Should I take AP Studio Art or IB Chemistry?

jedi2019
Wed, 17 Apr 2019 21:19:35 +0000

Hi everyone,
I’m gonna be a junior next year. here is my current schedule (the only other ap offered in my grade is ap computer science, so this is one of the most rigorous courseloads for my grade):

Honors English 10
Honors Chemistry
Digital Electronics (advanced pltw engineering course)
AP US Government and Politics
Honors Precalculus
Honors Spanish 5
Studio Art 2 (for more background, I skipped the introductory art class because i didn’t take art freshman year and since i’m naturally inclined towards art I was ahead anyway)

I am in a pltw engineering pathway, and I’m doing the full diploma IB program junior and senior year. Here’s my current schedule for junior year:
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB Physics SL
IB English HL
IB Spanish 6 HL
IB History HL
IB Math HL
IB Chemistry SL

I was thinking about changing IB chem to AP 2D studio art because I love art, and i’m pretty talented (not to sound pretentious) but I’m worried that it would negatively affect me college admissions wise since I plan to go into a stem field and I hope to attend a top college. Also, I am not taking a science class senior year (but I will take Engineering design and development, which will be seen as a stem class) so if I don’t take chemistry, I will have only 3 science credits, while most people going into stem graduate with four. Additionally, my school will have to combine AP art with studio 2 and 3 next year because of the lack of students registered for art classes, and I think that will be bad for AP art kids. I have had straight As throughout high school so far, and my weighted GPA is a 4.68. If I don’t take AP art, I will join an outside studio or keep pursuing it on my own, but I might not improve as much because of the lack of community and feedback; on the other hand, the class might not be all that beneficial, seeing as it’s combined with two other lower level art classes. Do you think switching to AP art will hurt me in the long run?