AP Spanish vs. AP Lang/Lit
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Anonymous
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DS is in 9th grade and we're trying to map out his high school courses. He is in a private school, and the school offers only the "core" APs (major sciences, APUSH, etc). He is debating whether to track himself to end up with AP Spanish, or to take a more advanced English class that will lead to AP Lang/Lit. He probably won't do both because for him it would be a heavy load. All other classes he's taking are honors and will end as APs.
He doesn't love either subject and is currently performing better in English than in Spanish, FWIW. He would continue Spanish all four years of high school regardless of the track he's on. Does anyone know whether colleges care about one of these subjects versus the other being on an accelerated track and AP? I can see advantages to each one curricularly, just wondering if there is anything else we should consider. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| It's a total no brainer. He should be taking AP Lang and Lit and not bothering with Spanish. No college will take him seriously if he's not done the most rigorous English track. |
Anonymous
or IB HL English |
Anonymous
Nonsense. No college will take him seriously without a rigorous World Language track. Knowing only one languat is embarrassing. |
Anonymous
| It's the same either way. The more he can do, the better it looks. |
Anonymous
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I think Lang/Lit is more useful. For the record, AP Spanish is very challenging!
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Anonymous
| What is this English trajectory where 9th graders have to decide their 12tg grade English class? That makes no sense. English isn't a sequence. |
Anonymous
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He should take AP English.
Maybe he could take regular Spanish and then just take the AP to see how he does to get placement or credit for college. But yeah if his school offers AP English he shouldn’t skip it |
Anonymous
OP back. Thank you for all these responses, please keep them coming! To answer this question: The school has honors and regular tracks. Honors is a pre-req for AP, typically in 11th or 12th. So if you don't take honors English in 10th grade, you are not eligible to later enroll in AP English. I agree he could take the AP Spanish exam if he wanted regardless of track. And he'd still have four years of high school Spanish (took it through middle school too) so hopefully would be somewhat proficient. I agree that learning a second language is very important, which is actually why I'd been thinking it was better to accelerate in a foreign language than in English, but I'm now reconsidering. |
Anonymous
Nonsense. BU, CWRU, Lehigh, WM, UMD, Ohio St., Pitt and UMN didn't seem to care that DS from class of '23 bypassed AP lang/lit and Spanish. |
Anonymous
| DC got into an Ivy with AP Lang and AP Spanish but no AP Lit (even though it is offered). Hope that helps! |
Anonymous
| In 9th grade, I’d do what you can to keep options open…try to do the pre reqs that can get him to both AP lit and AP Spanish. You don’t know what exactly they will be able for in 3 years and how motivated they will be… |
Anonymous
A list of shit colleges, thanks for proving my point. |
Anonymous
OP here, I'd be very happy if my DS ended up at many of these schools, if he felt they were a good fit for him. We are just trying to keep options open at this point as best we can, while encouraging him to work hard without burning out. |
Anonymous
Appreciate your input, but not sure what is wrong with any of these schools. I'll share your thoughts with my child. |