<p>The number of AP classes you take is subject to diminishing marginal returns.</p>
<p>Meaning, after a certain point, in my opinion, the added benefit of taking more AP’s is outweighed by the drawback of having less time to devote to extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>I think no one should take more than 4 APs. I took 5 APs junior and 5 senior year; my college admissions results were no better than people who took 4 or in some cases 3 APs per year (junior and senior years)</p>
<p>In your case, US History will be a lot of work, and BC Calc might be as well (if you are only “ok” at math).</p>
<p>Personally, unless you are really really interested in AP EnvSci, Human Geo, or Psych, self-studying, while easy, will be a chore and won’t be helpful very much to your application.</p>
<p>Spend that time really distinguishing yourself through extracurriculars. Heck, maybe instead of taking those classes, get some sort of lab or research internship, if you are so academically focused. Or spend that time in your school’s community service club organizing projects, or spend that time competing at a high level in a sport, or spend that time in a debate team preparing cases so you can win tournaments, etc… etc… etc…</p>
<p>I think that you’re okay with the 4 AP’s that you really have. :D</p>
<p>The 3 others that you mentioned (AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, and
AP Environmental Science) are “easier” AP’s. I don’t think that taking those would set you apart anymore than the ones you are already taking.</p>
<p>If you have an interest in Psychology, Human Geography, or Environmental Science, study it. Psychology is really interesting, from personal experience. I don’t regret it at all. It wasn’t hard because I enjoyed it. :)</p>
<p>One more thing, I found out that my school is not offering APHG or APES next year. If I do decide to take them, do you know if I can take the tests at a different school?</p>
<p>Yeah, you just call up collegeboard and ask them for names of testing centers near you. Collegeboard should give you the name of a few schools to call up and see if they’ll take you in as a tester. Make sure to do this around dec-january to make sure you don’t run into any problems.</p>
<p>Forget human geography and environmental science. Colleges know those are the easiest aps and tons of people take it just to add to their transcript. You’ll be put into that “showing off stats” pool. Do ap psychology. Sound fun and from what I’ve heard isn’t a pushover class.</p>
<p>My bad. From reading the other replies seems like ap psych is pretty easy too. I suggest self-studying just one ap but a worthy one. Bio, chem, cal ab, comp sci, physics b and both cs are just some of the candidates that you will give you a leg up in admissions and are doable.</p>
<p>Your only hard one is AP Physics C and MAYBE Calc BC. It’s definitely do-able.
AP Psychology and AP Human Geo are pretty useless IMO (unless you’re genuinely interested/want to major in it). Replace those two with AP Statistics or AP World History.</p>
<p>So would independent studying AP Computer Science A and AP Comparative Government look better than doing Psych and Human Geo? If so how early would I have to start learning the two?</p>
<p>Neither. colleges aren’t going to look at your application and say “Ohh… this applicant is special cause he/she self-studied for an AP test. Now we know this applicant is good at taking tests and good at spending hours in front of a the book studying. Because he/she self studied for Psych/Human Geo/EnvironSci we definitely know s/he is a smarter and more creative person than the applicant who took 4 APs and did speech and debate / organized some community service / was sports team captain.”</p>