This discussion was created from comments split from: Brown University Class of 2019 RD Applicants.
I am a rising senior and I have only taken 3 Ap’s so far. By the end of senior year, I will have taken 5 Ap classes. Our school system didn’t allow freshman to take Ap and sophmores had about 3 Ap’s to choose from. Does anyone on this forum know of someone who took only a few Ap classes but still got admitted into a prestigious university (preferably Brown)? Thanks!
@kiwi1422 Most colleges, including ivies, their decision in the context of your high school. At my school, you can’t take APs until junior year. To add to that, my school only has six AP classes and so far I’ve gotten into schools like Northwestern, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. The adcoms won’t give you less of a chance if your school has less opportunities for you.
This discussion was created, and thanks to @joegoe, can now be ended. He is 100% right.
But…you can seek opportunities and take online AP classes outside of your school. That was brought up at an info session. And there are guaranteed scholarships online making them free. So you can’t always fall back on the argument “my school didn’t offer it”. Just a heads up.
Perhaps not always, but often.
While it is true that there are resources outside of school, if the school does not allow you to utilize the resources in lieu of part of their curriculum, you are unable to avail yourself to those resources without sacrificing something else. As there are only 24 hours in the day, I highly doubt that Brown, or any other school, is a proponent of AP’s at the expense of meaningful EC’s.
I had 16 AP’s (4 online outside of the school) with a lot of long term meaningful EC’s, leadership, National Awards, and a social life. I just got into Brown PLME ED, so I am not a good person to argue that with. 
I guess I’m saying I would not leave anything to chance. I would be proactive and not blame anything on my school, if there was any other way around it. At the end of the day, people can find ways to get it done it they desire to. And to clarify, what I said earlier was brought up at an Ivy info session. They did not take lightly to a question from someone in the audience that suggested they were a victim of their school’s offerings. They clearly stated “Then you need to go outside of your school and seek out other opportunities. There are plenty out there.”
@lax1997 Thank you for the advice. I do not intend to argue with anyone as arguing will not solve anything. I am not at all, if I came off as, blaming it on my school. I didn’t word my question as clearly as I should have. I stated my school’s standards not to blame the school but to explain my current situation. I assure you that I am not a person who will blame anyone but myself for the lack of Ap’s ( I would love to take online courses if anyone could suggest a source). I have to help out with my parent’s restaurant and care for my siblings so I do not have time to spend on extracurriculars etc. I agree that one must take action instead of “mourning” and making excuses. Again, thank you.
@JoeGoe Thanks! I will keep that in mind and congratulations on your acceptances!
I honestly think it will be a sad state of affairs if Brown or any college starts expecting students to take AP classes online. The real question is not “how many AP classes have you taken” but “how have you challenged yourself academically?” There are many ways of doing that without AP classes. BTW, that is a question I often ask students in interviews.
Brown has always stated that your transcript is considered in context with your high school’s curriculum. My daughter got into Brown with 3 APs – her school offered 6, and 2 of those were in languages she didn’t take. (And I would have only endorsed her taking online APs if she came to me and said, “I’m so bored in school I need to take more challenging classes.” And NOT if she said, “I need to take AP classes to get into college.”)
If it makes you feel any better, I think @lax1997 was arguing with me, not you.
I’m not doubting you, and I do agree with you to an extent. However, to reframe it using the original poster as an example, I doubt (only my opinion, mind you) that the AO would say to seek out online options at the expense of kiwi taking care of his/her siblings or working to help the family put food on the table.
BTW, congrats on PLME; I read your stats, and in my opinion, I do not think that those 4 online AP’s were what moved the needle over to the accept column.
I should have just listened to @Iwannabe_Brown and just closed the thread earlier 
@fireandrain Thank you for your answer. That is greatly comforting to hear from an experienced parent. Also, congratulations to your daughter!
@skieurope Oops, I didn’t realize that. Thank you all for your help! It is a true pleasure to know that there are people out there who’s willing to give advices.
I was joking about “arguing” about the AP’s. Should have used a better choice of words. Was in a hurry to get to an event at school and really didn’t think carefully about how my words would come across. I took the AP’s outside of my school because I was interested in those subjects and my school didn’t offer them and yes I agree it probably had zero impact on my app since I had so many others. I took AP’s in school because that is where I don’t feel bored. I did not know the context of your situation @kiwi1422 Something similar was also brought up at the info session. Someone asked if it would be held against them if they had to work to help support their family so didn’t have time for a lot of AP classes and they unequivocally said absolutely not. I wasn’t trying to say you were blaming your school at all, I was speaking in general terms. I was just trying to say if someone without unusual circumstances tries to say they didn’t have opportunities because of their school, it may be an issue based on what I heard at the info session. I totally see your side and @skieurope as well. I guess I really put my foot in my mouth in my haste. I certainly didn’t intend to argue with anyone. Was just trying to put more info out there for people to draw their own conclusions from.
The key is that you challenged yourself. If your school has no AP courses and you do some other intellectually stimulating activity instead of online AP courses no one is going to care that you didn’t take APs. No need for unusual circumstances to “excuse” not taking online AP courses.