<p>It's not so much about AP English as it is about most rigorous courseload possible.</p>
<p>Your counselor isn't wrong about SAT writing. As you might know, writing used to be an optional SAT II subject test, but after its incorporation into the SAT reasoning test (in a way to make the test more "difficult"), the writing subject test was discontinued. However, many colleges still view it as a subject test.</p>