<p>For Harvard acceptees for 2010--</p>
<p>If we're not trying to do Advanced Standing, the only reason for taking APs is just for self-pleasure and hopefully a feeling of productivity and self-growth? Am I correct?</p>
<p>Well, I know some of us are taking APs to fulfill the Foreign Language requirement. But is there another reason for taking APs if you're not trying to graduate early?</p>
<p>Potential physical science majors should take Calculus AB or BC...
You cannot even start the Physics 15 series unless you are at least concurrently enrolled in Math 21a.</p>
<p>Something to consider: I knew I was going to major in physics, but my school only offered Calculus AB... I got a 5 on the exam, so that would let me skip out of Math 1a... I would still need to take Math 1b, which meant that I couldn't start Physics 15 until the spring...
Well, there are not that many new topics in Calculus BC, so I spent the summer before I entered Harvard self-teaching the remaining topics in Calculus BC and aced the placement exam... allowing me to skip Math 1b outright...</p>
<p>I highly recommend this IF you plan on concentrating in a physical science if you have only Calculus AB... it is important to start physics right from the beginning.</p>
<p>I have no idea if they still allow this, but I used the Biology AP to get waived out of the Science B core requirement...</p>
<p>A 5 on AP Chem allowed you to skip intro Chem and jump into organic chemistry...</p>
<p>AP English, AP European History were utterly useless.</p>
<p>AP Euro was useless? Could you explain? I might get my world history teacher (she also teaches AP Euro) to let me take AP Euro next year (soph.) because I think it's interesting. If it's useless, then I can not take it and free up a period to do something else!</p>
<p>XYZ,</p>
<p>Choose classes because they interest you and you feel they will add meaningfully to your education. </p>
<p>On the admissions note, all colleges will look favorably upon academically strong and challenging schedules, particularly if an out of the norm effort was made to take a class. It shows your ability and desire to learn. HAB, I'm assuming, meant that the score from AP Euro was useless because he didn't get special credit or placement from it. I doubt he would say that the class itself was useless. Again, colleges look closely at your schedule and class choices; just because a college will not grant credit/placement for a course most certainly does not mean you should not take it. </p>
<p>I must also mention that you are, obviously, a freshman. You should not be focused on individual colleges or their admissions requirements at this point. You should remain focused on your education and pursuing your interests. As long as you keep your eyes open, your future and college will all work out. You should not base schedule decisions based on one school. Once you are a junior and senior, you should visit a variety of schools, and your opinions on those schools will most likely change from what they are now. You have a lot of time before college agonizing is necessary, so make your high school years as enjoyable, productive, and meaningful as possible.</p>
<p>xyz...</p>
<p>I did NOT mean to say the classes AP European History or AP English were useless... I took them both junior year, learned a great deal in the process...
I took the AP exams at the end of junior year, and received 5's on both (as well as a 5 on AP Bio), so I am sure that played a small part in my admissions.
If you take AP classes, you should DEFINITELY take the exams... with ONE exception.</p>
<p>I was ONLY referring to taking AP EXAMS at the end of SENIOR YEAR... at that point, the exams cannot help your application, and if you already know your chosen college will not accept the exam no matter the score, then there is no point in paying the money to take the exam. For example, in my senior year of high school, I took AP Calc, AP Chem, and AP Physics... I knew that Harvard would not accept the AP Physics exam (plus my class was horrible)... so there was no point in taking that exam.</p>
<p>If I had taken AP English & AP Euro in my senior year, then I might not have taken the exams because I knew by then I was going to Harvard and Harvard would not accept the scores... but I took them junior year, so I DEFINITELY would take the exams because they could help your application.</p>
<p>Oh, ok. Thanks. I thought that you meant that AP Euro was boring, meaningless, and excruciating to sit in. My bad. XD</p>
<p>harvard<em>and</em>berkeley</p>
<p>You used an AP to get out of a core area? How the hell did you swing that? When was this?</p>
<p>APs may be a guide for which classes you should take but by no means does it dictate which ones you will take.</p>
<p>Even if you are placed in Math 1a you can take any level math that you want. Same goes with almost any other subject (of course you'll get rocked if you don't actually know anything-but some don't do well on placement exams after the summer or on APs at the end of senior year...)</p>
<p>For placing out of a language I recommend taking the SAT II instead - much easier to get 600+ than a 5 on an AP exam.</p>
<p>One of the few benefits that I have seen with APs (besides helping you gain admission) is that if you are going to be an EC concentrator getting a 5 on both micro and macro exams will exempt you from taking EC10 -- though I have heard of people requesting that they skip it without taking the AP tests but it is a bit of a hassle.</p>
<p>Phoenixy,</p>
<p>I graduated in 1993...
Back then, you could get out Science B core requirement with AP Bio, and get out of Science A core requirement with AP Chem or Physics.</p>
<p>They also use to have double core classes... one class that satisfied two core requirements at the same time... but I think they changed... as you can imagine, those core classes were WILDLY popular.</p>
<p>So... I ended up fullfilling my 8 core requirements with only 6 courses!</p>
<p>Do they still have the Quantitative Reasoning Exam? It was a 25 question multiple choice test on statistics you had to pass in your first year... We also had a required computer test that you also had to pass... basically they gave you a problem or puzzle, and you had to write a basic, pascal, C, or fortran code to solve it... you had to turn in the code as well as the output...</p>
<p>harvard<em>and</em>berkeley,</p>
<p>Wow, yeah, things have changed. No double core classes, no core exemption based on APs, no way to test out of QR with the exam. (Was the computer test required to test out of QR? Or to graduate? Because there are people here who probably couldn't pass that test if given all four years to work on it.) On the other hand, everybody is now exempted from 4 core areas instead of 3.</p>
<p>For the QRR, you had to correctly answer 20 out of 25 questions on a multiple choice applied stats & probability test... I think I got the dreaded score of 19 the first time (they mailed workbooks over the summer, but I didn't study for it the first time)... they offered the test every other month or so during first year.</p>
<p>The computer test was a separate, distinct requirement.
You went into a room, and you had as much time as you want to think about writing the code... but then when you went to the computer, there was a time-limit on entering your code, debugging, running, and printing the output.</p>
<p>The problems/puzzles were always very straight-forward, the coding was usually short and easy...
what usually caused people to fail was: not knowing how to log-on, not knowing how to enter the code using an editor, not knowing how to compile or run, not knowing how to print output, etc... </p>
<p>You had to pass the QRR and the computer test by the end of your first year... otherwise you had to take an intro stats class or an intro computer class... something like computer science 1.</p>
<p>AP is great. I can take classes to help me get into Harvard. If I don't get in, and I end up at Madison, I can use my Ap to knock of 3 years of my schooling! (One of my friends goes to UW-Madison. He is a senior in his first year there.)</p>