<p>I hope you don't mind if I ask you guys a question, but I guess that's what this board is for... All I've heard from college admission officerss/information session is that high schoolers should take opportunity of the toughest courses offered (APs in other words). But my college counseler told me that I should only take APs if I truly enjoy the subject matter. Therefore, this year (and probably next year too) I am not going to take any science or math related APs because I do not have an interest in those areas (I'll just take honors courses instead). This year I am only taking one AP course (AP History). Is this detrimental to my application/transcript? I plan to take APs outside of science and math, but will admission officers view my choice as laziness? I know that I am capable of doing AP work, but I truly do not enjoy the courses which would probably result in my doing poorly. I would rather stick with subjects that I truely have a passion for. How do admission officers take this into consideration in comparison to students who take as many APs as possible in order to please admission officers?</p>
<p>Yeah i would like to know also....my school doesnt offer AP english for 9th/10th grade so i had to take honors which gives me less total AP's :(.</p>
<p>Anyone that can help out us lost people?</p>
<p>If your school didn't offer it, they won't hold it against you. If it did, competitive schools will wonder why you didn't take them. So yes, it really is bad for you. The idea is that even if you don't like it, you should be able to pull through it with good grades because you're a hard worker, and it only goes to show your determination more if you did it, not enjoying it.</p>
<p>Then again, colleges now are also looking for the human side in people, but that doesn't mean you're still not at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>TakingBackSaturdayx: There are only two AP english courses: Language and Literature. How many APs do you have total? 10ish should put you in the competitive range for top-tier schools, assuming there were at least that many offered.</p>
<p>Great! Thank you so much for the help...guess I'll load up the courses senior year!</p>
<p>Olo:</p>
<p>just for perspective, our HS will not allow any Frosh or Soph to take AP's, so taking 10 is just plain impossible, but, hopefully, adcoms understand our curriculum design. Also, I've read on cc that the average # of APs for martriculants to Stanford is 5.</p>
<p>OP:</p>
<p>highly selective colleges prefer to see 4 years of each academic subject, including foreign language. But, if your not a science person, I would definitely not take AP Physics just bcos it looks good.</p>
<p>Well, the problem I have with foreign languages is that this year (junior year), I'll be taking Honors Spanish 4 which I plan on dropping senior year. The reason is because I'm taking Honors Chinese 3 this year and Honors Chinese 4 next year and there is no way I can fit 7 classes into my schedule (which I tried to do this year). Will high school courses up though Honors Spanish 4 and Honors Chinese 4 make up for not taking AP Spanish?</p>
<p>yes, bcos AP Span is typically considered Yr 5</p>
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<p>.< Gahh...I hate Spanish. It ruins everything. I can't take AP Spanish anyways because I need to be in the Intro to AP Spanish class which conflicts with my schedule. So I guess there's no point in asking about that anyways. </p>
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<p>Ok, so I don't take AP Spanish or any AP Science course, but I take more AP courses in English and History courses to make up for it. Do I need an essay explaining my choice of APs or is it just better to take one AP for each subject. I'm so confused. @_@</p>
<p>thats weird...at my school they only have 3 yrs of spanish and then AP...and Olo i will have 6 AP's and 3.5 Honors by graduation. Do colleges count how many AP/Honors you take as a freshman even though they dont count your freshman gpa?</p>
<p>Well, there are two AP Spans, language and literature, similar to English. Language is typically taken Year 4, and Literature Year 5. I don't see a reason why you didn't take AP Spanish Language this year instead of Honors Spanish 4, unless of course it wasn't offered.</p>
<p>My junior high only offered two AP classes between 9th and 10th grade, so I understand where you're coming from. Fortunately my senior high has no caps whatsoever. Most of the people in the top quintile of my class have 8-14 AP classes by the time they graduate, if that puts it into perspective.</p>
<p>Remember: you're judged against your opportunities. If you could have and you should have, but you didn't, it looks bad. If you couldn't have and you didn't, then there's really no problem.</p>
<p>Best of luck to both of you,
- Timur S.</p>
<p>TakingBackSaturdayx: I believe you misunderstood whomever told you colleges don't count freshmen GPA. Most do. The only upper-tier school that doesn't, I believe, is Stanford.</p>
<p>Even at Stanford though, I believe they'll look at your Honors/AP classes, in fact, I'm sure they do. They want to know you're challenging yourself.</p>
<p>6 AP and 3.5 honors are meaningless quantities. Express them as how many you took vs how many you could have taken. The point I'm trying to make is, 6 APs look really good coming from some schools. At some, that's the most they offer. At some schools though, 6 isn't even half of what some people take.</p>
<p>Oh i dont plan on ivy league but i do plan on upper "echelon" level schools.</p>
<p>What upper "echelon" schools, specifically? I see you're in California... CalBerkeley is instate for you, which is nice.</p>
<p>haha</p>
<p>WEST POINT (my number one choice)
Duke
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Vanderbilt
University of Florida
Emory
UCLA</p>
<p>honestly i hadnt really thought of any instate schools except UCLA. I kinda wanted to go back east but im re-thinking it since I know itll be easier to get in-state for the UC's</p>