Do most take both AP Lang and AP Lit?

[Anonymous]

Wondering if taking AP Lang in 11th frees DC up to take 2 single semester elective English classes in 12th grade or if they really need to take AP Lit in 12th to remain competitive for top schools. This is at a private school that offers AP classes. Any advice welcome.

[Anonymous]

It probably varies by college whether this matters. I’d try not to allow the total number of APs to drop between 11th and 12th.

[Anonymous]

DS and most kids in his circle took Lang in 11th and Lit in 12th - it's the most common pathway for good students at his large public high school. He thought Lang was very easy and got a 5, but struggled so much with the open-ended nature of Lit that he decided not to take the exam... and he knew his chosen major at the colleges that had accepted him wouldn't give him credit for a top score on that exam, anyway. However the benefit was noting on his college applications in the fall of senior year, that he was taking AP Lit.

DS has high-functioning autism, and even though his verbal cognitive skills are sky-high, he can be mentally rigid. I wonder if that played into his struggle with parsing literary texts in AP Lit? Other kids in his circle didn't seem to find such a contrast in the level of difficulty between the two classes, and did well in both.

[Anonymous]

It won’t matter if he/she will be in Stem major unless the goal is to get in Ives.

[Anonymous]

If most top students at that high school are taking both AP Lang and Lit, then that’s what top colleges will expect to see.

[Anonymous]

Some on this forum may not consider UVA a “top college” but my kid got in and took AP lang in 11th and DE English in 12th, as did many of her UVA-bound classmates.

[Anonymous]

Ours are required to take both. Nearly all of the English electives at our school are APs, so they can take on semester of AP Lang and Comp and three semesters of AP lit, but they only take each the test once.

[Anonymous]

You can those electives and still take the AP class if you want.

Your expensive guidance counselor's job is to convince AOs that your electives are better than AP. That's what you are paying for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS and most kids in his circle took Lang in 11th and Lit in 12th - it's the most common pathway for good students at his large public high school. He thought Lang was very easy and got a 5, but struggled so much with the open-ended nature of Lit that he decided not to take the exam... and he knew his chosen major at the colleges that had accepted him wouldn't give him credit for a top score on that exam, anyway. However the benefit was noting on his college applications in the fall of senior year, that he was taking AP Lit.

DS has high-functioning autism, and even though his verbal cognitive skills are sky-high, he can be mentally rigid. I wonder if that played into his struggle with parsing literary texts in AP Lit? Other kids in his circle didn't seem to find such a contrast in the level of difficulty between the two classes, and did well in both.

ASD leads to much better performance on informational literal texts than fictional figurative texts.

[Anonymous]

What’s DE English?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s DE English?

A sham, usually. Regular senior year English with a misleading ("dual enrollment") name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some on this forum may not consider UVA a “top college” but my kid got in and took AP lang in 11th and DE English in 12th, as did many of her UVA-bound classmates.

My DC is planning to do the same. Hoping with good performance it is sufficient to thread the UVA admission needle. From what we can tell the other top public schools do not seem as particular as UVA on course selection.

[Anonymous]

It's appropriate to take AP Lit senior year if college bound. AP Lang is just college board expanding into earlier grades, not the same rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some on this forum may not consider UVA a “top college” but my kid got in and took AP lang in 11th and DE English in 12th, as did many of her UVA-bound classmates.

+1. My student, NOVA public with 4.5 and 1560, 9 AP and 4 DE engineering applicant was waitlisted at UVA. Took HONORS English in 11th and 12th over Lang and Lit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some on this forum may not consider UVA a “top college” but my kid got in and took AP lang in 11th and DE English in 12th, as did many of her UVA-bound classmates.

+1. My student, NOVA public with 4.5 and 1560, 9 AP and 4 DE engineering applicant was waitlisted at UVA. Took HONORS English in 11th and 12th over Lang and Lit.

UVA is clear about wanting the most advanced classes across all 5 core subjects