Didn't know how important AP classes were.

Recently, I had visited Brown University and loved it. I am a junior in high school and had never thought of applying to an ivy league school before until this year. Now I have this burning desire to get into a top tier school but I have not taken any AP or honor classes in the past because I didn’t know how crucial they were. So far, I am a 4.0 student and is currently only taking AP English, chemistry honors and a psychology course at Upenn. My school offers a lot of AP and honor courses which I plan to take more advantage of senior year. I am also planning to join the Debate Team, join the softball team and complete 120 hours of community service by the end of senior year. Is it too late for me to become a competitive applicant because I have not taken enough APs? Am I in the position of even thinking about an ivy league school? Thanks

It is a bit too late to start taking AP classes. AOs will become suspicious as to why you didnt take more earlier especially when you said your school offers a lot of AP classes. However, still apply and see how it goes!

It’s late to start - are you first generation (neither parent got a 4-year degree) or from an immigrant family, not knowing the system? If so, you’ll be forgiven a bit more since you didn’t know. What you can do is start right now with those extracurriculars and push yourself as much as you can; you have another way to increase rigor: dual enrollment classes are as important as AP classes. You can take one more dual enrollment class somewhere.

What specifically did you love about Brown, and what specific things do you desire from your education that you anticipate finding at a “top-tier” college but not elsewhere?

Based purely on my own experiences, I opine that the vast majority of kids who get into Brown and peer schools will have taken a challenging workload not because they knew it was important in college admissions, but because that gave them the most enjoyable high school experience.

Top schools want to see you take as full advantage of the AP class offerings as your school has; not doing that raises red flags with admissions officers. I think it’s dangerous to 1) get your heart set on an Ivy when you’ve clearly not felt the need nor desire to take a more rigorous course load, and 2) get your heart set on “a” school. College admissions are not exactly a science, so you will need to cast your net wider than Brown, even if you were absolutely 100% what they are looking for. There are a lot of really great schools out there for good students who didn’t really stretch themselves in high school (or did, but with less success than others). Do not get hung up on Ivies.