You just cannot avoid those courses at elite schools

Stanford also has general education requirement in 8 areas with 11 courses, plus 3 writing courses and 1 year foreign language requirement. My son is majoring in STEM. He has taken history, econ, writing, philosophy, arts, etc. there.

Only foreign language APs can be used to fulfill the 1 year language requirement. My son got all 5's in AP Euro, US history, Engligh language and composition, English literature and composition, econ macro, econ micro. But none of them is tranferrable at Stanford.