<p>I've heard from some friends of mine that taking too many AP tests (say, 12+) actually negatively impacts your chances of getting into prestigious colleges. Apparently, colleges think that taking lots of AP tests means that you're just trying to impress them, and will hurt more than help your chances.</p>
<p>Any opinions? Or by approximately what # would it be bad (I'm planning on at least 12 total by end of junior year)</p>
<p>I think it’s only bad in a sense that it may lead top colleges to think that you spent your entire high school career on academics instead of doing anything else. I’m sure you’re aware that prestigious universities want a well-rounded student, and that can be hard to do with such a rigorous schedule. But if you have strong ECs and can handle all those APs while maintaining your ECs, go for it.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t like Anti Social Robots.</p>
<p>i think enhancing your schedule’s rigor by taking AP classes helps, but self-studying, in terms of college admissions, is useless and does make you appear to be an antisocial studying robot. not saying you are, but it may appear that way. i doubt it would hurt your chances that much though, but when a college admissions officer looks at the AP score section (if they even do) and sees environmental science, psychology, etc. with 5 next to it, i doubt it’s influencing their decision much. it may help in “lower-tier” (quotes because i don’t like “ranking” colleges per se) schools but i doubt it helps once you get up there. i feel your time would better be spent getting involved with your friends or your community or doing something you like or whatever. just in general, not in the college admissions sense.</p>
<p>Wynter is absolutely right. If your high school offers many AP courses, take as many as needed to show the rigor of your course load. But DO NOT do self-study. If your HS has few APs, then sevarl self-study will demonstrate your willingness to learn.</p>
<p>I have a social life 
does EC’s such as varsity tennis count? yeah very stereotypical, but our school’s going to win regionals next year I think…</p>
<p>Anyway, just asking for recommendations. I was dumb this year and took the calc AB test rather than self studying for BC, which took me about 3 weeks to selfstudy after the AP tests. I’m taking multivariable calc at a local college during the summer and it’s pretty easy (so should I actually take the BC test at all?). also should I just not take ap stats, cus 1 more math AP is hardly going to matter? (and spend my time on studying for stuff like F=ma instead…) or is stats different enough to be worth consideration?</p>
<p>AP’s in plan for next year:
certain (as in, taking the class): Bio, PhysB, Compsci, either Psych/Stats, Macro+Microecon
possible: Spanish (though I’ll probably just take IBSpanish instead)
selfstudy: Chem (yeah i know it’s not recommended but I’m halfway done)</p>
<p>I also took APUSH/Euro already; should I just not take either of the gov’s?</p>
<p>thanks for any feedback.</p>
<p>If you still have a good number of ECs and devote significant time to them, as well as have a social life, then it definitely wont hurt you by taking so many APs.</p>
<p>^Exactly. As long as you can prove you’re just as active out of school as you are in school, I say go for it. I would definitely take the BC exam, but not the stats exam. I have faith you can score well on the chem exam, as I did with a very poor class which I probably could’ve done without. I wouldn’t bother with the govs, and I would recommend taking AP Spanish. Good luck with all this & to your tennis team!</p>
<p>Honestly, I took 21 AP tests total, 18 just last year. I have a flourishing social life and extracurriculars. Just because you take a lot of APs doesn’t mean that you’re an “anti-social robot”. Also, some colleges may look down on you, but as long as you spin it the right way, you will be fine.</p>
<p>Example: 2 guys at my school took 22 APs, one’s going to Harvard, the other’s going to Princeton</p>
<p>So, don’t think that APs will weigh you down. However, if you have no ECs, then you will look like a test addicted freak. not to be contradictory, but college are looking for more than just someone who likes to take tests.</p>
<p>Besides colleges seeing you to mainly focus on academics, if you take to many, stress out, and score poorly on the exams and/or have grades in most of those classes at school below a B, then they see that you overestimated yourself and it has harmed your GPA.</p>
<p>thanks everyone for your feedback :)</p>