<p>I'm a rising junior and i'll be taking five APs at my school this year (English language, economics, calc, spanish, chemistry) in addition to regular physics. I know a lot of you have schedules that are similarly demanding.
However, I'm wondering if this can be a bad thing (besides the fact that you'll never get to sleep because of homework) because colleges won't think I'm well-rounded. By the time I graduate, the only artsy class I will have taken is a semester of Intro to Art freshman year. Next year, would it be worth it to take some fun art-related classes that aren't AP if I had the choice. My school doesn't give me many options because we only have a 6 period day.
I also heard that the U of California system requires a year of art classes. Is that true?</p>
<p>I don't know about the UC question, but I don't think it will be a major problem. It seems like a lot of colleges prefer a passion over being well-rounded these days (both is always good though).</p>
<p>yes on the UC system. To even quality to apply, you need to take one from ech category. Category G (i think) is visull/performing arts. YOu need two semsters/one full year.</p>
<p>you need a year of art to apply to any UC?</p>
<p>Wow, I did not know that..</p>
<p>Don't be so sure that five AP's will take up all of your time. Last year, I took AP English Lit, European History, U.S. Government, and Spanish Language along with three honors-level electives. I had no more than two hours of homework per night, and I got fives on all my exams. Of course, math and science AP's may be more demanding.</p>
<p>For me, chem didn't take much study time outside of class. Labs were time consuming, however..so just know that one night a week will be majority chem night and you'll be set. Calc, just standard bookwork every night...nothing out of the ordinary when copmpared to other math classes.</p>
<p>Spanish was a pain for me, but that's more since my background in the language wasn't very good. That wasn't helped by the mediocre teacher (I got a 3...5 on both chem and bc calc). Alot of my friends got 4's and 5's, however, so I think that with language courses, it really helps to have a solid background in the language before going into the class.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>The year of art requirement is only for one of the three paths</a> for admission. I was admitted to Berkeley last year without having taken any art classes.</p>
<p>5 APs might not take up all of your time, like nomir said. It depends on the teacher, really. Difficulty of classes varies. You might find some are close to honors level as opposed to very rigorous.</p>
<p>I agree, taking five AP will definitely not be as bad as it sounds. After the AP tests at my school, we have parties and watch movies for the remainder of the year ( except AP calc). Is this what goes on at your school? or would you guys still have homework after the tests?</p>
<p>Does your school offer AP Art History? You may be able to take that during your senior year.</p>
<p>I love my AP classes after the tests! we have so much fun. last year the most I did was put together a portfolio of work and write a paragraph summary of each item in it. </p>
<p>I'm a bit worried about taking 4 AP classes this year and every thing else I've got going on. But I should be able to handle it.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, although I'm not as worried about taking 5 APs as I am worried about not looking "well-rounded" because my APs are like math, math, science, english. And I'm not much of an artist, so I definitely won't do AP Art Studio. Senior year, instead of 5 APs, if I were to take 4 APs to make room for some fun stuff, like art, is that better? Will I look more "well-rounded?" Or should I stick w/ five?</p>
<p><strong><em>bump</em></strong></p>
<p>5 AP is not that bad of a killer, but once you get into 6-7 range its an OD to me (well i do go to a top 10 publich hs in texas). It all depends. 5 AP your junior year is SOLID as I only took 4.</p>
<p>6-7 might not actually be bad. It depends on the school and the difficulty of the teacher, which varies. I was originally going to take only 5 APs but now I'm taking 7, 2 of which are online. I would never be able to fit 6-7 into my school schedule because of how block works. I think some AP courses are closer to honors.</p>
<p>I'm taking four this coming year, and I had one this past year (my sophomore year). My school, however, recommends a maximum of three, but quite a few of us are taking four at my school.</p>
<p>Do you all think AP world history would be a hard class to take ?</p>
<p>I found that it was one of my easiest ap's (I got a 5). Obvisouly, if you dislike history, it'll seem harder. At least for me, it didn't seem as hardcore as Euro, probably becuase World is focused more on trends than specific dates and facts.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>If you've taken other history courses, then World history should be a little easier. I've found that AP history classes seemed to complement one another. As a soph, I took AP US and AP Euro, had a HORRIBLE AP Euro class, but got a 5 because the AP Euro essay this year had to do with the Cold War, which I had learned about in my infinitely better AP US class.</p>