I’m taking 4 next year and only 2 of them are really difficult being ap lang and apush. I’m not sure why’d you want to do this to yourself. Drop a couple of your classes for easier ones. Having fun in high school IS important despite what some people are saying on this thread. Challenge yourself, but don’t stress yourself.
@ahardboiledegg I don’t think it’s someone’s jurisdiction to tell somebody what sacrifice is too much or too little. Give them the reality and it’s their decision to make. I told him it will be death for 9 months. And if he doesn’t manage it well, it could affect his mental health. But I think it’s quite an overstatement to say not having a significant social life and working hours that millions of people take under much less inspired conditions for less than a year is surely going to detriment his mental health. Yes, stress levels will rise. If he gets way in over his head and is too stubborn to give up, and doesn’t manage his time right, he could spiral. But the question becomes if it’s truly worth it to him, practically and personally.
Of course people who took 6 AP’s have been rejected from Harvard and people who’ve taken 2 have been accepted, but if you know what you want and want to play the numbers game and maximize your chances, it’s only going to help to take more AP’s. I would go so far as saying there’s no case in which someone wouldn’t have had improved odds (however marginally) if they took one more AP.
If you plan to go through with this, understand discipline is going to be your health. If you get behind and don’t take care of your body and your mind during this process, you’ll be at greater risk. Take time for yourself, as busy as you will be. Take breaks, exercise, relax, DO socialize in moderation, and most importantly stay disciplined and on top of your work so you can actually do these things, and sleep at night. You might have to be an always on-the-go kind of guy, but that can be lovely in it’s own right. Maybe you only meet up with friends for lunch for 30 minutes, and have to get out of there, rather than hanging out all afternoon. Then you take a break later and go shoot some hoops with a friend. Real discipline is being able to allocate your time without getting distracted and pulled in to your leisure activities. Because we all need breaks, no matter what we’re doing. If you’re undisciplined you either won’t be able to take breaks because you were so far behind, or you’ll get stuck on your breaks, which is probably why you ended up behind and can’t take breaks later. Breaks = discipline
@NoahPM But it’s in your jurisdiction to advise a 15/16 year old high schooler to take on a workload that every student and parent on this thread has advised against? Yes, OP can do whatever they want in the end. But to imply that somebody won’t be successful without doing so is just stupid.
Depending on what the courses are, taking 6 APs is doable. My kid did it. So I myself would never ever make a blanket statement to tell someone not take so many APs, unless there was tangible proof that the person could not handle it.
In this case what’s more important is to take the right AP classes as opposed to just taking AP classes for the sake of fulfilling a number. Two languages for example is definitely not necessary given the fact that there are limited slots. Also finishing the math sequence in consecutive years is pretty important too.
@NoahPM:
“There’s no case in which someone wouldn’t have improved their odds (however marginally) if they took one more AP”.
Adcoms at all most selective colleges disagree. It’s not about piling up APs. Your application has to have a certain academic consistency, direction, awareness of what the college wants.
The “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to choosing APs is the opposite of what top colleges expect.
Taking one more AP, once you’ve taken a total of 8 (and as low as 4 if you’re in a high school where that’s high or if there’s a rationale), changes NOTHING.
You don’t have to “get it” - as a transfer, other rules apply to you.
Just don’t give advice on what you clearly don’t understand.
Your case isn’t op’s.
Open your own thread to get advice for your own situation. You can even include your regrets and hindsight on that thread and you will get personalized answers.
Op can get into his colleges with 4aps. Taking more won’t help and could decrease odds by lowering grades due to overload, leaving not enough time for ECs and good apps.
“There’s no case in which someone wouldn’t have improved their odds (however marginally) if they took one more AP”
I do not agree with this. I can think of one meaningful case, and one rather silly extreme case.
The meaningful case: We occasionally see some students posting here on CC that they had straight A’s or close to straight A’s through sophomore year of high school, then took an extremely rigorous load junior year and got B’s and C’s. In these cases a lighter load junior year would have resulted in better grades and would have been much better in terms of getting into top schools. This is the primary concern that I have regarding the OP for this thread.
The silly case could occur for students who want to attend universities outside the US. In many other countries, students get accepted largely based on grades and/or test scores. If your grades and test scores are strong enough in some cases you are certain to get in anywhere that you send an application. Of course this doesn’t apply to students who want to attend universities in the US.
I am reading between the lines here. OP is at a all honors school. To go to AP is not that much of a leap. OP has studied the 2 languages for years so must be pretty proficient in them making it easier. I would also suggest Calc 1 not stats unless you are going into nursing. Take stats in your senior year or Calc 2 depending on your major in college. Maybe take regular bio instead of AP to lighten the load.
My son went to an all honors school (top school in our state) but could get only 2 AP his junior year due to his schedule and was highly upset thinking colleges would balk. He took 6 AP his senior year with Calc 3 and orchestra. He Aced his senior year and thought AP was actually easier but wanted to prove to the colleges he was ready.
Good Luck
I haven’t advised anything. I told him the truth, and I stand by the statement that strictly by the numbers, any AP class will improve your odds of getting in. I’m not sure how that can be refuted. Sure every school is individual, but OVERALL your odds will be improved, all other things the same. If op is lacking in EC’s or won’t have time to complete anymore this year or next summer, then it may be better to leave time for those things.
Where is your reference for saying 8 is some magical number for which taking more AP’s stops helping your odds? If that is true, than I stand corrected.
I’m not using my situation as a cc transfer as reference. I’m using knowledge of the high school admission process. I also didn’t imply you can’t be successful if you don’t do this. I simply said it will help his admissions, and acknowledged the simple reality that the institution you get your degree in does benefit you.
I also don’t see a consensus on this thread. Not everyone here is saying it is impossible or he absolutely shouldn’t do it.
No. But most of the adults-- who have attended college-- agree.
https://pwp.gatech.edu/admission-blog/
Rick Clark from Georgia Tech is one of my favorite admissions bloggers. Even if your kid’s have no aspiration to go there his advice is wonderful through out the years and pretty honest. When my son applied the avg AP amount was like 10-12 AP classes. I know people that go to feeder schools in Georgia and they start AP classes in like elementary school (joking here).
My sons high school avg is like 8 AP. Sure taking like 3-4 a year is plenty for most kids. (starting in junior year). But don’t discount the fact that some kids want the challenge. Also some kids “need” the challenge. My son found the depth of AP classes more interesting and less boring then his honor classes.
Also no high school, I hope, will allow him to take these classes if he is not ready to take them. We are all just seeing this through our own personal lens.
My kid took five AP’s last year and he barely studied and played varsity sports, among other things. He aced every Bc calc exam without lifting a finger for instance. Now would he take AP Spanish or Art History? No, as he has no interest. How many AP’s and which AP’s depends on aptitude. If for example you have to study hours for your precalc exams to do well then taking BC Calc with a slew of other AP’s is probably not a wise choice. If you are not interested in the subject or currently struggle in the subject it will be much harder to do well. There is no hard fast rule of what is right. Some students perform better in more rigorous classes whereas others do the reverse.
A little background before telling my experience. Going into my senior year, I’ve passed 7/9 of my AP exams. My junior year I took 6 IB classes with 2 online AP courses (total of 5 AP exams). Extremely involved with extracurriculars. Maintained a 3.8 UW GPA.
I can’t tell you if it’s been worth it, since I haven’t graduated yet, but I can tell you what my junior year was like since I was essentially in your position a year ago. My experience might be worse since I’m in IB, but I’ve heard that taking a full load of AP is the same, don’t know if that’s true…
The work comes in waves. I don’t know why, but sometimes like teachers work together to assign work all at once and then not at all. Some weeks, you will be able to do whatever you want and have unlimited free time (which some use to study, I didn’t lol). Other weeks, you will be on your fifth day of three to fours hours of sleep, just trying to get through the day only to go home Friday and sleep for 14 hours. I know this seems like it, but it isn’t an exaggeration, this happened multiple times to everyone last year.
If you want to do this, you need to be prepared. It will test you, mentally and physically. Towards the end of the year, it gets really rough. My friends and I used to joke that we would schedule our panic attacks because there was too much to do. Kids broke down in my classes. I’ve never drunk so much caffeine in my life. While I didn’t, some in my 7 am econ class used to share caffeine pills after pulling all-nighters. Definitely not safe, and not suggested, but we put our grades above our health. One of my English teachers even commented “I can tell it’s getting to that point in the year because you’re all starting to glaze over, just stick with it. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
Come AP exam time, you need to take a break from socializing. It sounds dramatic, but since you will have so many exams back to back, you need to take time to study. May was one of the worst months of my life, half because of AP exams, half because of all of the last minute IB assessments we needed to do. I literally remember almost nothing. It’s one long sleepless blur. But guess who passed all of their AP exams? 
But it’s not all bad. If I had to do it again, I would pick the same schedule. Why? It builds character. Success in life isn’t determined by your schedule or what college you go to, but by your work ethic and other character attributes. This schedule will teach you how to work hard and how to push through things you don’t want to do. Plus, it’s great prep for the workload you’ll face in college and teaches you time management. One of the things that helped the most was having a support group. Since I’m in a magnet program, everyone around me was essentially going through the same thing. We all knew the struggle and could look to each other for help.
If this sounds intense, it’s because it is. It’s easy to say “oh I’ll just take 5 APs, no biggie” without thinking about what it really means. This is a sink or swim schedule. Unless you are sure, with absolute conviction, that you can do it, don’t.
6 APs is a lot. I wouldn’t take more than 4. 5 is pushing it. 6 is insane.
AP Bio is very work intensive, as is APUSH. You don’t have to take APs in ALL subjects.
I see you’re going from Spanish IV to AP Spanish, but also from Latin II to AP Latin. Is that the normal progression? One idea might be to stagger them – AP Latin this year; AP Spanish next year or vice versa (languages build on each other – my D did that with French and Spanish to good effect.)
I would say that if you’re a STEM kid, take APs in STEM subjects; if you’re a humanities, take APs in humanities subjects. Are there other honors classes that aren’t necessarily APs but that are still taught at a high level?
You might to better to take AP Calc AB instead of Stats. You don’t want too much time to elapse between Pre-Calc and Calculus. Take AP Stats senior year (or not at all).