I’m planning on taking 12 AP courses over the course of high school:
Human geography
Art history
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Statistics
Government and politics
US history
English Language
English composition
Calculus BC
Calculus III
Environmental science
How many AP courses do certain colleges want? For example, generally, how many AP classes do Ivy Leagues look for? I am aware that scores and difficulty also matter.
There is no magic number. Above 8 AP’s is standard for most competitive schools. As long as you take the most rigorous schedule at your HS, you should be fine. Much will depend upon how many AP courses are offered at your HS.
Okay, thank you. There are 21 AP classes total. How much would that make a difference?
If your school only offered four, no college will expect you to take 8. Since you’re school offers 21, 6-8 is fine. Anything more than that is unlikely to appreciably move the needle on your college application. Not saying that you can’t take 12, but the difference between 8-12 for admissions purposes, IMO, is negligible, with the caveat that your GC rates your schedule for rigor; if it takes more than 8 AP’s to get the “most rigorous” designation on the GC rec, then that trumps anything stated here.
It also depends on which ones. More “solid” ones like English literature and calculus BC are likely to be favored over less rigorous ones like human geography.
How many of those would be considered rigorous?
You have a good list considering only 8 or so have the rigor of traditional ap level courses- things like human geo and apes (idk but probably art history too) are considered ap lites
Human Geography is a “gateway to AP” course that should be taken freshman or sophomore year.
Statistics and APES may count for weighted GPA but don’t carry much weight in highly selective college admissions.
English Language&Composition is only one AP (not two) and there’s no calculus III AP (unless you mean via Dual Enrollment). A foreign language AP, if offered, would also be considered core.
It’s not a number - 8 would be fine and, as SkiEurope said, wouldn’t make a huge difference with 12 - but rather if your choice reflects consistency (do your choices makes sense? can you articulate how your secondary program articulates with what interests you, what is important to know, what you plan on studying in college…?) or the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach (not good).
Thanks, I wanted to make it manageable too
I considered taking AP language, but would it really be helpful? I would have already done four years and don’t plan on pursuing it.
Core APs are: Calculus (AB or BC: no difference for admissions), English (Language and/or Lit), Foreign Language, Science (Bio/chem/physics), any History.
AP lites are: stats, psych, enviro, human geog = should be taken as a complement or because you’re interested in the subject but don’t really add anything admission-wise. Human geog is a “gateway to Ap” course for freshmen/sophomores. All 4 courses are really interesting but should not be taken for admissions.
The other APs are considered academically solid but less necessary than the “core” ones. However, your high school may consider them more important (some may push AP gov and AP Econ, for instance, because they require a gov and econ classes for HS graduation.)
AP Foreign language isn’t required so it’s up to you in terms of balancing your schedule.
The number of AP is not just depending on how many your school offers. There are also restrictions set by the school and scheduling limitation. You should ask your GC how many AP would be considered most rigor at your school. In addition, don’t just go with number. Think about the usefulness of that class for your intended major. The ultimate goal is to get college credits. Not all AP credits would be useful in college. Some credits would just make you pay more tuition at the end.
I really think you’re missing the point here. Would it be helpful for college admissions? No. Would it be helpful for you? It depends on how much you plan on using the foreign language in the future. For admissions purposes, if a college has a number of years recommendation for language, it doesn’t matter if it’s AP or not.
As almost always, @billscho knows of which he speaks.
@MYOS1634 @billcsho @skieurope @Gumbymom @neophite @ucbalumnus Thank you all for your responses. I will take all of them into consideration.