My DD is trying to plan her senior year. She has one open slot. She is aiming for T20 schools. Should she take a fourth year of history (non-AP, non-honors) or AP CS principles?
For context, by graduation, she will have 4 years of English (including AP Lang and Lit), 4 years of math (ending with AP Calculus BC), 4 years of French (ending with year 4, not AP), 4 years of science (honors biology, honors chemistry, honors physics, and AP Chemistry), 3 years of history (freshman history, APUSH, and AP Euro), 4 years of honors choir, and other electives.
Senior year, her schedule will be: AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, French 4, honors choir, and gym (required). She has one final open slot to fill. So the question is whether she should fill it with a regular, non-honors history class (her school doesn’t offer any other honors or AP history classes) in order to get the 4 years of history many top schools recommend. Or take AP CS Principles in order to add rigor to her senior schedule? She doesn’t have a strong opinion either way. Thoughts?
Unless she’s really interested in taking AP comp sci, I’d probably go with a more traditional fourth year of history/social studies. My sense is that colleges would all things being equal rather see four years of all core subjects.
If she’s not interested in CS, then I’d suggest a history or social science to get that 4th year. Otherwise an interesting academic elective of her choosing.
She already has plenty of rigor. There is no rating of “super-duper rigor.”
AP CS principles is not normally considered to be that hard a course. It can be useful for non-CS majors to learn about CS and how it may relate to other subjects. Similar content can be self-learned at https://cs10.org/ .
What history courses are offered, and does she have interest in those topics?
The history/social studies courses are all non-honors, non-AP semester courses like Intro to Psychology, U.S. Government, Genocide Studies, etc.
Another option would be to fill the slot with Honors Band (she plays flute) which is what she’d really like to do (in addition to Honors Choir), but that would mean a schedule with three non-academic classes (Band, Choir, gym) and no 4th year of history. Also no CS which could be helpful generally for a STEM major. Thoughts?
Is US government or civics a graduation requirement?
Arts are academic – general and liberal arts colleges offer them as majors. However, the usual expectations for art courses are 0 to 1 year for non arts or arts adjacent majors. So increasing arts from 4 to 5 would have less impact than increasing social studies from 3 to 4 for colleges that expect 4 social studies.
CS knowledge is generally useful, although the AP CS principles material can be self learned (the AP credit is unlikely to be useful for subject credit in college).
STEM majors with AP CS Principles and STEM majors without AP CS Principles take the same intro commuter science courses in college. Lack of it will not hinder her. If she were my child, I’d advocate for a fourth credit of social studies, preferably a half credit each of US Government (Civics) and Economics. If she were adamant that she wanted the honors band course, I’d agree providing she had schools of interest that did not require/recommend a fourth year of social studies.