In years past, AP Lang had been the standard honors English course for sophomores. This year, the standard honors option shifted to AP Seminar, which has 4 sections made up nearly entirely of sophomores. Previously, AP Seminar had counted only as an elective credit, but was changed to an English credit this year. This was an appropriate decision given that most of what students do in AP Seminar is reading articles and journals, writing essays, and performing presentations – all things in a standard English class.

Now, the next logical course to take after AP Seminar is AP Research. If students earn a 3 or higher on both the AP Seminar and AP Research exams, in addition to receiving a 3 or higher on any 4 additional AP exams, they receive the AP Capstone Diploma, which provides nice padding on college applications.

However, when many of my friends went to register for classes in February, they discovered that AP Research would not be counted as an English credit if they took it next year, as juniors. Rather, AP Research would only count as an English credit if taken as a senior, or if they took AP Lang their freshman year. Otherwise, it would only count as an elective credit. An obvious question presents itself from this: how can a course only sometimes be an English course?

If a student takes Algebra II, it will always count as a math credit because the subject that students are learning about is math. The idea that the subject of a class can change depending on the grade of the student or if a prior class had been taken is utter nonsense. AP Research follows the same curriculum for seniors, as it does for juniors, as it does for students who have taken AP Lang as freshmen.

Not only that, but AP Research involves all of the same skills listed above as AP Seminar. The major difference between the two is that AP Seminar involves completing a few smaller projects, while AP Research involves completing a yearlong project. If the AP Seminar skill set is considered to be that of an English course, then the same should apply to AP Research.

This predicament puts many sophomores in a bind. Most of the students who take AP Seminar and are interested in taking AP Research are high-performing students. Many of them take a course in all four core subjects (math, English, Science, Social Studies), as well as a language, and either choir/band. Given the 7-period school day, this leaves students with only one period to pursue an elective. This forces students who have taken AP Seminar and want to take AP Research to make a difficult decision: do not take AP Research junior year, and not finish the AP Capstone program, or take AP Research in place of a different elective they may have otherwise taken, stifling further academic exploration and making them take two English classes.

I was one of the fortunate students who took AP Lang their freshman year, and as a result, am taking AP Research next year, my junior year. Many students were not as fortunate. One of my friends with a passion for music desperately wanted to take AP Music Theory, but because he did not want his taking AP Seminar this year to go to waste, decided to take AP Research instead. Students should not be forced to make this terrible decision because of this inauspicious rule. AP Research should count as an English credit for all students.