Hi all,
This week, I will be setting my schedule for next year. As a sophomore, I am currently in all Honors classes. Next year, I have the choice to be in multiple AP classes. This is what my schedule will most likely look like next year, unless there are any scheduling conflicts:
Pre-Calc Honors
AP Chemistry
AP US Government and Politics
Theology III (There is no Honors class for this, my school is very small so it is a mix of kids in various levels of classes)
AP US History
Spanish III Honors
AP English
From what I have read and heard, it is best to really pile up as many AP classes as possible for college. If any of you have taken even just one of these AP classes, would this schedule be challenging me too much, or is it just right? Thanks!
AP chem is one of the hardest APs, AP Gov is not much harder then regulars gov (one of easiest APs), APUSH is one of the easier APs as long as you do classwork, AP English is much harder to judge compared to the rest because it depends on your teacher and previous subject knowledge more than any of the others. Pre-calc honors should be easy, nothing in there is really hard except trig identities (I’m in it right now, but in Pre-Ap which is honors equivalent, but in blended program which means I only show up to class twice a weeks and it’s still really easy), at least those are the common beliefs as my school. If you are used to a rigorous courseload it shouldn’t be too much for you to handle.
Going from all-honors/No AP to 4 AP’s among the hardest offered for your level is not a good idea.
Have you had Chemistry Honors? AP Chem is Level 2 in the chemistry sequence.
Have you taken Physics (regular, Honors, AP1?)
Could you take Physics this year and AP Gov senior year?
This way you’d have
Pre-Calc Honors
AP Physics 1 or Honors Physics
(free elective of your choice)
Theology III (There is no Honors class for this, my school is very small so it is a mix of kids in various levels of classes)
AP US History
Spanish III Honors
AP English
This would still be a very rigorous schedule but at least it’d be doable.
I agree with @MYOS1634 …Physics should be next…take AP Chem next year. No need to take AP Gov and AP USH at the same time unless you LOVE that type of thing and want to major in it. (even then you could take AP Gov next year.)
I agree with @Muad_dib ; you heard wrong. For admissions purposes, more than 6-8 APs or equivalent will not meaningfully strengthen your application. There may be valid reasons to take more (e.g. for potential college credit), but for admissions purposes, no.
I agree with the others, you should take physics next year and save AP Chem for the following year. Whether you can handle 4 APs is something only you (and perhaps your teachers/parents) will know. Some students have no trouble; others struggle with one or two. Overall, I pretty much agree with @MYOS1634 , but depending on the workload (which is school-specific, so ask current students), it might be OK to add APUSG as well. Good luck.
My D20 is taking 4 APs next year. APUSH, AP Gov, APHG, and AP English Lang. Also taking Honors Precalc, Honors Spanish 4, and 2 Honors electives. She’s currently taking 2 APs and the rest Honors and making straight As. I think it’s fine if you’re prepared. If you are not ready, there is no reason to crush yourself. I have heard AP Chem is a very tough class.
Don’t take APUSH, AP Gov or AP Lang. AP Gov and AP Lang do not match college courses in rigor and APUSH is too memorization-heavy. AP Lit is worth it though.
OP, I would not listen to avgsopho1223’s advice. Experience in an AP class varies from school to school- at mine, kids that do the work in APUSH get hard earned A’s. It really depends on the teacher, your work ethic, class routine etc, not the curriculum itself.
I’m not telling you to take APUSH, but I mean to say that do not remove APUSH from your list solely for that reason.
Also, at my school, kids tend to take AP classes that relate to their school subject interests and eventual major (although it usually changes in college). For example, the kids that are political nerds take Gov, APUSH, Lit, etc. STEM geeks (like me!!!) tend to take Bio, Chem, Stats, etc. Of course there is usually overlap- both groups, for example, tend to take Psych and Calc, and most “AP Kids” end up taking some kind of AP English.
Those are just the patterns I’ve noticed at my school, but I think they can help in your case- what are you interested in? If you’re a history nerd, take APUSH and save Chem for later. If you’re a STEM person, skip the history and try Chem. If you’re neither/unsure, I would follow the above posters’ advice.
Based on the comments above, I also recommend you talk to juniors or seniors that have taken these classes before to see what they thought of it because teachers do make a huge impact. Based on my experience, I have heard that APUSH is one of the hardest APs, including AP Chem. Also, if you have too many EC then I’ll be harder to manage all of the APs. But if you think you can take the challenge, I definitely recommend just because colleges like to see how you have taken the most rigorous courses.
Everyone’s offering do-or-die advice. If you’re taking all honors then taking as many AP classes as you can is the next step. I wasn’t even in honors classes and I took APUSH my sophomore year and 4 AP’s my junior and senior year each. It’s not that bad.
Anyone telling you taking more AP’s doesn’t help is an idiot. Maybe anything more than 4 a year doesn’t help with admissions but these are college credits we’re talking about. The AP tests were $89 I think when I took them. I got 26 credits from AP’s and 24 at community college my freshman year. So around $3200 to transfer to my large state school with 50 credits. 50 credits at my state school is over $27,000. Take from that what you will.
AP Chem - many say it is one of the hardest AP’s, but in my experience, this is not really so. It is kind of like math where you either get it or you don’t. If honors chem was easy for you(you got an A), you will find AP chem easy if you put in the work the teachers tell you, 2-5 (varies)hrs a week studying is typical. If you don’t start the year strong it is much harder to get a better grade later on as much of the units expand upon previous ones and concepts. Also, in my AP chem class, there are only like 4/25 kids that get C’s regularly and are constantly retaking. Most of the class has an B+/A-/A, which is pretty common around the other classes too. Everyone puts in work and the tests go along with what they do. Don’t be intimidated! I was pretty scared to take it even though in honors chem I was good, but now its my favorite class. Fun.
Ap lang- if you are good at essays this class is a breeze, it is literally the entire class. If you are not, it will be very difficult. Taking it, i found that it might help your writing skills somewhat, but if you are a C essay writer, it will be extremely difficult to get close to an A. All the teachers at my school grade lang essays strict because many of them grade the AP tests as well
dunno much about the other AP’s you’re taking
Taking as many AP’s as you can is a bad mindset. Take as many as you think you can handle and reasonably will probably like. Taking something like 7 AP’s one year just to take that many is not worth it for the time you will miss doing other stuff imo, and colleges wont really care too much past a total of 8-10 AP’s.
Your schedule looks totally manageable. The only thing that I see would be bad for me is taking two history classes because of the heavy reading, but if you like that and are interested go for it! But don’t take 2 classes with heavy reading if you don’t like the subject, it will just suck up your time.
Mr. Tpetrie74 - I read through some of the advice above and they all gave relative advice. However, let me tell you from my personal experience:
I am currently taking 6 AICE classes (even harder than AP) and an honors. It is very doable, however you must be very disciplined and make checklists (and finish them) for literally everything -homework, goals, tasks, study times. You must be willing to sacrifice time from extracurriculars. You basically have to have extremely good time keeping management, if not you’ll fall off - and yes it would be possible to achieve all A’s.
HOWEVER - Considering you’re taking AP’s and not AICE or IB and you’re ONLY DOING 4 it would probably be MUCH EASIER than my schedule in comparison, I would say definitely GO FOR IT! I might even tell you to be more ambitious and switch out AP Gov for another STEM AP and save AP Gov for senior year.
PS. Take as many AP’s as you can - you save $$$
I see these 4 as a stretch especially given APUSH and APCHEM together (would be better to separate those.) After watching several kids navigate HS, I think the best progression is 1, 3, 3-4, especially if you can do a Sci AP with a lab class in the latter year (since that’s 2 periods with the lab, its like only having 6 classes total for h/w, etc.) Keep in mind that many colleges limit AP credit to 32 hours (thus making more than 8 APs kind of useless), plus I’ve heard many AO’s comment that they kind of stop looking after 6-7 APs. You get the most bang for your buck as far as credits if you take them in an array of subjects, so that you can knock off core curriculum requirements in different categories (i.e. sci, math, hist, art, english, humanity, etc. as often don’t get credit for that 2nd AP in same category.) If you think you’re going to a big, state, research university, its very good to get APBio and/or APChem out of the way to avoid the huge, lecture style weedout classes. But, all AP classes in highschool have advantages over their college equivalents IMO: you’re in a small class, with a teacher who is hand holding you through the curriculum with lots of review, and the material is spread over a whole year (instead of just a semester.) But, don’t sacrifice your ECs for more APs as its ECs that really distingush you. Generally, my advice to kids is to take what you love and skip what you don’t (for our most recent DD that was ArtHist, Chem, Lit, Calc, Bio, Art2D, EnvSci and Stat… she would have liked Gov but decided to do Bio instead in case she decided to do Biostat major down the road.) So, she didn’t tick off anything in Hist, Social/Behavioral Sci and Diversity, but that’s OK as good to have some electives left to pursue in college!
