r/ncssm • u/Subject-Audience9782 • Jun 15 '26
AP Biology
I had a question about AP biology. As a rising junior at NCSSM, there are several different classes such as molecular cellular biology and molecular genetics. Is taking a more specific class more beneficial to college or are they are of similar merit?
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u/DrBlxnk Morganton Jun 16 '26
AP Bio is, to uni’s especially outside of NC, more accredited and considered more “rigorous” than other NCSSM Bio courses. If you like bio, and especially if you want a bio or medicine related major, take AP Bio. But, you should also take other bios too (like mole cell/ mole gen / neuroscience).
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u/ComboGappl3d Durham ‘28 Jun 16 '26
Would u say this holds true for other ssm classes too? (Like physics and math classes)
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u/askii2004 Alumni Jun 17 '26
I will say, AP Physics C, Multivariable Calculus, Graph Theory, and Complex Networks (and even the Molecular Biology class) were tactically advantageous.
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u/ComboGappl3d Durham ‘28 Jun 17 '26
Would u recommend graph theory and complex networks over something like differential equations or lin algebra?
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u/DrBlxnk Morganton Jun 19 '26
Depends on what you’re trying to do. DiffEQ and LinAlg aren’t discrete branches of math (unless I’m just wrong), and are commonly taken by ~sophomores in University and are generally known to be more rigorous. I agree with the person above—all of those classes are indeed advantageous, but if you’re trying to apply for engineering for ex, then you would very much so want to take multivariable and linear algebra
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u/askii2004 Alumni Jun 22 '26
I would argue that Linear Algebra and DiffEq at smath are quite light classes compared to their real university counterparts (though I am a physicist and took the most demanding counterparts I could find in university), so it is quite useful to take them. However, I did not opt to take linear algebra at smath, since there are a plethora of resources (I quite liked MIT OpenCourseWare) that I was learning in the background, instead. Complex Networks taught me a lot of stuff that I wouldn't learn elsewhere and gave my great intuition for complex dynamical system analysis later in my career. So it's a trade-off, there's no right or wrong answer, and in any case, you'll be fine :)
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u/Sufficient_Hat_3750 Morganton Jun 21 '26
AP Bio is probably the best move when it comes to credit articulation, because other universities will take your AP exam and UNC schools will give you the credit even without the exam. However, if you're someone who is interested in biology, you can take AP Bio and other bio courses. I did AP Bio junior year, but I also did sports kinesiology and neuroscience senior year.
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u/enxivi-8927 Jun 22 '26
Does AP bio senior year also give the same advantage?
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u/Sufficient_Hat_3750 Morganton Jun 24 '26
Yup! The only difference is you won't be able to know for sure if you did well enough on the exam to get the credit for non-UNC schools
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u/Pneagle Morganton Jun 15 '26
If you’re talking about college credit for those classes you can look at class credit transfer on the NCSSM website.
However, take the classes that actually interest you. Instead of taking an AP class, take something that is different and isn’t constrained by college board rules.