<p>I am a very strong student, straight A's, and have a decent amount of extracurriculars on my plate this junior year. Over my high school career, I've taken 2 honors classes per year, and it's the perfect balance for me. I'm not too stressed, but I felt as if I was challenging myself. This year, I also have two honors classes. Next year, maybe I'll take an AP.</p>
<p>The thing is, I don't WANT to take an AP. I know, they look good for college, but I am incredibly bad at handling stress and can send my heart, brain and stomach into a friz over one test score. To be honest, I just don't want that strain!</p>
<p>So, is it necessary to take AP's to get into a good, solid school? Will I be fine with maybe just one my senior year? I realize I'm in the minority here with my schedule, but I'm okay with it-I know I'm not going to Harvard, and it's the best thing for me health wise-the stress would burden me too much.</p>
<p>what schools are you planning on applying to?. Be aware that Guidance counselors receive forms to indicate if students took the most rigorous courseload. What category do you think you'll be? You also need to know that if one of your peers has a more rigorous courseload than you do and you are both applying to the same schools, chances are they may be accepted over you. Does this matter to you? Since you are acing your regular classes, perhaps the same approach may work for you on a few more honors/ap. When you weigh the situation with all things considered you will be the one to determine what YOU think is best for YOU. Good luck!</p>
<p>if u r enjoying life, then no. if u feel u could still enjoy life with a little difficulty( contrary to CC beliefs, APs r difficult) and sum disapointments along the way, then take some APs</p>
<p>Most schools could care less about the actual ap exam for admission purposes. However, they could potentially save you a ton a money. Just take them and study an hour a night for a week before the test. Shouldn't be too stressful.</p>
<p>Schools vary in their emphasis on APs. A "solid" school is probably OK, but the top ones or ones just on the next level look for rigor. My D also is only taking APs (3) her senior year but because of the way her school curriculum is designed. It is stressful now to worry about how much it will hurt her apps. And what I didn't think of too much before, if your school weights APs and not honors (as my D's school does) it will affect your gpa (weighted) and your class rank. My D has a 3.8 with honors and academic electives and she is barely in her top 1/2 of her class! And this may hurt her.</p>
<p>So if you have an idea of the school you are interested in, take a look or even call them; but don't mention the stress thing; they'll think you may not be ready for the stress of college!</p>
<p>BTW, I am really unimpressed with the AP classes she is taking; just rush through survey courses without depth one could find in a slower paced class. </p>
<p>Huh... I have four APs and do less than two hours of work on them daily.(Including HW, presentations, and the whole nine yards) And I pass tests with 4's and 5's. </p>
<p>I think many people just overachieve and pile work on themselves in the form of reviews and going ahead. Why don't you find out what the class is like? Not what it's supposed to teach you, but how the class itself is like. If you have a good teacher, its like you're not even working. :)</p>
<p>I would say that without APs, you have no chance at the top universities, sorry. Well, unless your school is just like that and nobody takes APs.</p>
<p>Here, people take APs as early as freshman year and some amass a total of 15+ APs by the end of high school. So, I gotta do the same.</p>
<p>It's always a good idea to have at least one AP, and 2 or 3 honors classes.</p>
<p>If you're trying to get into the Ivies or UC-Berkeley or WUSTL or some place like that, you'll want a lot more than one, plus every honors class available to you.</p>
<p>Seriously though, go for AP English. It's not even hard.</p>
<p>I understand that my courseload pales in comparison to the 7-8 AP's people are taking, but it's nice to know that I'll still get into a rather decent school with just 1 or 2 aps.</p>
<p>Only do what you can handle. I've heard of too many people loading up on AP's only to learn they couldn't handle it and getting mediocre grades and getting accepted in to okay colleges. I say you are on a good track, but make sure that getting A's isn't too easy. Personally I would try one AP just to challenge myself. But honestly, eventually you'll have to learn how to deal with stress so its good to learn how to while oyu are still in high school.</p>
<p>I think we just want to know what "rather decent" is. Because I was taking a "rather decent college" schedule until I wanted to open up the school and scholarship options. The state flagship may be "rather decent", but depending on your state, it may be a top 25 (okay, now 26) school. So, is it a tier I, II, III, or IV school? Or what schools are they exactly?</p>
<p>Don't stress yourself out, but do challenge yourself.</p>
<p>It really depends on your school. If your school is the type that takes Honors classes very seriously and basically covers all the AP material anyway, then taking AP classes (or at least the exam) wouldn't hurt. If AP courses at your school are actually much, much harder than Honors courses, you might not want to take them.</p>
<p>Of course, you'll never know how much you can handle unless you actually try it. If you take the AP class and do well you might find you're a lot smarter/better at handling challenges than you thought you were...don't underestimate yourself, you might be missing out on the funnest class you'll ever take :) I thought I'd never be able to handle AP Physics since I was a grade younger than everyone and didn't have trigonometry yet, but then I did really well in the class and now I have much more confidence in my academic abilities.</p>