Alyssa Sandoval

An example of a student ‘s balanced schedule containing both AP and CP courses.

AP students tend to have a superiority complex and think that just because they take college level classes that they are better than students who take CP courses, but this is not necessarily true. 

AP classes can offer a student more in regard to college and getting into higher ranked schools, but if your goal isn’t to get into one of these schools (such as Harvard, Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, USC, UCLA, etc), it isn’t worth the time and energy because you can get a similar quality education in a CP class since the teachers are usually the same and teach the material at a similar speed in both the CP and AP courses.

One of the many AP classes offered at Don Lugo is APUSH (AP U.S. History), and many think it is one of the – if not the number one – hardest and time consuming classes at Don Lugo. If you do not strive to attend any of the aforementioned schools, it is not necessary or recommended that you take APUSH, unless you excel and/or are extremely interested in history. CP U.S. History is still an amazing class, so you will definitely not get the short end of the stick when choosing to take CP instead of AP!

But at the end of the day, colleges do look for rigorous courses on applications and whether or not you challenged yourself. Many people argue that they rather take CP classes because they want to preserve their GPA and make their transcript look better, but the truth is that if you get a B in a CP class and a B in an AP class they will be weighed differently. If you strongly believe you would not be able to succeed whatsoever in an AP class, a CP or Honors class will suit you better, but if you think you could manage even a low B in an AP class it is definitely recommended that you attempt it. It is a given that AP classes should be, and usually are harder than CP courses, but this fact should not steer any students away. 

There are two very prominent types of students at Don Lugo: almost-all-AP students or all CP students. It is usually hard for students to meet in the middle and have a balanced schedule, but taking both types of classes is recommended if you know you cannot succeed in every course. It is not shameful or embarrassing to take CP classes, because not everyone has the same goals or need for them.

The debate about the two types of courses does not usually advance or reach any type of solution because there is not one. It is very subjective and can only be supported by personal experiences, so there is not much reliability in these claims as every student is different and can succeed in different circumstances.

At the end of the day, you should only take AP if you will not drown in the course. CP courses do not discount anyone as a student and students are not expected to excel in every subject, so they should know their limits when deciding which classes they want to take the following year. If you are struggling to determine which classes you should take, it is worth visiting or contacting your assigned counselor before making a decision.