My school offers roughly 16 AP classes, but with all the requirements, I will only be able to take 6. Currently, I am a junior and I took two APs this year. Next year, I will be taking four APs and my freshman and sophomore year, I did not take any because most of them required other courses to be taken beforehand. All of my other classes(except English this year) are honors though, and I have performed pretty well(mostly As). Disregarding SAT, GPA, class rank, and
ECs, is this course load enough for a school like Duke or Cornell for example?
The number of AP’s is less important than the overall rigor reflected in your transcript. Your failure to take the rigorous prerequisites might be a problem.
Thank you for your input! I have taken most prerequisites for AP courses. I just had to take most of those my freshman and sophomore year like Honors Bio or Chem for example.
Talk to your guidance counselor because his/her opinion is the one that matters. For the top tier schools you need a schedule strong enough that your guidance counselor will check the box on your college recommendation saying that you have taken the most rigorous schedule available at your high school. You need to see if your guidance counselor will check off that box given the classes you have taken/will take.
Taking too few AP’s is bad because it may show that you weren’t exactly on the most rigorous schedule. However, taking a bunch and burning out/failing isn’t a good thing either.
Try to find your balance. Also it matters which AP classes. AP Chem is more impressive than AP Psych for example.
6 Ap’s over the course of your high school career is fine. What matters is which ones, and what other rigor your schedule has.
Can you list the classes you took or plan to take, like this:
English =
Math =
Foreign language =
Science=
Social Science =
Graduation Reqs =
Personal picks =
@MYOS1634 Thanks, I will list them here.
English= Honors English 1, Honors English 2, College English 3(regular), will take regular English next year too
Math=honors geometry, honors algebra 2, honors precalc, AP Stats, AP Calc
Foreign Language= honors Spanish 2, honors Spanish 3, honors Spanish 4, AP Spanish
Science= honors bio, honors Chem, honors physics, AP Chem
Social Sciences= honors world history, honors/preAP us history 1, AP us history 2
Grad reqs= digital photography(1 year art), personal finance
Other classes= Honors CP accounting, honors human development, AP econ, intro to design tech
I also took intro to business management over the summer at Cornell and have college creds for that. Honors CP Accounting gave me some college credits too through some college program. I skipped lunch my sophomore year, but the other years have lunch. I am looking to go into business. Does this schedule look rigorous enough for schools like Cornell, Duke or others with good business schools like Michigan?
Thank you everyone for your opinions! I appreciate the input.
FWIW I don’t think Duke has an undergraduate b-school.