Should I take AP Bio?

fogcity
Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:10:54 +0000

OP your question and similar questions are best answered by identifying some likely colleges to which you’ll apply 18 months from now. Then check their admissions web site, and look at their recommended high school curriculum.

As an example I’ll pick one such very selective college, Yale College.

Look at their web site, and in particular at:

[Advice on Selecting High School Courses | Yale College Admissions](Advice on Selecting High School Courses | Yale College Undergraduate Admissions)

The bottom line for Yale College is:

“Generally speaking, you should try to take courses each year in English, science, math, the social sciences, and foreign language.”

Science typically means “lab science”. So for Yale, if you take 1 lab science course each year, you are doing very well. Foreign language typically means 4 years of the “same” foreign language.

The second criteria is course rigor. What very selective colleges are looking for is that you’ve taken the most rigorous core courses (i.e. English, science, math, the history/social sciences, and foreign language) available at your school, and that you’ve done very well in them.

You’ll find that some of the very selective colleges have specific recommendations within the core curriculum. For example Penn Wharton would like for you to take calculus, and Penn Engineering would like for you to take physics and calculus.