a level?
-i’m not planning on majoring in english, so is the AP really worth my time?
-ultimately, what do you guys think is the better choice?</p>
<p>Frankly, I think it’s a better idea to drop an elective, even an honors one, to take an AP core class. Why not drop Peer Mentoring? Adcoms are unlikely to know it’s such an enormous time commitment at your school, where AP English is respected as a difficult course (and one relevant to college academics).</p>
<p>@glass: my counselor says she writes about the huge time commitment in her rec. while i appreciate the advice, i’ve already dropped classes that i’m interested in and i’m not dropping anything else at this point. peer mentoring is really important to me especially since i want to spend some time teaching in the peace corps.</p>
<p>@kellian: the schools i’m worried about getting into are swarthmore, brown, and pomona. while i think not taking AP might eliminate my chances at brown (and i’m ok with that, it’s not at the top of my list), i’m hoping that if i talk about why i made these choices, swarthmore and pomona will see why i chose to spend my time doing things that i thought would be more useful to me.</p>
<p>Honestly, for me, ap English is probably one of the easiest classes I have. The class itself is pretty easy to get an a in. But it might be different for your school so who knows. I would take it if you enjoy reading and have the time for it.</p>
<p>at my school, our english AP’s are the most difficult offered. they require an astronomical time commitment and are extraordinarily difficult; however, we have a very, very high pass rate. but overall, the grand majority of people asked about it would say it’s not worth the all-nighters. i don’t mean to scare you, because i hope it isn’t as intense at every school… it’s definitely manageable, but [from my experience] you have to be naturally good at english or a very, very hard worker to get an A.</p>
<p>AP English Language is mainly a writing/composition course; AP Lit is more reading and literary analysis. My S, who is not going into a humanities field, thought English Language gave him valuable writing skills that he can use in any endeavor. His 5 on the exam allowed him to place out of freshman composition in college. He also enjoyed Lit but did not do as well in it grade-wise and only got a 4 on the exam.</p>
<p>@wadawada: thanks for telling me about your experience; that’s what i’m afraid it’ll be like for me too. i’m definitely leaning towards dropping it since i think the difference in admissions chances won’t be as big as the difference in work in a subject that i don’t really care about. (i love reading, but since apparently we’re expected to go into depth on our own and we don’t analyze in class, i don’t see why i shouldn’t just read the books on my own.)</p>
<p>@jingle: i just recently thought about how if i don’t take ap then i’ll have to take a bunch of writing classes in colleges that i won’t have time for- did your son think doing the work in a subject he wasn’t going into was worth it to get the credit? and do you think that it’s possible to self-study just so i can get credit?</p>
<p>I honestly doubt taking BC instead of AB will make any difference at all.</p>
<p>At my school, AP English (both Lit and Lang) are some of the easiest APs. Perhaps that’s just because English is one of my best subjects, but still, many people seem to do well without too much effort. Sure, you’ll have to write essays, but you’ll have to write essays in college too. Might as well start getting used to it now.</p>
<p>Both of my DDs opted out of AP Lit their senior year—they went ahead and took the exam and got '5’s…Best thing they did for themselves sr. year, as the AP Lit class was quite time-consuming and their friends all hated it. At her older sister’s advice, younger DD didn’t take AP Lang class either (and got a ‘5’ on the exam without studying for it). If students are pretty strong in English to begin with (i.e. traditional A students in English), they may find their time better spent in a different AP course. (They both had to take senior English, since 4 yrs were required, but the work load was not nearly as heavy as AP English would have been).</p>
<p>Honestly, you should talk to people at your school. At my school, we take LangAP sophomore year and LitAP senior year. LangAP is known (at my school) as the killer class/test. (I got a 5, but I only know a few other people who did as well.) LitAP is known as the easier test, but the class itself varies wildly based on which teacher you get. The teacher I got doesn’t like to stress out seniors, so we don’t have much busywork and do a lot of interesting things instead. The other LitAP teacher gives ridiculous amounts of homework. During January, my friends were researching/drafting a 10-15 page senior thesis, reading ‘A Thousand Acres’, reading ‘King Lear’, and analyzing poetry, while my class spent two weeks watching a movie. It’s not that we don’t learn, or that we’re not challenged, it’s just that our teacher has a different style.</p>
<p>It really depends on your school and the teachers. Your schedule looks pretty challenging already, so if you’re going to be stressing over APLit, I wouldn’t take it.</p>
<p>ok, thanks so much for your feedback! @astrophysicsmom, it’s good to know that the tests are possible without the class; i’m pretty good at english so i think that’s a good plan. from what i’ve heard about the class at my school it honeslty seems like for me it would be a waste of time, so i’m pretty sure that i’m going to focus on history next year and take project english.</p>
