I go to a college prep school, and adding multiple AP and honors courses would have been a lot considering the workload is already pretty hard (college level). However, I noticed that a lot of colleges say that they look for AP and honors courses, and that when they weight your GPA, those classes will add more weight. With my 30 ACT score, my advanced standardized test scores, my community service, my clubs, my dual enrollment ,and my GPA, I don’t see why the fact that I took 1 AP course and 1 honors class (that I continued to take as honors every year) would affect my chances of getting into a good college. So, did anyone get accepted into good colleges or college honors programs without having a lot of AP or honors courses?
If you’re applying to Ivies or top 20 schools, AP and honors classes are crucial because they show that you are trying to challenge yourself. They don’t want students who don’t bother to take hard classes. It’s extremely rare if not impossible that a student gets into a top 20 with few AP/Honors classes. However, if you’re aiming lower, hard classes matter a lot less.
Honor courses or AP courses (if offered in school) are the main measurements for the rigor of your courses, which is considered very important during evaluation.
While UW GPA from getting As in all Regular classes and that in 5 APs classes may be the same, colleges view the latter one as “more impressive,” as this shows that the applicant challenged and got the perfect grades,.
Also, Weighted GPA changes only from taking Honors/AP courses, as honors courses give +0.5 GPA boost and AP gives +1.0 GPA boost (in exchange for showing challenge). You will be able to see that typical Ivy league school applicants’ GPA is about 4.2-4.3, give or take. It is virtually impossible to hit that GPA without having taken at least 5~7 APs in the high school years. Typically applicants to top schools are encouraged to take as many APs as the student can handle, as taking more APs, and simultaneously getting As, more evidently shows that you are ready for colleges.
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With my 30 ACT score, my advanced standardized test scores, my community service, my clubs, my dual enrollment ,and my GPA, I don't see why the fact that I took 1 AP course and 1 honors class (that I continued to take as honors every year) would affect my chances of getting into a good college. <<<
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I am not sure what college you are aiming for because you said you are seeking “good” colleges, and that term is very vague, as there are thousands of good colleges. In fact, any college can be viewed as a good college.
I need more information from you about yourself and what you are seeking in order to help you out.
First of all it depends on your definition of good. But I am sure somebody out there can answer yes to your question which doesn’t prove much.
Harvard and Yale might indeed be quite picky about AP and Honors classes but then again your ACT score would not be a standout there even though it’s a very good score.
Further down the food chain there are many very good colleges who would be happy to have someone with your stats. Many colleges would consider dual enrollment in the same light as AP or Honors. Don’t stress over things you can’t change. Create your college list carefully and work on presenting yourself in a way that makes the college want you.
It also depends on whether you school offers the courses. Some schools do not and the colleges take that into consideration. The candidate would need to show leadership and other top skills in some other way.
Rigor is very important with colleges. It definitely depends on where you’re applying. Without AP and honors classes it kind of looks like you didn’t challenge yourself, so why would they admit you to honors? If your school offers those courses, most colleges will expect to see them, especially top-tier (and even mid-tier) schools. It is usually seen as better to take AP classes as opposed to dual enrollment because usually those classes are harder to do well in. Your 30 ACT will not be that impressive at a lot of those schools, too, but it all comes down to what schools you’re talking about applying to.
I realized how vague my question was after I posted it. For the colleges that I am considering, a 30 is a high score. I am not talking about Ivy League. Thanks for your answers.
I realized how vague my question was after I posted it. For the colleges that I am considering, a 30 is a very good score, it’s a high score in general. I’m not considering an Ivy League school, they’re always in the news and it’s not good 
Thanks for your answers !
They matter a lot in showing how much course rigor you have. Getting a 4.0 taking easy/regular classes is not as impressive as if you had a higher GPA taking a good amount of AP/Honors classes.
It could make the difference between a waitlist and an acceptance! I’d take those difficult courses, as long as you know you can handle it. Good luck!
If you’d like to chance me back : http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1936230-should-i-be-applying-to-colleges-with-a-15-30-acceptance-rate.html#latest