My 2024 goes to a very tough college prep high school: Top 75 in USNWR national rankings. He’s a rising Junior. There were no AP opportunities as a Sophomore. How many AP classes do you think he needs to get an ED admission with baseball as his hook? He’ll have 3 as a junior. Can take upto 4 as a Senior. He’s currently planning 3 as a senior. That’s it. It seems like the very most a kid can possibly do is 8 at his school.
Think 6 is too few? Think it matters if he graduates w a 3.9+uwGPA at a school like this w an athletics hook? Thanks
At such a high school, there are probably dedicated college counselors who can tell him what rigor level of course selection at that school is needed for admission to highly selective colleges, both as an athletic recruit and as a non-recruit.
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What? Talk to people? You mean face to face?
If he is taking the maximum course rigor available to him, it should not be an issue. And honestly, admissions also depends how good of a baseball player he is. Academic standards at many top schools (Ivy League, T20) would be lower for a top athlete.
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The answer is, baseball aside, as many as is considered rigorous in the context of the school.
The question of how much rigor needed will depend on where he is trying to get recruited.
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None of us know as much as your kid’s guidance counselor- who has the stats on who gets in where, who got recruited where, who did NOT get in. We’re all just speculating because we don’t have last year’s data!
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Talk to the guidance counselor to see if you can get historical acceptance data for kids like yours. Is your kid a top recruit? He may be able to take fewer APs. What level of college is he targeting? The athletes from our competitive high school who go Ivy/T20 have top rigor (IDP and/or lots of APs) plus high grades.
ETA: Our high school is/was a toxic competitive environment where kids strove for excellence in their pursuits. The actual bar may be lower. Taking 6 of the offered 8 APs and getting good grades seems rigorous enough to me.
We have athletes headed to D1 programs like Virginia with zero AP classes. We have a kid going to MIT next year for track with maybe 4 AP classes (as a perspective, my S24 will have 12). It truly depends on the level of the athlete and where you are applying. Your college counselor is your first person to talk to.
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I think he will be a very sought after D3 recruit; lower half D1 (baseball wise). So perhaps an Ivy. I think Patriot league is a D1 fit. But I’d probably rather see him at very high academic D3. Thank you for the responses. His counselor actually left at the end of the school year so I’ll have to see who his replacement is.
The coaches will be the best source of info on this and they’ll tell your son if he needs to adjust his senior schedule. I’d be shocked if number of AP classes is even on their list of concerns given that he’ll have a relatively rigorous schedule. 6 should be plenty.
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So if he’s a rising junior, he’s a 2025. And if he hasn’t started contacting college coaches at schools he’s interested in yet, time to get on the ball(pun intended). Good luck!
Rigor and grades will greatly matter for these. High test scores will be required at several.
In our experience, showing up with a high SAT already in hand opened the door to several conversations. If you are not already planning on this, I would consider taking SAT/ACT early fall.
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The rigor of his course will be viewed in the context of his school, so you need to find out how his course load compares to his classmates’. His school should have a school profile that has that info. If it is not on their website, ask the guidance counselor. Seven APs sounds like plenty to me, but at my son’s school, probably only 10% of the class takes more than that. He goes to a private school that offers honors courses that are considered as rigorous as APs.
My comments above apply to the general applicant pool. As others have noted, the bar may be lower for your son at certain schools where he is being recruited athletically. I can tell you anecdotally that the NESCAC coach who has submitted my son’s materials for an academic pre-read asked very specific questions about his intended senior year course load, as he wanted to make sure it would be sufficiently rigorous.
I would contact your son’s guidance counselor. Ours was able to give guidance based on the experiences of past students who were recruited athletes at the colleges that were interested in my son. Good luck!
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Even without a designated college counselor, the school likely maintains a database (accessible by any member of the administration or counseling staff) which shows who gets in where. This is not rocket science. There will be some fuzz-- kids with a particular profile sometimes get in here, sometimes don’t; there will be a couple of anomalous admits (kid had first novel published and then optioned for a Hollywood screenplay which trumped middling scores), but most of the time it’s clear what it takes to get into each place.
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The issue will not turn on the number of AP courses. It sounds like he will have taken enough in the context of what was available to him. My son was a baseball recruit to the schools that your son seems to be targeting. Not one coach asked about AP courses. For the pre-read, they did ask for a transcript and senior classes. Academically they were focused on UW GPA and test scores, but what was most important was athletic ability. I would recommend 2 camps where my son got the most looks (followed with invitations for OV’s) where there is a good concentration of academic schools, Headfirst and Stanford. The Norcal Headfirst camp is held right before the Stanford camp, so it is a great opportunity to get back to back looks from the same group of coaches out of one trip.
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Agree with others, talk to the coaches or another counselor. Top private schools sich as this will have a counselor available to talk with, even though his counselor left.
For non-top D1 highly recruited athletes they often seem to have to get closer to the actual max rigor offered at the school, and have a higher class rank, but this is still very sport-and school dependent.
Though it seems like 8 is about the max at your school, this may not be true. I definitely don’t recommend guessing given the resources you have at your disposal at a top HS. At the main competitive 2 privates in our region, 8 total doesn’t typically put one in the top 10% of rigor, though it could. Which APs chosen matters more for admissions than the total number (the schools offer almost 20).
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Completely agree with this. The coach (D3 NESCAC) told my daughter her rigor was good and she was all set in that area. Competitive, highly ranked public high school; she took 6 APs total, and 8-10 Honors classes with good grades. Every single high academic coach she talked to (top academic schools) said rigor/schedule was great. She was likely to be an impact recruit as well (who had D1 interest but she wanted higher academics), so her athleticism certainly helped.
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