Has anyone taken 6 APs and had a successful year? My daughter (junior) has signed up for 6 and is confident it will all work out! She took 2 last year (calc AB and Bio) and did great in both of them so she feels she handle 4 more. Just looking for some success stories!
Which APs?
AP BC, Chem, Physics C, English Lang, French, Computer Science Principles
That does definitely sound like a lot. As long as she is confident or has some way to switch classes to regular then I say go for it. Just be aware that junior year is the most recent year that colleges usually look at grades so just be aware.
I strongly advise she take only ONE [1] AP science class next year.
And perhaps save CS for next year as well. 4 AP classes will be a LOT to handle.
Going from 2 to 6[!!!] is asking for major GPA trouble, in this very important upcoming year.
It is critically important that she MAINTAIN her GPA, while gradually increasing the rigor of the HS classes she has taken, but taking 6 AP classes next year would unnecessarily be risking GPA suicide.
She can take either AP Chem or AP Physics AP C next year.
NO college will view her transcript negatively if she maintains her GPA while spreading out those tough AP classes over the next 2 years.
I think it makes her look a little weird. More importantly, she will not enjoy her year. save either chem or physics for next year.
Ugh, that sounds awful to me.
My sophomore son is taking 7 AP classes this school year. AP Physics, Calc ab/bc, AP chem, AP comp science A, etc. He took 3 as freshman and got scores of 5. My wife and I did not want him taking so many but gave in to his request. Hope he can do well. He is on 3 year graduation plan and I am worried about him going to college at 15. Should we be talking to a coach for him? He’s very intelligent but a little young to realize that high school is supposed to be fun and not tremendous amount of pressure.
It’s really depends on the student. My son took 5 AP (CHEM, ENG, CAL, Physics, HIST) and 1 Honor (LATIN) in his Junior year. Needless to say, I was really nervous when signing off on that scheduling request. It turned out that Junior year was his best year with regard to grades. I feel he was successful with the 5 AP by staying ahead and doing all the assigned work. Not falling behind with any reading or summer preparation going into the school year.
I say if she feels up to the challenge, go for it. It’s all about her ability to manage that course load without having to be nag all the time.
Good luck to her.
That’s amazing. I think it will prepare her very well for college and she will likely be more career focused when she gets there. Wish her all the best.
A lot of things step up in Junior year, including rigor of classes (both degree of difficulty and expectations from teachers) and expectations from their ECs as they move into leadership roles. As @menloparkmom pointed, the Junior year grades are critical. After this year most of the ‘hard’ parts of the application are effectively done (GPA, testing, EC achievements) and whats left are the ‘soft’ parts (essays & LoRS).
But: you know your daughter- we don’t. As @SJ8218 pointed out, some kids thrive on the work, and have the organizational skills needed.
We also don’t know your school or the teachers your daughter will have. The volume of work associated with an AP class can vary more than most people realize (one benefit of having kids at different schools is that you see up close the differences in work load for the same core class). One school / teacher might assign hours more reading / writing / problem sets than another. That difference in sheer volume of work asked for made the difference for one of my collegekids with a Junior year timetable similar to your daughter (substitute AP Art History for CompSci): the time required + her EC time requirements simply made her schedule untenable. We were watching, her advisor was watching, and she ended up dropping one of her STEM APs during the add/drop period. No harm / no foul (and no hit to her grades). She took the dropped class senior year, still well inside the ‘most rigorous’ category.
“AP BC, Chem, Physics C, English Lang, French, Computer Science Principles”
I’d recommend talking to your D’s GC. At my D’s school, no one took more than 3-4 APs/year. (Guidance wouldn’t allow it because the work load would have been no way realistic). The GC will be able to tell you the estimates for homework hours and if it’s manageable.
My D’s experience was that the work load in physics C (both mechanics and E&M) was a bear. Totally run like a college course with 10-20 hours of homework/week just for that one course. She basically spent 5 hours/day S/S on physics only, plus what she needed to review during the week. As an engineering major now, she said it was the most useful course she took in HS but a huge time commitment. If your school’s course is set up like that, I would strongly suggest putting it off until senior year.
Also, think about what courses will be available to your daughter as a senior if she loads up like this junior year. Colleges will see what courses she’s taking and still expect to see rigor. I’ve seen students load up 9 - 11 and then have a fluff schedule senior year. That won’t fly for highly selective colleges.
Ok…does this kid do anything else beside study and take AP courses? Any ECs that take time? A job? Whatever?
It seems to me that this number of AP courses would consume quite a lot of time…and would leave precious little time to do other things.
@Jcsood I’m talking to you too…colleges care about more than just academics academics academics.
This is the OP’s second time asking the question. S/he was told the first time around that AP Physics C and AP Chem concurrently would be a huge time suck. A few months later it’s not any less of a time suck. In general, IMO, taking 2 AP lab sciences concurrently is killer. In addition to the time commitment required by virtue of being AP’s, each requires a lot of time for labs and lab reports. For many schools, these classes are either double-periods, or require additional time before/after school. Maybe DD is the 1% of the 1% who can handle these 2 together without the grades tanking, but that’s something for DD and the GC to confirm.
I find these questions are almost impossible for strangers on the internet to answer. Nobody, NOBODY would take that schedule at D’s school and survive. It just isn’t done. And roughly 20% of the class goes to an Ivy every year.
Without knowing the context, it’s really up to you knowing your kid, your school and talking to the counselor.
@RockyPA - I think it’s a lot for your kid to take 6. My 3 kids all took 4 their junior years, and that was hard enough, especially as two of them did spring HS sports. Does your kid have anything planned for the spring when she has her tests? I’d consider that …
and @jcsood - I’m curious as to why you’d want your kid in college at age 15. The social differences are just too great from my point of view. And – if a kid got a college degree at age 18/19 - do companies really want to hire someone that young with little to no experience? Sounds like you do have a very smart, hard working kid though.
My D19 took 5 APs her junior year and an honors Math. To do this she had to continue her two sports to get out of PE. It was tough. She did not have minute to spare all year, but she likes to be busy. She got an array of 3-5 on the AP tests. It did hurt her GPA.
The main positives were this. She took the ACT in the fall that year and got a 30. She took it in June right after school was done and got a 34. I don’t think she gets a 34 if she doesn’t take the AP classes. She is using the AP classes all around to get out of classes in college.
If she doesn’t make a 34 she isn’t at the college is going to this year as we needed merit. If you are full-pay and not hunting merit and looking at elite colleges I would only take 4 APs junior year.
Another note about calc. Had a friend who’s daughter took Calc BC junior year. Then AP Stats senior year. When she was a freshman she had to take like calc II or III and it was tough after taking a year off of taking any calc.
Thanks for the replies… I realize her schedule is not the norm, however in her school most of the high achieving students take 4-5 APs junior year. I was simply looking for others that may had a similar schedule and whether it worked out positively. And yes, she is a pretty busy kid EC-wise, as she is in a pre-professional ballet company and spends anywhere between 14-18 hours a week training (including weekends), rehearsing, etc. She originally had signed up for 5, but then added Comp Sci Principles. Her GC was totally on board with this. Homework wise, English Lang, French, and Calc BC will be negligible (the first half of BC is a review of AB, which she aced last year). She thinks she will have time for the two science courses. I am thinking she should drop CS Principles.
If the departmental sequence is AB is a prereq for BC, then usually the BC teacher breezes through AB review in a couple of weeks. But that’s school/teacher specific.
In general, CSP has the lowest workload of the 6, but again, the teacher can make/break this course.
As mentioned earlier, the schedule is highly dependent on the school.
If she has already taken Calc AB, then BC should be fine. CS Principles is not that hard.
I would strongly advise to avoid taking Chem and Phy C, in the same year. They are the toughest Science APs. AP Chem and AP Bio is doable, but still quite time-consuming.