Do colleges (including EA and ED decision) prefer you take AP's by the time of applying over after?

OP, you still seem to be confused. You need a much better idea, first, what your targets do want to see in applicants. (it’s not business electives and then trying to cram in online courses.) First things first. Dig into their websites and get an idea what they look for. Become better informed before asking.

@lookingforward I’ve been looking around at results threads on CC for the schools I want to go to and I’ve noticed that most accepted applicants have at least 5 ap scores (few 3s and 4s, mainly 5s). I don’t think there’s a better way to gauge what schools are looking for at the time of applying rather than seeing the profiles of accepted students (not just academically ofc.). I know that everything is taken into context, but most applicants seem to go to schools with plenty of AP’s as it’s apparently very common for many kids to take lots of AP’s (at least >3) senior year so they probably have similar AP course offerings to mine which is around 20 AP’s (for the most part, when they don’t, they do a good job of specifying that their school doesn’t offer AP’s, honors etc.).

Nope.
You need to know what the schools want, NOT what digest some kids put on an anon forum. Imo, you’re doing a lot of this backwards. heading into jr year but tryng to get optics from 2nd semester seniors. It takes a lot more to get into a top college. It’s a lengthy app/supp and NO results thread shows any whit of that. The resume (or a results post) are the bones. You’re missing the flesh.

And what you’re trying to do, with self study or online, misses the whole point at holistic colleges. You need to self match to what your targets want, not treat others’ summaries as formula to be gleaned.

And again, you have’t even taken the next APs. You got a 3 in WG and a B. A lot of kids find thechallenges different when they hit junior year rigor.

Yes, you’re overthinking (your word) and without enough info to properly assess. Top colleges like kids who can seek out the right understanding, a thinking skill.

@lookingforward Would my summer of jr. year be better spent through an internship in accounting rather than online college classes? Does my transcript need more college-level courses for say, NU or should I spend time volunteering etc.?