<p>I see that many applicants to Ivy League colleges boast over a dozen AP courses, with over 8 AP courses in their senior years... My question is, how is this possible? </p>
<p>At my school all AP courses are at least a full year, and we only have 7 classes a year, so the maximum amount of AP courses I could take in one year would be 7, supposing I got a gym waiver and did no electives (which, at my school, include mandatory Lab classes with AP Sciences). Furthermore, no true APs can be taken until Junior year (Pre-AP US History is offered for sophomore year.) Is my school just different in the way it handles AP courses, or are these other high-achievers doing something differently like taking AP courses outside of school?
(I am taking 7 AP courses, two of which are two year courses and two are 1.5 year courses.)</p>
<p>You’re school is special, but a lot of those are self-study, so that might explain (i.e. there aren’t a lot of schools that offer AP Art History). I applied to a few ivies and I will be graduating with 5 APs. So don’t stress it.</p>
<p>I took 1 AP sophomore year (1 out of 2 possible APs), 4 junior year, and 7 right now. So that’s 12 right there. If they’re getting into Ivy colleges or applying there, then they’d probably be smart enough to add several self-study courses.</p>
<p>Schools have different scheduling systems. Don’t worry about it if you can take the most rigorous courseload you can at your school.</p>
<p>At my school, all AP courses are one year and you can take 6 courses a year; it is only possible to take at most 5 AP courses a year due to lack of AP English Lang and AP Gov’t/Econ. (English and Govt/Econ are required.) My count is 0 last year, 4 this year, and 3 next year, but I will have taken a total of 13 exams since I will have self-studied for 7 exams (repeating either Physics B or Physics C at my school, depending on scheduling issues, because Caltech requires a physics course for admission). Hopefully you haven’t confused exams with courses.</p>
<p>At my school you CAN technically take eight AP courses in a year, assuming you forgo a lunch. But I don’t see how it would be possible; you’d honestly have to be able to function on, like, 20 min of sleep/night. My school is extremely competitive; it would be impossible to maintain a 4.0 taking more than 6 APs per year. No one does 7. Of course, you could self-study, but that’s not at all the same as taking the course.</p>
<p>^Seriously?! You can substitute lunch with a class? Isn’t that against the law? All students are supposed to be provided with a time for lunch, right? That’s why they don’t allow us to do that. Or maybe it’s a state law.</p>