Can too many APs hurt chances?

Applying to College
1

Hello! I go to a small school in Southwest US that offers a LOT of AP classes. As a result, I am going to graduate with 19 AP scores (average score of 4.3). I’ve heard from admissions officers quite often that they dont want you to take too many AP tests. Are they just saying this so that students dont feel the pressure to take a lot of AP tests, or could they actually see me as too extreme for taking 19?
Here are the ones I’ve taken (so you can see I guess the level of difficulty of ap tests I took. I took some easy ones)

8th
psychology
world history
9th
macroeconomics
microeconomics
us government
calculus ab
10th
biology
european history
physics 1
english language
calculus bc
11th
english literature
statistics
united states history
physics c mechanics
physics c electricity and mechanics (i hated this one :P)
seminar
spanish language
12th
research

I guess my question is was this overkill? and could it hurt my chances of admission at all? I feel like im a bit paranoid for asking, but still. If you graduated with a lot of ap scores, could you maybe share your application experience?

Thank you so much!

2

No, it won’t.

3

What is your GPA? What else have you been doing besides studying ?
colleges care a LOT more about grades, standardized test scores and EC’'s than the # of AP classes you took.

4

It won’t hurt you. If that is what your HS offers, then go for it.

5

Have you never heard admissions officers or reps in visits say something like “any more than 6 APs is too much” ?

6

At some high schools 6APs can be enough – it is all a matter of what classes your school offers and what classes the top students take at your school. For top tier schools what you want is for your guidance counselor to be able to check off that you have taken the most rigorous curriculum available at your HS.

Please, stop agonizing over nothing.

7

I sounds like you’ve made AP’s the focus of your high school career. Are you regretting that? Because it’s done now.

8

You will save a lot of money in tuition! If you can use all of the AP classes you will enter college as a junior.

9

Many colleges have a limit as to,how many AP credits a student can bring with them into college. And yeah,it’s done, so what can you do?

For the benefit of other students, please do not freak out and worry that you haven’t taken enough AP classes. This student has gone overboard but obviously didn’t mind the challenge. Competitive colleges like to see a rigorous course load, but the basic rule of thumb is that 6-8 APs is a good number. Note that I used the word competitive. Colleges are generally not wild about academic drones, so if you are taking APs to the exclusion of everything else, that’s when you need to take a step back and think about balance.

10

Nope. Although I have heard many times that 6-8 is “enough.”

@Lindagaf is correct. If you’re grades do not suffer, and you do not come off as an academic drone, any rejections you receive will not be due to taking too many AP’s.

FWIW, I took a boatload of AP’s in HS. When I received an acceptance to the college I’m attending, the regional AO sent me a letter stating how much the committee enjoyed my essays; no mention was made of my AP’s. No need to be so paranoid.

11

@VickiSoCal I kind of am regretting it, as in I wish I had been able to put more effort into extracurriculars and clubs. I wish I had been a bit more balanced, but like most are telling me, I cant do anything about it now.

12

you’re fine… there’s no way more aps would hurt you