By the end of junior year I will have 6 APs (1 self-studied) and will be taking 6 senior year (if you count Physics C as 2). My question is will colleges count my senior year APs into my course rigor because I feel that 6 APs in 9-11 is average but 6 APs in 12 is better.
Yes. But actually, your GC ranks your rigor; the vast majority of colleges just look to see where the check mark is.
IMO, once you get to 6-8 AP’s total, each additional AP will add little to your college application.
Colleges will look at your 12th grade course rigor.
6 senior year is way too many. Remember that you’ll have the equivalent of an extra writing-intensive class when in the fall you write all the apps.
Choose 4 AP 's that make sense(=2-3 + physic c e&m) - as Skieurope said above, once you have 8 total, the law of diminishing returns applies.
^ I agree. 6 AP classes is straining yourself. Senioritus will kick in whether you want it to or not. It is important not to stress yourself. Having 6 AP classes could stress you out to the point where your grades start to drop. 4 AP classes would be a lot better. If you have the free time, take 2 fun classes like Shop, Personal Finance, any class you think is interesting.
6 AP’s sounds ghastly: I’d stick to 3-4 APs senior year. You may also want to bear in mind that most colleges will not accept AP exam scores lower than 4 for college credit. There was a recent article in the Boston Globe about a consortium of NE Colleges (including Harvard) who have changed their admission strategies to look at the whole person (not just their grades), to relieve the stress of college applications.
Of course, the difficulty and workload of 6 AP courses depends on which ones.
I can say it does truly depend on which AP classes you take.
For me, I’m doing 6 senior year. (English Lit, Bio, Calc BC, Physics C, Micro-Macro, Spanish Lang). But I rarely feel swamped with homework. It’s all about time management. However, diminishing returns does kick in (especially for easier APs), so it is to your benefit to do those classes mostly because of your interest (and for me, all of these classes were the natural progression of my education barring Micro-Macro from APUSH).
I will say work especially hard 1st semester, because if even a single grade slips somewhat drastically, it can wipe out any advantage taking all those classes gave you. My lowest was an A- in Spanish for example.