<p>I’ve noticed that often the top students don’t take all their AP exams (it’s optional at our HS). By exam time during senior yr, they know where they’ll be attending college. MANY of the top colleges won’t accept AP credit at all or without a 4/5. These schools may allow the student with an AP (4/5 score) to skip a level, but not the subject all together. State schools seem to take the opposite stance. They give credit, even with 3s and let you count these credits toward graduation requirements so you could in theory, graduate early. So if seniors are set on an Ivy or other top schools, have them check first. They may decide to skip the (expensive) exam fi they discover it won’t earn them any credit. My son had 6 APs senior year (9 total) and skipped his Lit and Comp Sci exams since his college wouldn’t give him credit, even with a 5.</p>
<p>jerzgrlmom – thank you so much for all your responses. </p>
<p>You gave us some things we never thought of – for instance actually taking AP tests senior year.</p>
<p>I’ve been very pleased with our school’s approach (small, private, college-prep).</p>
<p>They offer only 2 APs (Chem and Brit Lit), but offer quite a few dual credits through our CC. D will graduate with both APs (most likely 5s…both strong subjects for her) plus 16 college credits that transfer right in to the LACs she’s looking at.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that your son has to want it. APs (at least in my D’s school) are extremely time-consuming. Even the “easy” AP courses are hard because there is tons of homework to do. My Ds school does not allow kids to drop, so even if the grades are terrible, you’re stuck. If your son is not convinced of the need to put himself through the extra work, then he will probably be miserable.</p>
<p>My D took 2 AP courses/3 AP exams as a sophomore, 5 APs this year as a junior and actually managed to convince me to allow her to take another 5 during her senior year. I was absolutely against it, but it was her wish. She was afraid that she would be bored in “normal” classes. Not sure if that is correct, but she believes it and seems to thrive on the extra work. However, if I had been the one to suggest she take so many APs, I’m almost positive she would be struggling now.</p>
<p>I am still hoping that my son will decide to drop one of his planned 5 AP classes for junior year (or at least change one to an “easier one” like psychology or human geography). But as dignified1 said, if they choose the schedule/rigor themselves, they are less likely to struggle with the load and more likely to embrace the challenge. I did warn him that many colleges will accept the A GPA honor student over the B GPA AP student and that he will need to have a true safety school on his list that he is very comfortable attending…he then replied, “yeah, I know, no prob”. AH, 16 year old boys!!!</p>
<p>Seician- I have had the same conversation with my D!!! On the one hand I am proud of her for challenging herself, on the other hand her gpa has definitely suffered. Fortunately she is not aiming for a top tier school, so I am hoping it will all work out.</p>
<p>^^^ I wish I knew what kind of school that my son really is aiming for. He is going through a “I dont want to discuss anything about school or academics with my mother” phase. This summer we will take him (while on a family trip to the areas) to visit 2 NYC colleges (NYU and Columbia) and 2 or 3 Pennsylvania Colleges (UPenn, Muhlenberg and either Swathmore or Haverford) to try to get him to focus on what type of school he wants to apply to. He is just finishing his sophomore year so he has time (although little inclination) to think about this. The problem is that his crowd (the top 7% of his huge hs class) will be all aiming for the top 30 schools PLUS our states flagship U’s. There are quite a few of his friends who genuinely CAN HANDLE 5 or 6 tough AP’s and still pull all A’s…they are that brilliant. My son is very very smart but likes his chill time and has time management issues. I am thrilled that his friends are bright and motivated kids but next to them, his applications may pale.</p>
<p>Seiclan, as sophomores neither of my boys were interested in thinking about colleges. They went on their first official college visits in April junior year (older son) and January junior year (younger son). Older son had seen a number of campuses from summer programs though. There are some great schools in the 30-70 range of the USNWR list - and with the right approach your son may surprise you. My younger son understood the application process much better than his older brother - I think he made better choices for letters of recommendation, wrote better essays, and in general just seemed like a more interesting kid than his brilliant older brother. His admissions results were better than one might have predicted from his grades and scores. (Some of which were great, but many of which weren’t!)</p>
<p>Your son sounds very much like my d!! Based on that she decided she would not be comfortable at a super competitive school.</p>
<p>Mathmom - One year from now, when we have some SAT/ACT scores, college visits aand a better idea of his class rank/GPA, I am hoping that you will help us form a good college list for my son (one that casts a wide net I suppose).</p>
<p>OP:</p>
<p>AP Art History is a great course for a Soph. It’s a lot of reading and memorization, but not much else (unless the teacher makes them do a gazillion projects).</p>
<p>GeorgiaGirl: taking Bio and Enviro at the same time is definitely doable, since there is a LOT of overlap. Indeed, Enviro is nothing but a subset of Bio, and since Enviro is politically big, Enviro essay questions show up on the AP Bio test. Enviro is a so-called ‘AP Lite’, so the typical workload is much less than Chem.</p>
<p>The only possible downside is your teacher – our ES teacher is great, but she assigns a lot of time-consuming project work.</p>
<p>I would say that it depends on a school, a teacher and most important - the student.
At our HS you can take an AP class whenever, as long as you have the pre-req.
Majority of kids take first AP as sophomores and it is APUSH. Then they load up on classes as juniors and seniors. Very top kids take AP classes as freshmen. Some freshmen even take college courses. So it is very, very subjective.</p>
<p>our school allows students to take 3 APs per year or 4 if the student signs a waiver saying that the school recommended against it.</p>
<p>I think there are many ways to do it but the most important thing IMO is to take the ‘core’ APs. </p>
<p>If a student is taking 3 APs in junior year, I would recommend: </p>
<p>AP English Language, AP US History and one other AP- either Math, Foreign Language or Science.</p>
<p>In senior year, take AP’s in the other two core subjects that weren’t taken in junior year, and take a couple others from the rest.</p>
<p>I would steer clear of the non-core AP classes unless they are added on top of a sensible set of core AP’s. The AP’s I consider non-core would be things like Environmental Sciences, Psychology, Macro and Micro Economics, Government, Human Geography, that type of stuff.</p>
<p>Along with vicariousP’s thinking if a student is taking 3 AP’s Junior year, IMO it’s better to take a couple that correspond to Subject Tests: US History (or Euro and self-study for WH) + a science. (Can’t get to AP Lang in our HS by Junior year.) Enviro is a good double with Bio (at least at our HS), and Stats can be doubled with pre-calc.</p>
<p>From the perspective of a parent that has just completed the college search for the second child, I would suggest the following as it relates to AP courses:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>From many college admissions officers - they look to see that the child is challenging themselves by taking a rigorous courseload. This is as important, or more important, than SAT scores at the competititve private schools. (For bigger schools with huge applicant pools, screening on SAT and GPA seems to come first.) That said, the student can’t let their GPA suffer - C is inexcusable, B is undesirable. Take as many as you can and still keep a high GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>If you want to study science in college, be sure to take at least some science AP classes in HS - but, unless you are a really outstanding student, you may not want to use the AP results to skip a college course. Being plugged into classes with others in your grade-year and major will be valuable for study groups, etc. Also, there is a benefit to ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental courses before moving on to higher level classes - especially if it allows extra time to work on the other courses as you already have a good grasp of the subject. For non-science majors, I think this is less critical.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can get a 4 or 5 on the exam and bypass a non-major elective, it opens up options in college. For example, our S bypassed one langauge requirement and two english requirments. That allowed him to decide between graduating a semester early or adding a minor.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My daughter’s high school only weights AP classes. She’ll have completed 7 APs by the time she finishes high school. (1 soph, 3 junior, 3 senior)</p>
<p>Right now she is top student in junior class. We expect she will drop from this position even if she continues to earn all As. It came down to the choice of whether to take more AP classes senior year or to continue to participate in arts classes. We fully support her decision to continue in band and theater classes. And truth be told, the theater class has been a bigger time commitment than any of her AP classes.</p>
<p>We do expect to a “most rigorous” designation. There are only a handful of students at the school who take more than 4 - 5 AP classes.</p>