Do the classes you take in highschool really matter with what you end up majoring in?

Hi Mitra,

I would echo much of what Gary said previously, and would also add some additional points.

By taking AP Bio, does that mean that you’ve already taken regular bio, regular chem & regular physics as well? If so, and each of those were a year each in duration, that’s definitely 4 years’ worth (8 semesters) of science.
I would say taking additional science classes may not potentially make a major or meaningful difference once you’re in college unless you hit a certain threshold (the equivalent of 1 or 2 Full-Time student semesters less of college coursework), which may be challenging to do with only your senior year of high school left. I say this because there are certain thresholds you need to meet if you’re going to try to accelerate your studies in college, such as if you’re trying to save money. I would say to ask yourself what is the purpose of taking this additional coursework before deciding.

At my alma mater where I was a liberal arts major, each course was 4 credits each, with a requirement that a full course-load be between 12-16 credits/semester, with no more than 20 to I think 22 credits per semester. For a BA, you needed 16 credits/semester * 8 semesters = 128 credits. If you receive a scholarship or financial aid, in all likelihood, you may need to maintain a full-time student courseload. The way I remember the financing, though, was that the cost to take 12 credits was the same as the cost to take 16 credits, and I think it may have even included an additional 2 credits (total 18) for a couple of physical education classes, and where the flat-rate for tuition cost the same. Anything above that threshold cost more. This, of course, will be dependent on whichever university you ultimately choose to attend.

Scenario # 1: So, say you only take the AP bio class in high school that you already completed and nothing more AP-wise:

-Maybe that effectively translates to the fact that you could take 12 credits your first semester of college and maybe just have a lighter courseload that first semester of college to adjust to college life, but you still pay the same amount of money since you need to maintain FT status as opposed to paying piecemeal for PT status due to financial aid/scholarship/on-campus dorm housing constraints that you may be required to maintain, especially if you are an international student on a student visa.

-Or, maybe you decide you’re going to use that 4 credit slot to take another random course in college since you’re already going to be effectively paying for it anyway as a FT status student, but use it to explore another 101-level course to possibly learn and become exposed to something new that might be of interest to further pursuing as your major, but because of sequential coursework, it’s unlikely that you’d take a higher-level course in that same category (such as a higher-level bio course), since you’d need to take the 102-level course. You could take a 97 or 99-level course that interest you in that science area, but it’s unlikely that it’d actually count towards your degree-requirements as they’re often aimed towards non-science majors.
In the two examples listed above, you’re still paying the same price out-of-pocket for tuition, and you’re still considered a college freshman, but you may find that it’s still helpful for what you’re looking for.
One extra note: depending on the university, if you’re considering certain science majors (in particular a chemistry or biochem/molecular bio major), taking AP chem may actually not count at all towards your major requirements since you may actually need to take a higher-level quant lab and the standard lecture & basic lab may not be enough. If that’s the case, then you’re really only using the AP credit if you scored well for general credit towards your degree, not your major. Check the schools you’re interested in for details to see how they approach it.

Additionally, if you have certain language skills and a requirement for fulfillment of it at your university in a liberal arts degree program, you may not necessarily need to take an AP class, but may instead be able to either test out of the language requirements or place into a higher-level language class so that you only have to take fewer of them, or if you are already fluent, you may also be able to just test out of that requirement. To test out is unlikely to mean that you’d receive college credit for that skill if you didn’t pay and enroll in the class, but that may free up 1 or more semester class slots to take other classes in another area that you are interested in, or perhaps pursue a more basic (but not advance to an intermediate)-level skill in yet additional language, all of which give you more options. This is college-specific and you’d need to reach out to the specific language departments, but I imagine there are other universities like that as well, just those options aren’t as well known or necessarily utilized as often by students.

Scenario # 2: ONE SEMESTER OF COLLEGE CLASSES

Now, say you’ve taken/will take enough AP courses in high school and have tested well (3 or higher, although if used for a major, typically you need to receive test scores of 4 or higher) where you’re able to receive credit for say 3 or 4 classes. In general, 1 year AP bio tends to equal 1 semester college bio, so say you took:
-1 year AP bio,
-1 year AP chem,
-1 year AP American/European or art history and
-1 year AP calc (or some other combination)

Now, you’ve got 4 AP courses you’ve taken and in many but not all cases, you’d receive credit for four classes, and if you went to a school like my alma mater, that’d mean 4 courses * 4 credits each = 16 credit = 1 semester of FT college courses. Now, you’ve effectively got 1 semester less of college to pay for out of pocket if you want to receive your BA/BS degree, depending on major. Definitely significant in terms of out-of-pocket expenses, but also means that you’d may be eligible to graduate a semester early in an off-cycle, depending on sequencing of course requirements in your major of study.

But if you don’t plan to do that, or to take a leave of absence, or start taking graduate-level courses, this may not make a difference (note: courses you take either in high school/undergrad can only be used towards graduation credits for undergrad, or if you’re further along, for grad school, but not both) in terms of expenses (even study abroad still involves paying for FT coursework) you ultimately spend out-of-pocket, but perhaps it might make you slightly more attractive to colleges you are interested in for admission. And if that’s your goal, then hopefully it will have served its purpose, but it’s hard to tell.

Scenario # 3: TWO SEMESTERS OF COLLEGE CLASSES

Now, say you’re really far along in high school & you took a lot of year-long AP courses and scored well on the exams (ex: 8 or more AP courses). At a university like the one I attended, that most often would translate to something called “sophomore-standing,” which means that you could effectively take 1 year (a.k.a., 2 semesters) less of college at a 4 year university, and graduate a full cycle early. This is most-likely to be where you are going to see a major meaningful difference in out-of-pocket expenses, in particular, since it’s not an off-cycle. (As a side-note, there are also certain competitive medical school programs where particularly motivated incoming undergrad students may be able to apply for and provided successful completion, a slot can be held for them in medical school – such as the 7 year med program at my alma mater (3 years undergrad + 4 years med school), but that requires among other things, that incoming students have “sophomore-standing.”) But if you’re not willing to take the “sophomore-standing” and graduate early, or it makes no difference if the coursework you took isn’t eligible towards general-degree requirements along with your chosen major requirements needed to graduate, it may be a moot point, although it would likely substantially increase the attractiveness in admissions eyes depending on the type of university you’re looking to attend and/or possibly seek scholarship, grant or other non-federally-funded financial aid from, and that may be your goal.

A NOTE ABOUT SCIENCE MAJORS:
If you were to become a science major, at most, taking additional AP science classes will potentially place you out of the 101-level courses at your university. So, say you take AP bio in high school, you may potentially be able to get advanced standing for 1 semester’s worth of bio. However, it’s unlikely you’d get credit for 2 semesters worth of entry-level bio with lab which you would almost certainly need if you were become a bio major, or a pre-med student. Many science & math-based courses need to be taken in sequential order, and are usually only offered once per academic year. Ex: bio 101 offered in the fall and bio 102 offered in the spring. So, if you get credit for 1st semester bio from your AP class (typically you need to score a 3 or higher on the AP exam), at best, you could maybe take a different non-bio course in the timeslot you normally would’ve taken bio 101 in the fall. But, it’s unlikely that you’d still be able to move on to take higher-level bio courses that would actually count towards a bio major without first taking the prerequisite bio 102 in the spring, but perhaps you might be able to take an entry-level calc. Perhaps you use that timeslot to instead pursue undergraduate research for credit, instead.

A NOTE ABOUT LIBERAL ARTS, NON-SCIENCE MAJORS:
If you were to become a liberal arts major & you scored well on your AP science classes, at best, you might be able to effectively get credit for perhaps 2 semesters, maybe 4 if you’re lucky, worth of college-level science once you’re in college, although it depends on the university. A lot of universities for liberal arts degrees break their courses down into certain categories: math & science, social science, humanities and maybe one other general category (such as an additional language). Usually, there’s a max amount of credit you can receive per category (such a 2 semester’s worth of classes per category) that you’re allowed to count for credit or as a transfer student (such as if you’re coming from another university or community college). It’s highly unlikely & rare that you’d be able to transfer into another bachelors-degree program once you’re an upperclassman in a bachelors program (if for nothing else, than there usually is a cap on how many outside credits you can transfer in, and to some extent, AP classes can be considered outside credit).

A NOTE ABOUT PRE-REQUISITIVE COURSES, SEQUENCING AND SABBATICALS:
I went to a large university (class size around 4,000 people or so), so there were a lot of options, but even so, especially in the sciences, there were a lot of entry-level pre-requisite classes that needed to be taken before you were allowed to take higher-level courses. Certain popular courses with highly-sought after professors, smaller topic-specific seminars, etc. were only offered during certain semesters, and even in some cases, during certain years (such as odd or even years in the fall or spring).

If there are certain courses that you’re very interested in that only certain professors teach, I would try to take them as soon as possible during your undergrad degree (such as when a lower vs. an upper-classman), and to do your own research to see whether or not 1.) that prof has tenure (and hopefully likely to still be there when it’s time for you to take their course) and 2.) that they’re not scheduled to leave for sabbatical. This may matter slightly more in grad school or with upper-level courses, especially if the major reason why you’ve chosen to attend a particular university or picked a certain major/minor/track is because you are mostly interested in specific coursework. At my alma mater, the basic writing requirement seminars were highly-themed and often, although not always, taught by adjunct faculty and where there was notable variability in a course being repeatedly offered from year-to-year. Very few courses are offered both fall & spring semesters.

Keeping track of course syllabi and course descriptions in a given catalogue will be important for administrators to determine course equivalency and I recommend centralizing a location for them, especially if you later decide to pursue a government position where demonstrating certain academic coursework is often a requirement for application, aside from other work experience.

A NOTE ABOUT COURSELOAD:
Unless otherwise noted (something to discuss with your school counselor) or for a very compelling reason, I would not necessarily recommend front-loading incredibly time/intellect-intensive courses all in one semester. It’s important to have balance and to pursue courses that are both of interest to you, but that you’re also able to handle.

A NOTE ABOUT LIBERAL ARTS vs. OTHER MORE SPECIALIZED DEGREES:
If you decide to pursue a bachelors liberal arts degree (such as one that will terminate in a BA) as opposed to a bachelors degree in a specialized area (such as a BS which you’re more likely to find in the business, communications, engineering or education fields or a BFA), it’s really important that you take the time now to think about what types of career pathways you may be interested in.

A lot of bachelors-level non-BA degrees usually are tied to careers where the graduates know exactly what type of work they want to do after graduation, and in many, although not all of those cases, usually require additional testing/continuing education/graduate-level degrees that they need to obtain at some point post-undergrad and they often end up working in exactly those fields right as first jobs right out of college.

A NOTE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERNSHIPS/CO-OPS/WORK-STUDY/VOLUNTEER & OTHER WORK EXPERIENCE
With a liberal arts degree, unless you’re pursuing additional graduate-level education right away, work opportunities right out of college are often less well-defined and intrinsic.

Here is where internships and co-ops matter will make a real difference in terms of guiding your career pathway, and if you’re able to perhaps now, while you’re going into your last year of high school able to start to explore an afterschool job/volunteer experience in an area you’re interested in, that likely will be beneficial. You’ll come out of those experiences in 1 of 3 ways: learn it’s something you’re interested in pursuing more, learn it’s something you absolutely don’t want to pursue or learn that you need more information, perhaps in a different setting or in a different functional capacity. All 3 are valuable pieces of information and if analyzed well, will serve you well in the future.

A NOTE ABOUT END-GOALS FOR A LIBERAL ARTS BACHELORS DEGREE
Graduating with a bachelors degree, you should be confident & able to do the following, in general:
-basic empirical research where you’re presented with a problem and where you need to identify possible sources that you can pull information and start to learn likely answers,
-be able to formulate a plan of action
-create a well-meaning and intentioned argument supported by solid reasoning,
-develop and utilize critical-thinking skills and be able to discern and distinguish between reputable sources of information,
-present and share findings where you’re able to speak to both a technical & non-technical audience in a compelling manner

One of the most-underestimated, translatable skills that are really desired in any workplace is the ability to relate to others and to craft a good story. Anything you can do to help yourself further develop those skills will likely serve you well, no matter what you do, first with your college applications and the essays you’ll need to write, but then also later in the workplace. It means nothing if you do good work or come up with a great discovery, but are unable to frame a discussion around and share those findings with your peers and key decision-makers who can actually act on them and implement them further. Many great innovations in the world are not made in an isolated bubble, but are made, on some level, by working with others.

In addition, it’ll likely be expected that you will have become competent in certain specialized-areas specific to your major and should be able to carry on a meaningful & nuanced conversation with others in that subject area.

CONCLUSIONS
It’s a lot of information to digest, but try to think about and revisit it in pieces, then seek out the advice of trusted advisors in your life who know you well, and then go with what’s best for you.

If there are certain colleges or programs you have your eye on, take the initiative to reach out to them and seek out their advice, but make sure you do your research first so that you can have an intelligent dialogue. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re asking “low-hanging fruit” questions, and you also don’t want to ask questions without a purpose or just for the sake of asking them since it’ll likely annoy people and be a waste of other’s time. Many higher-ed institutions nowadays maintain a social media presence and are staffed by key decision-makers as well as supportive initial points of contact. You never know what kinds of opportunities they might be able to present or to keep you in mind for that you never would have even thought of.

You never know, but depending on the university, taking that type of initiative and actively demonstrating interest and engagement in what they have to offer may be just the thing that you need to help your application stand out with an offer for admission. And in the vast sea of many people who are competing for a limited slot, that type of personalization can be the very thing that sets you apart vs. just being one of the many other people who are just as well-qualified and who have taken the same AP courses that you have. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it’s absolutely worth giving it a shot.

Think about what your short & long-term goals are and rank them in terms of importance. Think about what the utility is of taking that additional AP coursework and whether or not it’s likely to be enough or a good use of your time that will help you reach what you’re looking for. If it’s to potentially save money, it may or may not make a difference (you can’t consider it alone, but in concert with all your other AP coursework), if it’s to take more coursework in a science-major (you may have a credit-transfer cap and prereq sequencing) or if it’s to make you a more competitive applicant to get offered admission (perhaps) or more likely to get certain types of financial aid at a given university (such as amount of scholarship or grant level).

But whatever you do, try your best to study & work hard to get high grades. It’s better that you take a less-intense courseload that you can handle & be challenged and do well with your grades and enjoy, than to take a more-intense courseload, not be able to handle it, and do more poorly grade-wise all around and be stressed out & falsely discouraged.

You want to be able to grow into someone who can show that type of discerning self-awareness and judgment to pick, choose and follow-through with (although pivot, if necessary) what makes sense for you, and the person who’s most likely to be an expert on that, is you.

Aside from grad school admissions, a number of other positions post-undergrad may very well request to see your transcript as a condition of an employment application, so you want to do your best to keep a high overall GPA as well as a high GPA in your major (and the sciences if you’re pre-med) if you aspire to have one of those types of work opportunities in the future. This is especially true of technical, business-consulting or positions that typically have an influx of new grad hires on a semi-predictable cycle/”class of X” basis that usually involve a long, sequential interview process (take a look at companies that tend to regularly, predictability recruit out and directly hire on-campus from certain universities, especially in the spring, but for some, those who start their on-campus recruitment efforts in the fall of senior year undergrad.)

Best of luck!

<span style="background-color: transparent;">Collegeboard.org is a great resource for this! I poured through the pages of universities all over the U.S. when I was a senior in high school. Collegeboard was my go-to site! They put all of the information in one place and it is very easy to use. They even have various filters you can apply to see only colleges that have programs you are interested. To determine academic rigor, look at the admissions requirements, G.P.A. of past admitted applicants, SAT/ACT scores, class rank etc. This will give you an idea of what scores and grades you need to be accepted. However, don't be discouraged your application will be reviewed based on the full picture! College-board will help you get an idea of what is most important to the specific school you are applying to.</span>

This professional recommends the following next steps:

• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Chat with your Guidance Counselor</span>
• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Create a Collegeboard.org account</span>
• <span style="background-color: transparent;">Start using CollegeBoard as a resource to look up schools.</span>

Hi,
That is a great question, I will answer in 2 parts...first, depending on what you want to major in for college it will matter what classes you take in High School. Example, if you want to major in anything science/math related it will be important to take as many of those classes as possible. But, it will not necessarily hurt you if you have not taken all the classes like the 4th science class you mention...the more preparation you have, the easier college may be for you.

As for what you want to major in college, there really is no rush to pick a major right away or even if you pick one and decide to switch, you will not lose a lot of time..you can take all of your core classes (english, math, history, etc) and then use electives for subjects you are interested in.

Maybe you can take some other classes that you are interested in for your senior year to help you decide what to major in.

You are young...using a semester or two to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life may seem like a big thing now, but when you are 50 years old (like me) and look back on it...one semester is a very short time :)

Hope this helps...good luck!