My daughter wants to take 6 AP’s her senior year. She is handling 4 APs fine so far this year, but I am still worried. The biggest problem, i don’t see a good way to lighten her load, so wondering if maybe a fresh set of eyes could provide some suggestions:
Lang/Comp: the only alternatives are AP Lit and regular English 4. Both APs are offered only senior year at her school. She has taken Advanced English the first three years, and is absolutely unwilling to go down to regular English during senior year. Besides, English is easy for her - she is a humanities kid.
BC Calc: she is taking AB this year, so theoretically first semester senior year, when all apps are due, shouldn’t be too hard. She also wants to get calculus out of the way in high school so she won’t have to do it in college.
Bio: she has taken regular, non-honors (Honors not offered at her school) Bio, chemistry and physics the first three years. The only sciences left are all the same ones, AP level. She hates chem and AP Physics is notoriously hard at her HS.
Gov/Econ: it’s either AP or regular, seeing how easy D has handled APEuro and APUSH, I believe her when she says the AP class would be just as easy for her as the regular one, and she might enjoy it more as an AP class, since most of her friends plan to take it as an AP, too.
Comp Gov/IR: she really, really looks forward to this class. She thinks she may want to study IR in college and would love a preview of what it would look like in a formal setting (vs. simple news/family discussions)
Research: this might actually be enjoyable if she finds the right topic, and while she’s not focused on getting the Capstone Diploma, not taking Research next year somehow de-values Seminar taken this year.
What do you guys think? Will it be too much? Any drawbacks other than the obvious ones - does she look like an over-achiever mindlessly piling up all the AP’s for the looks of it? She’s taking AP Spanish this year, and believes Spanish Lit would be a lot more work than either 5 or 6. Should she take AP Psych instead of AP Bio even though it is not really a science and a very easy class, just to lighten her load? Thank you!
I don’t think the load is bad, but the research course doesn’t add anything and is likely time-consuming. Ap eng lang is common among juniors, and she will already have covered the first semester of calc. Bio is time consuming, but manageable. AP gov is considered pretty easy, but AP micro and macro are not. If comp gov is a full year course at your school, that will be quite manageable.
Seems like #1, #2, #4, and #5 are the most obvious keepers, and probably not that high workload for her. The others may be more of a question as to whether the amount of work is worth it in terms of her interest.
Are you/she factoring in the hidden class - College Applications and Essays.Students (and their parents) always underestimate the work involved?
The workload involved in any AP class will depend, in part, on the teacher. But Calc/Bio/Lang are generally heavy workload courses. She should get feedback from current students.
Seminar was devalued the minute the CB introduced this blatant ripoff from IB.
Totally about your child! Some kids can easily handle all of that and some are strained. One D did 6 two yrs in arow all 5s, fully involved in ECS and college aps ,other D was straining at 5. Both had nearly same test scores and grades. Really the difference was their general disposition. Will your child be happy? Do they thrive on that sort of thing? Has the previous level been easy?
I’m not sure why AP Seminar and AP Research get such a bad rqp. These classes will absolutely help you improve your research, writing, speech and group project skills.
Getting a great HS education is not just getting into college but developing the skills to be able to excel in college and career.
I would drop #6 and find something else. Maybe she can take a CC class instead. To me, spending one whole year to take a AP Psych class (for example) doesnt seem efficient when she could take the class in CC and be done with it in one semester.
Hey, I did 6 APs my senior year, it was rough overall but at least at my school, the teachers are aware that college applications suck sometimes. Also, after fall, it is smooth sailing, you finish all your apps etc and then you’re good for the rest of the year. My best advice would be have her start apps in the summer, the common app essay should be out by then, and then perhaps, if they are out, look at and write up the supplements for some of her top choice schools.
If she’s a humanities kid and her major is non-stem, you do not need AP Bio, I cannot believe the school does not offer a college prep class like physiology or genetics.
“The only sciences left are all the same ones, AP level.”
Are you saying everyone in the hs takes an AP science senior year? Even if they’re not interested in a stem major? Again, seem really hard to believe.
@theloniusmonk, no, there is no physiology nor genetics. From what I understand, humanities kids either take three years of science, or they take an AP senior year
Without reading the entire thread my son did this schedule with 6 APs with multivariate Calc. He got all As. This is at an all honors school. The year before he only took 2 AP due to his schedule. He found the All AP year easier then his all honors classes and liked the extra depth.
Also he did the AP seminar /Research. He sucked at writing and took this to improve on that. He is a great writer now. It has nothing to do with getting the Capstone diploma. It is not that much work till second semester when your actually writing the paper. They give you a lot of time to do this. His research, I am confident helped him get into some colleges. His freshman writing course was a breeze after taking this course and his instructor at Michigan made a comment about the course in a positive note. He also did a leadership course over the summer through Michigan and the week long seminar was on research and writing. He said everything that was taught in the research part of the capstone was covered in this high school course.
He still thinks this AP course was one of the most useful class he took in high school. Had nothing to do with getting college credit for it BTW. He is also a confident speaker and runs a student org and gives weekly small lectures. He got this all from that class.
Ok I think you’re fine taking three years of science, since you’ve taken bio-chem-physics sequence. I googled a few selective schools and they only require three as long as you’ve taken those three. For non-stem students, the first stem course they want to see is Calculus (assuming hs offers it), so you’re totally fine wrt your D’s schedule. I would drop AP Bio, of course discuss with her and GC as well. Good luck!
What are your daughter’s interests? Does she have a strong idea about what she wants to study in college ? Is she gunning for a top 20-30 school? Is she particularly spectacular/talented in some EC or a sport that take a lot of hours? I agree with posts above. Many students can handle the rigor of 6 APs and really, they are fine…but just breaking it down to cost/benefit on paper might help your daughter decide.
D19 pursued academic rigor in both areas of interest plus the core academic areas (math, english)…because she is not an exceptional standout in any one EC (or area such as music/drama/sports) and she had a few highly ranked schools on her list of reaches, she felt she needed to push as much as possible academically. She took 6 AP/IB’s last yr and 7 AP/IB classes this year.
The reality for the top ranked schools…it’s the norm, at least for unhooked students, to take the most rigorous class work they can be successful in and that means 6 AP’s is not written off as ‘superfluous’. I would just say take a look at whether or not your student can be successful in rigorous classes in her areas of interest and core academic areas first, before loading on more AP’s, even if she thinks she can do those extra ones. Jr. year, my D19 opted out of APUSH because she decided the hours needed to do well in that class wasn’t worth taking away from AP/IB classes in areas of genuine interest (french, philo, psych,bio) and higher level classes in core academics (BC Calc, HL 1/AP Lang), and her EC interests. None of her friends were in her US history class because they all took APUSH, but she still doesn’t regret it:). She would not have wanted to modify her EC’s and sports junior year for APUSH. However, she did decide in advance to drop her Fall sport senior year because she was not comfortable committing to the hours needed to practice (both over summer, due to working/interning, and during Fall semester which starts mid-August for her HS) given the school workload and time needed for completing college apps. She could have dropped the IB diploma so as to not have to take some of the IB classes in areas of lesser interest but the cost/benefit of continuing in her sport just wasn’t worth it to her. This choice of ECs vs. rigor is one they all generally face. My other kids would never give up their sport for rigor and I wouldn’t want them to. I know some students whose special interests and talents take a tremendous amount of time and thus they pursue rigor very judiciously. Obviously colleges value those students or the whole idea of holistic approach to admissions wouldn’t exist. Some kids don’t have to choose because they can do it all:). Good luck!
@Knowsstuff, thanks for your post, it was very helpful. D is a good writer, and Seminar is easy for her, so hopefully Research won’t be too hard, either. I got some positive feedback on the skills learned at Capstone classes, happy to get one more vote of confidence to support it.
I feel better about her schedule, but we agreed that if in the fall she gets to her AP Bio class and it’s a new teacher (either a total unknown or the one who used to teach AP Bio a few years back and left, who was notoriously difficult), then she would just drop the class for something else. Thanks everyone!
Remember that dropping a course will be reported on the mid term counselor report to the college and unless it is substituted with a course of equal rigor, it will be noted by the AO.
She will have to notify every single college she applied to if she drops a course (because applicants put their senior year schedules on their applications). For the schools she may already have been accepted to (whether ED, EA and/or rolling admissions schools) she will need to get their approval to drop the class, or risk being rescinded.
@Mwfan1921, again, I meant the first few days of school in August, before any of the apps are even submitted. D simply won’t know until the school starts if a “reasonable” AP Bio teacher stays for the next year. If the answer is yes, she’ll keep the class, if not, she’ll take another non-scientific elective roughy away and colleges would never know.
