As a junior in HS looking to apply to t20’s for Finance/Economics strictly. Consider APUSH by itself as stated in the question.
Unanswerable based on no further information given. No college is going to look at one course vs. another; they’ll look at your 4-year course schedule. As you have been told on your many many threads on course selection, the person to ask is your GC, because s/he is the one who will rate your course rigor.
If your HS is typical of those in the US, USH is a graduation requirement and is typically taken by juniors. If your HS fits, then you should take APUSH.
For college plans in finance/econ, you should take AP Econ (preferably both micro and macro, if offered), but it does not matter when you take them.
As Skieurope said, in our school US history is required. Anyone applying to selective colleges takes APUSH even if they are going into the sciences.
@skieurope My HS Counselor 1 is extremely busy and 2 likely has similar opinions to you guys. As for 4 year schedules here is the comparison (btw, USH is required to graduate from my HS).
Mine
APHUGE Freshman
Normal USH Summer School Sophomore
AP Modern World History Junior
AP Microeconomics Junior (0.5 credits)
AP Macro Senior (0.5 credits)
AP US Gov Senior (0.5 credits)
Hardest schedule I know people taking for social studies
APHUGE Freshman
AP World Sophomore (HUGE and World can be swapped years, no difference)
APUSH Junior
AP Macro Senior
AP US Gov Senior
Again, I don’t want my counselor’s opinion and he would likely be annoyed if I went to him with this in person (as mentioned, he’s very busy and also cranky: definitely the worst counselor at my HS).
In our HS it would look very odd to take USH in the summer session and then take APUSH later. Our school does, however, have a policy of taking honors or CP bio or chem as prerequisites to taking the AP version later. That same “levelling up” does not apply to history classes, however.
Evidently your school is (or might be) different as you are, in fact, considering APUSH after summer-USH. Hence the advice to contact your counselor. Different schools have different policies and customs.
If you don’t want to contact your counselor, ask a parent to email on your behalf. Personally I think someone who has the werewithal to plan ahead like you are should also have the poise to handle this with the counselor on your own. Alternately, your parents might get involved in switching you to a more helpful counselor, one to whom you could feel comfortable addressing the question at hand.
I agree with @Groundwork2022 . In a typical HS, taking APUSH after regular USH would be seen as grade grubbing at worst,duplication at best, but I know that there are high schools that have a 2 year USH sequence, with AP being the second year. If the normal options at your HS is either USH or APUSH, then take APWH and AP micro. If the school requires 2 years of USH, only then would I take APUSH
It wouldn’t have been allowed at my D’s HS to take regular USH and then APUSH either.
I would move on and worry about making sure the rest of your schedule is balanced and rigorous enough for the schools on your list.