AP Courses

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

<p>I’m currently a sophmore interested in going to Brown in the future and had a question about taking AP courses. Currently I have not had the advantage of taking AP courses, but last year I did take Advanced College Prep Biology, which was the highest class I could take in science as a freshman. Also unfortunately in math in 8th grade I was in Algebra 2 and I did so well my teacher told me to take an extra class of Algebra my freshman year in order to move up a level for sophmore year (or this year) and am doing very well currently and I feel I could do the level 0 workload and succeed in it. Its just too bad I was reccomended for the wrong level in 8th grade. Level 0 sophmore year you do not take the AP exam though, my school has very limited AP courses and most of them are junior and senior year. Currently I am taking Advanced College Prep Chemistry and doing well, but they don’t let you into AP Chemistry without first completing the course I am currently enrolled in. I am also in advanced english and history in a combined one of a kind course called Global Thought which extends two periods long and finally if I do well in that next year I get to take American Thought which is the same kind of class except AP. So I guess what I am trying to get at here, are AP classes that important in getting into Brown or can you do fine without taking that many? I mean I will take AP classes, but not as many as I would like to and I have looked at the other applicants on this board and other Ivy League school boards and everyone seems to be taking any AP class their school offers. Unfortunately I can’t do this, even though I would like to and feel I could handle it very well. Luckily for me I do good extracurricular work as well, currently soccer, Indoor Track, and then I play on a club soccer team in the spring as well as volunteering at my local community access channel providing them with material to broadcast that me and my friends make ourselves in our spare time for our own enjoyment and my mom is seated on our town’s Youth Services Group, so I help out quit a bit with that as well. This coming summer I am working very closely with my friend’s father who is a doctor and I am interested in becoming one myself so he has offered a position in his office for me to help out with. Once again I am just wondering if the AP classes would affect my chances of getting into Brown or not. Thanks everyone, it is greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>Chris</p>

2

<p>It's not about the number of APs you take, but about the number you take compared to the number your school offers. Take as many APs as you can, but obviously, Brown knows that you can't take an AP that's not offered by your school (unless you want to do an independent study... but obviously they don't expect you do to that).</p>

<p>With your application, Brown gets what's called a "school profile" that will give them a lot of information about your school, such as what percent of students in each graduating class typically go to college, how many APs are offered, how class rank is calculated, etc. Your counselor is also asked in his/her rec letter if you've "taken the most challenging course of study available to you" or something along those lines. Brown basically wants to know if you've challenged yourself and made the most of your high school environment. So take the APs you can, and show that you're excited to learn more at Brown!</p>