Starting next school year, sophomores can choose between two AP classes to fulfill the requirement for social science,  AP European History or AP Human Geography.

AP Euro teacher Carol Crabtree hopes AP Human Geo won’t take away too many kids from Euro.

“AP Euro has a reputation being a very difficult course and I’ve heard that AP Human Geography is not quite as rigorous,” Crabtree said. “My hope is that it wouldn’t pull too much kids from AP Euro.”

According to Roseville High School’s enrollment request data, 132 freshmen have requested to take AP Euro while six freshmen requested to take AP Human Geo next school year. However, students submitted course request prior to the district board vote that approved AP HUman Geo as a course that could fulfill the sophomore social studies requirement.

According to the data, the initial plans to have four sections of Euro and one section of Human Geo will continue to next year.

“I’ve not had any students come to me and say they wanna take AP Human Geography in lieu of AP Euro,” counselor Jason Bradley said.

Crabtree believes that because AP Euro counts for two college courses while Human Geo counts for only one college class, students are still encouraged to enroll in AP Euro.

“UC and state schools give you credit for two college courses when you take Euro,” Crabtree said. “And you get one college course when you take AP Human Geography. I know for most high school students that’s not a big deal, but one of the reasons this course is difficult is that we are genuinely covering the content of two college courses.”

Still, Mark Andreatta, who will teach AP Human Geo next year, believes that the new options for sophomore social studies is a good choice for students and expose them to more worldly and timely topics.

“In my personal opinion I wish it was a required course all across the board. It’s the best current events class that we could offer to all of our students,” Andreatta said. “ Better than anything we do in the other government class or history class. We talk about what’s going on in the world today, discussion of culture, land use, economics.”

Crabtree believes more students are pushed towards AP Euro over AP Human Geo because AP Euro and AP United States History share the same testing format, so students taking APUSH junior year will already have a feel for what the AP exam will be like.

Crabtree hasn’t yet received any direction from administration as to whether they will increase or decrease sections of either class. Crabtree supposes if there’s a huge reduction in AP Euro due to AP Human Geo, she would just have more sections of World Studies or US History to teach.

“At this point no one has approached me with the possibility of  leaving [sections of] Euro,” Crabtree said.

Sophomore Bhawna Sharma, who is currently taking AP Euro, believes it is a good idea to have AP Human Geo as another option, but wished it was an option for the class of 2018.

“I think it’s a good idea in a way that it gives the sophomores more of an opportunity to take another AP class if you don’t want take regular World Studies or Euro,” Sharma said. “I wish we had the option, it seems like the class of 2018 always gets skipped but it’s okay.”

“I know some people wish AP Euro wasn’t year long or if they could’ve done Human Geography in place of [AP Euro] they would have,” Sharma said. “It would’ve been beneficial for some people.”

Bradley believes expanding the options for students in the Roseville Joint Union High School District is essential to tailoring to each student’s needs and wants.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Bradley said. “I think it’s great our district is looking at giving kids more options to take classes that fulfil a specific requirement, just like how we have lots of classes that fulfil all the VAPA requirement, this would be a class that would fulfil a social science requirement.”