My child has taken AP World History (10th grade) and is taking AP US History now at 11th grade. Which one of the AP classes should they take? They are plannign to apply for engineering schools. They are strong in history classes and do not have any preference or much knowledge about any of the below. Which one would make the most sense for college applications?
Options are:
AP US Government
AP COmparative government
AP Macroeconomics
AP microeconomics
AP Psychology
Thanks
The one that interests hed most.
Are they all year-long classes?
Yes, it looks like they are all year long. He is not sure which one to choose and has no preference. That’s why we are thinking maybe the decision may be based on benefit towards the college application.
I am not aware of a first-year-admissions engineering program that would care which they took. And in fact I don’t know of any general admissions colleges that would care either. I think whatever they were most interested in taking is therefore the right advice, including because that is usually the best bet for the best possible grade, particularly for seniors.
And personally, I would suggest checking our Economics. At the risk of overgeneralizing, it is the sort of social science I think Engineering types are potentially likely to find interesting, and indeed could lead to interests they continue exploring in connection with Engineering in college (more so Micro than Macro perhaps). Basically, there is a money side to the business of Engineering (there is a money side to any business!), so some familiarity with the formalized study of that could be useful.
Sample of one: My older daughter who did well in AP history (5s for both euro and US) found AP comp gov (our school does not offer AP US gov) the closest in “style” to the history ones. She did not find macroeconomics as easy. That said, someone with an engineering bent might (probably would) find economics easier.
Thank you for sharing your experience. My kid somehow likes humanities and language classes as much as she does physics and math. But you are right, maybe she can look into economics.
Mmmmmaybe. My undergrad institution/where I TA’d for a bit in the economics department later had a compulsory “macroeconomics for engineers” course for all freshman engineers. It was universally hated by the lecturers doing it because the students had no interest in it.
She heard from her school that economics may be helpful in life in general. I will suggest her to look into micro economics. We don’t know the difference between micro and macro.
If she is good at everything suggest she just chooses what looks the most interesting to her.
It will make zero difference to admissions.
They all have advantages - not least of which that they’re all useful in the real world. She can’t go wrong with whatever she chooses
Very simplistically - micro focuses on individuals and businesses. Macro focuses on nations and global economy
Thank you for your advice. I will encourage her to explore a bit more and decide whichever one she likes.
Is some sort of government/civics and/or economics a high school graduation requirement, so that the AP course in that area substitutes for a course that the student would otherwise have to take? That can affect whether taking the AP course makes the schedule more or less crowded (less crowded may allow space for some other course of interest).
That’s a very good point. We need to find out if this is the case. Thanks
That is also a possibility! My two cents is there are people who find micro interesting who don’t like macro at all, so I do wonder if that was part of the issue.
Simple but also correct! The line can get fuzzy but it is defintionally about the primary focus of study, and micro is focused on individual economic units like individuals and firms. Macro focuses on economies as a whole, and these days a whole economy is usually at the national level (or indeed global).
Both can be relevant to businesses in some sense, but I think some people find micro more relatable and applicable to things they actually end up doing, both personally and professionally.
Oh good point - I assumed OP knew already but bad assumption. (Our school’s senior choices form makes it clear what the Econ/gov grad requirements are and what combination to choose to fulfill them)
For college applications, any or none. For college credit, a high score on either the AP Macro or Micro exam might exempt her from the required economics course. A high score on the exam for any of the others might exempt her from a 100 level social studies elective but that elective might be redundant if her scores from World and US are high enough.
And vice versa of course (yours truly). I actually find micro very interesting in the real world but the coursework - not so much, out of all my econ courses the micro ones were the least favorite.
I’d also consider the quality of the teachers for the different courses and how each class fits into the student’s overall schedule.
This may or may not be helpful, as our kids attended an independent school that did not offer AP courses - but the course titles/subjects are similar. Kids looking for the more rigorous check mark from the college counselors were steered away from Psych, Econ (only 1 semester at the school) and gravitated towards 1 full year course or 2 semesters of different history courses. Could her guidance counselor offer a suggestion based on college goals that aligns her course selection with her peers?
While I agree 100% take what is of interest, it doesn’t seem to always work that way in the eyes of college admission.
Are you sure they’re all year-long classes? I only ask because at our kids’ HS, all of those are semester classes (not sure about AP Psych, but the rest I know for certain). Check to see if there’s a gov or civics requirement - presumably you’d know that already, though. Otherwise, go based on interest. Engineering schools won’t care. My son has loved AP US and Comp Gov (taking both this year). Daughter was less thrilled with AP US Gov, but that was mainly because of the teacher – she really liked the content, and she had a much better experience in AP Comp Gov. My son has signed up for AP Micro/Macro next year, but of course I can’t vouch for those courses. For a STEM kid, there’s crossover between math and Econ, of course. For a STEM kid who loves humanities, there’s a lot of history embedded in the Gov classes.