2010-05-11, 08:09 PM
Just want to throw out another point as a current college student:
I see a lot of discussion revolving around taking only AP classes that "fit your fancy," we'll say. While this is ultimately the deciding factor of whether or not you pursue such interests, it's actually extremely beneficial to take as many APs as you can personally handle. See, colleges and universities have these things called "breadth requirements," which basically means the "basic classes across a wide range of subjects you must pass in order to graduate." Not only that, but many of these requirements focus on specific classes you must take to qualify you for a specific degree (B.A. or B.S.), and which are the classes generally known as "those you can pass out of with AP scores."
Examples from my personal experience: UW-Madison requires that I take Calculus 221 and 222 (Calc 1 and 2, aka through Taylor Series) in order to complete math requirements for my Medical Microbiology & Immunology Bachelors in Science degree. That's a full year of 10 credits-combined courses I would have to take...had I not passed out of both classes for earning a 5 on my BC Calc AP exam. I'll tell you right now I hated Calc for the majority of the year, as my teacher was very tough and it certainly wasn't my future career path. However, by the end of the course I found I loved the content, earned a great grade on the exam, passed out of a full year of required math courses, earned 10 credits, and now enjoy doing integration by parts and u-substitution problems for the fun of it (don't' ask).
While that's my most prominent personal example, others include the 5ish credits I earned and, again, basic social studies classes I passed out of by taking APUSH and AP Gov. Again, both studies of which I'm not pursuing a career in, but both classes in which I learned a lot, enjoyed the subject material (I do extensive work in politics now), and in the end got me 5/120 of the way closer to graduation (5 credits/120 needed to graduate), BEFORE starting my freshman year. I ultimately started college as a sophomore based on credits earned.
tl;dr: Regardless of whether you like the course or not, you'll most likely have to take it in college eventually. It's a huge benefit to take as many AP courses as you possibly can, whether you like them or not, because they allow you to pass out of these required courses AND give you credit that, in many cases, can chop off a whole semester or two of your college career, thus saving you thousands.
I see a lot of discussion revolving around taking only AP classes that "fit your fancy," we'll say. While this is ultimately the deciding factor of whether or not you pursue such interests, it's actually extremely beneficial to take as many APs as you can personally handle. See, colleges and universities have these things called "breadth requirements," which basically means the "basic classes across a wide range of subjects you must pass in order to graduate." Not only that, but many of these requirements focus on specific classes you must take to qualify you for a specific degree (B.A. or B.S.), and which are the classes generally known as "those you can pass out of with AP scores."
Examples from my personal experience: UW-Madison requires that I take Calculus 221 and 222 (Calc 1 and 2, aka through Taylor Series) in order to complete math requirements for my Medical Microbiology & Immunology Bachelors in Science degree. That's a full year of 10 credits-combined courses I would have to take...had I not passed out of both classes for earning a 5 on my BC Calc AP exam. I'll tell you right now I hated Calc for the majority of the year, as my teacher was very tough and it certainly wasn't my future career path. However, by the end of the course I found I loved the content, earned a great grade on the exam, passed out of a full year of required math courses, earned 10 credits, and now enjoy doing integration by parts and u-substitution problems for the fun of it (don't' ask).
While that's my most prominent personal example, others include the 5ish credits I earned and, again, basic social studies classes I passed out of by taking APUSH and AP Gov. Again, both studies of which I'm not pursuing a career in, but both classes in which I learned a lot, enjoyed the subject material (I do extensive work in politics now), and in the end got me 5/120 of the way closer to graduation (5 credits/120 needed to graduate), BEFORE starting my freshman year. I ultimately started college as a sophomore based on credits earned.
tl;dr: Regardless of whether you like the course or not, you'll most likely have to take it in college eventually. It's a huge benefit to take as many AP courses as you possibly can, whether you like them or not, because they allow you to pass out of these required courses AND give you credit that, in many cases, can chop off a whole semester or two of your college career, thus saving you thousands.