<p>I was reading on the collegeboard website about AP awards and I have one question. Is being a National AP Scholar a big deal? Also is being an AP Scholar with distinction worth anything in the college application process? I want to know this because i have no previous AP's and I want to self-study 7 AP's Junior year and I have 1 AP class. Is this overkill worth it or will I just be wasting my time? I actually want the credits to use in college too, so its not like I am doing it for the award. Please post your experiences regarding these AP awards. </p>
<p>The award itself isn't really worth much. The fact that you have taken 3, 5, or 8 AP tests is more important. That said, I think that working through eight AP exams is a bit excessive. How many AP's does your school offer? In terms of admissions, taking the most challenging curriculum when compared to others in your HS class is more important. If your school only offers 1 or 2 AP's, you should try to take all of those; going above and beyond this and self studying for an AP exam or taking a college course will look even better but you will not be penalized because you didn't have the same resources in your school as someone at another school that offers every single AP course and a dozen college classes. You don't need to go crazy and take as many AP exams as possible to impress admissions officers.</p>
<p>AP Enviro Sci (I have a class for this)
AP Econ Macro
AP Econ Micro
AP Statistics
AP Human Geography</p>
<p>These five will be my top choices, but the thing is I might be only able to take the first two because my guidance office might not let me take more than that. I really want this award because I go to a very tough school and have a very low GPA for my first two years of high school because of certain reasons at home and such...and my junior year this problem has been solved and I am aiming for a 4.0 or close to it. (Yes I can achieve it and I am not just dreaming) If I do these 5 AP's I will be a AP Scholar with distinction and I might try and take 3 more for a total of 8 so I can qualify for the National Scholar award by the time I am applying to college and it will seem more reasonable for my lacking GPA as an underclassman.</p>
<p>The other three that I would like to take are:</p>
<p>AP French Literature
AP Psychology
AP Euro History</p>
<p>What do you think I should do? Should I take five , eight or two or none? Ihave some very very good ec's and my SAT won't be bad at all. What should I do guys? Realistically speaking, I can pull off doing 8 AP's in a single year, but the thing is my school might not allow me to or try to change my mind out of it. What should I ****ing do?</p>
<p>Also, my school offers two AP classes for people who meet the pre reqs as juniors , but I am almost sure that people are self-studying to get more AP's. Also we offer like 10 or more AP's in senior year, but I am only planning on taking AP Calc BC, AP Physics and maybe AP Bio.</p>
<p>My friend took 6 AP's (3 self studied) junior year, got 5's on all, and now he's a National AP Scholar as a junior.</p>
<p>The only two other people I know in my school who were National AP Scholars their respective junior years are now at Harvard and Yale. But I don't think their admissions had anything to do with taking a lot of AP exams (they had to self study some).</p>
<p>Enviro, Econ, HumGeo, and Psych won't be very difficult. Only take Euro if you're strong in history, and then I would recommend World History, too, instead of French, which is supposed to be very very difficult. Finally, only take stats if you're strong in math and are willing to put a LOT of time into it. I would suggest something like gov to replace it. I haven't taken gov, but I've heard better things about it than about stats.</p>
<p>It seems like you're more humanities/math oriented... but if you did/do well in bio or physics, I would recommend those AP's (bio or physics B). The exams aren't much more difficult than college prep level. Only consider chemistry if it's one of your stronger subjects and you had a good teacher.</p>
<p>Dude, just take all math and science APs. If you do really well on them you might get the Siemens AP Scholar, especially if you live in a state not named NY, TX, or CA. I think there is a 3000 dollar scholarship, which gives you a 2426 dollar profit.</p>
<p>Is being an AP Scholar with distinction worth anything? I am just wondering because 5 AP's are a lot easier than 8. I am Definitely taking AP enviornmental Science, AP Macro econ, AP micro econ, AP Stat, and AP Human geo, and probably AP Psych, but I don't think I am going to take the other two AP's because I am not THAT strong in french and in history. What are two other AP's that I should take that you think might fit my reasonable situation. I am going to take AP Calc BC, and AP Physics senior year and probably Bio too so don't count those.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help guys, especially theoneo, I have a better sense about what I am going to take.</p>
<p>Again, pre-med: take the hardest courseload out of anyone at your school, and that's more than enough to get into HYPSM
(obviously there are other factors but if you've taken the most rigorous courseload possible then that's more than sufficient...you don't have to take every single AP there is).
seriously.
now go look at the official results threads for HYPSM admissions--use the search button ^ you will see that the people who were admitted into the class of 2010 didn't necessarily take 483590489 APs...they mostly took as many as their school offered</p>
<p>[[What do you think I should do? Should I take five , eight or two or none? Ihave some very very good ec's and my SAT won't be bad at all. What should I do guys? Realistically speaking, I can pull off doing 8 AP's in a single year, but the thing is my school might not allow me to or try to change my mind out of it. What should I ****ing do?]]</p>
<p>Well, college courses are normally 3-4 credit hours. For each credit hour you spend in class you're supposed to spend two hours at home studying, meaning each of your AP classes should demand 9-12 hours of studying per week. Times eight and divided by seven, that's 10-13 hours a day. Add this to your normal school workload, and unless you're willing to risk lack of sleep or non-4/5 ap scores, you'll be swamped. 8 hours a day of studying would probably be the maximum you could do before your health suffers -- I had a really bad experience with not getting enough sleep while taking 6 APs last year.</p>