how many AP courses did you take
during your freshman year through junior year?
I’m a rising junior and i’m taking AP English Language and
AP US history next year
so I’ll have had 4 AP classes by the end of my junior year.
I wish I had more, but other AP classes are full
I’m pretty upset about this…
I’m aiming for NYU, UPenn, UChicago, UCLA, Berkeley, Cornell
do you think it’s really important that I take more AP courses for next year?
for those of you who got accepted to any of these colleges
or even other ones, please tell me what you think.
<p>If the classes are full, but you really want to study these subjects in depth, you can opt to do independent study for these classes and take the test in May. You can tell your guidance counselor about your AP independent study, and colleges would look favorably upon it since it shows interest and initiative. The school may allow you not to enroll in a "regular" class in a similar subject, and then you can have a free period to study that subject. Or, the school can be an ass like my school is and make you still take the similar, but lower level, class and do busy work for that class while you're trying to study something more important or interesting.</p>
<p>Yeah, that's what I am planning to do.
I'm just worried that it won't look very good on my college app. (transcript) to have had taken so little AP "CLASSES" until junior year.
I guess I could take more APs in my senior year but I really wanted to emphasize and show significant improvements as well as my motivations in junior since I have pretty low GPA in fresh/soph.</p>
<p>I have a classmate that took regular courses from frosh through junior year and took 4 or 5 AP's senior year. He was accepted into Harvard, UCLA, and USC(full ride).</p>
<p>I've taken 12 all together (none in freshman, 1 in soph, 5 in junior, 6 in senior) and 4 college classes. Got into Duke, Brown, and Vandy.</p>
<p>It's hard to give an average weighted GPA b/c each high school or district weighs it differently. Some give an additional .5 pts for honors and 1 for AP while others, like mine, gives 1 for honors and 2 for AP. I've even heard of 2 for honors and 3 for AP. More impt than weighted GPA, I think, is ur class rank, which at my school is based off of weighted GPA and is a better indicator of ur strength in the class. I'd say if u rank in the top 10-15 and have an unweighted 3.8+, that should be fine. This is just one of the many things they look at including ur essays, recs, and such. Spend a lot of time on the more subjective parts of ur apps b/c thats what really makes u shine outside of the numbers</p>
<p>I took three(3) last year (senior '05). Got into Berkeley, UCLA, Emory, Vanderbilt. Only took three my whole life. However, that's the max amount my school would let me take. If I were you, I would take some courses at my local CC or university. That's what I did and I think it gave me the extra boost (since Berkely and UCLA don't know that my school only offers a limited amount of AP's since they don't receive a high school profile.:)</p>
<p>I only have 5 AP's under my belt. During my junior year I took Chemistry; during my senior year, AP Language and Composition, Physics C, Calculus BC, and US History. I also enrolled in courses at a community college (Computer Science and Psychology). I think you should only take courses that interest you, or at least, register only for courses that offer you something knowledge or skills you sincerely want to acquire. Take, for example Lang. Comp. It is not the most interesting AP course, but you learn how to present yourself in your writing well. I regret signing up for Psychology and Calculus, because they were both a waste of my time; however, I had to take them (Calculus BC, because it is more or less required of me, and psychology because, at the time, interested me).</p>
<p>I hope that the amount of APs you have taken automatically gauges how rigorous your course is. I would suggest that you take upon yourself anything that your school offers, within reason. Do not let taking 10 AP's in your senior year suck time from your extracurricual activities. More importantly, if your school does not a course that you really want to take, make an arrangement to take that course. If that means studying on your own (BECAUSE THE COURSE INTERESTS YOU, not because you think it will look good on your application), then study it on your own with an advisor in or out of school. If you must make arrangements with local colleges, or with an online course, so be it. Take the initiative; if want something, get it. Keep in mind that no college or university admissions counselor will ever think lesser of you that you only took what your high school offers. Adcoms look at the difficulty of your courseload, which is not only judged by the amount of the APs you take, but by the depth of and the effort you put into your studies. For the record, I am going to Williams, and I received admissions from University of Chicago.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter how many APs you take as an absolute number, it matters how many you take in the context of your school. I only took 5, 2 by the end of junior year, but my school only offers 5, so it wasn't a big deal. If someone at a school that offered 20 APs only took 5, it would probably hurt them.</p>