Anonymous wrote:While it's a safer bet to take an AP English course, no, I don't think not taking an AP in one core subject is a deal breaker for the level of schools you list.
Possible reason to take it: check the colleges' AP credit policies and core requirements to see whether a sufficient AP exam score would satisfy the college's core requirement.
I agree with the PP that if the high school would allow it for seniors, AP English Lang would be the more straightforward choice rather than Lit.
(My own kid is a freshman at a similarly-ranked college, in the 30s national universities. She was vehemently opposed to taking any AP English in high school. Ironically, she loved her freshman writing class last semester and laughs at her previous position on the subject. She had a total of 7 APs, two AP physics courses, AP calc BC, APUSH, AP macro, AP Latin, AP studio art.)
That sounds like me. I went off to college intending to be a math and computer science double major, and ended up falling in love with philosophy. Still kept computer science as a second major, and was in the really early days of AI-- these two subjects go together better than some people assume.