<p>I've taken many AP which have really given me a low GPA as compared to the possible 4.0 I would have if I took all honors all 4 years. Do colleges care at all? Honors seems ridiculously easy compared to AP in my opinion... but are numbers more important to most places such as HYP? </p>
<p>Err... I know somebody is going to say "both are equally important" and I know this, but say two people apply to a school: one with all honors and a 4.0 GPA, and one with many AP's and some honors with ~<3.5 GPA. Who has the better chance?</p>
<p>AP and IB classes are both more impressive than honors courses. Who told you they weren't? If you're getting "A" grades in honors courses, you generally want to move to AP unless there is a reason for not doing so.</p>
<p>The benefit of AP over honours that I see, is that AP has a standardized curriculum (everyone taking AP will write the same exam in the end, and therefore should cover more or less the same material) whereas honours courses will vary from high school to high school.</p>
<p>Top universities want you to take the most challenging courseload you can. That said, they still want you to maintain a high GPA, so it ends up being a balancing act.</p>
<p>At my school only juniors and seniors can take AP classes (I have block scheduling and would therefore need to frontload in order to take an AP class my sophomore year).
Well, considering how selective schools usually prefer students to take the most rigorous classes that their school has to offer, I'd say to not worry about it.</p>