Santa Clara High School offers Advanced Placement and Honors courses. AP courses are basically college level courses taught at the high school level.
The admissions’ departments of universities want to see that students take the most challenging courses offered by their high schools.
The UC/CSU systems grant an Honor point to students who take an AP course and earn a grade of C- or higher per semester up to a total of 8 semesters.
Towards the end of the school year, a student usually takes an AP exam, and if the student receives a score of 3 or higher, then the student will probably receive college credit for taking the course. Check the website of each university.

AP and Honors Courses
Advanced Placement Classes include: Calculus AB, English Literature and Comp, English Language and Comp, European History, Government, Macroeconomics and US History.
 
Honors Classes include: Algebra I, Algebra II, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, English I, English II, III, IV, Pre Calculus, Geometry, US History, World History, U.S History, Government and Economics.
 
Santa Clara High School offers Honors courses. An Honors course differs from a college preparatory course in depth, breadth, and pacing. In general, Honors courses are a preparation for AP courses.

The UC/CSU systems grant Honor points to students who take certain Honors classes and earn a grade of C- or higher per semester up to a total of eight semesters.