<p>I have a dilemma. My freshman year, I took pretty easy classes. Well, not all of them were easy, but I didn't take the only honors class available, which was honors biology. Apparently it's not considered an honors, but I'm not too sure. That is the only honors course offered to freshman, besides algebra 2/trigonometry, which I didn't take as well (because I'm in one math level lower, I'm taking it next year).</p>
<p>I'm planning on taking 2 APs next year, 1 honors, and am taking an AP course over the summer, so in total: 3 APs sophomore year. I'm also planning to take 4-6 APs my junior year (if you count micro/macro as two credits), and a few (3 or more) my senior year. All of this is to make up for lost ground.</p>
<p>I've been worrying about this for a pretty long time, and I want some clarification-- will it hurt me (in terms of Ivy League schools and schools of that caliber) that I took a pretty classes freshman year?</p>
<p>P.S. I did well freshman year, even though I took a generally easy course-load.</p>
<p>Also, just generally speaking, if you don't take every honors available, does it harm you?</p>
<p>Well I’m not an admissions officer but I wouldn’t think it would hurt you. In a way it shows growth because your courses become more and more rigorous as you go along. </p>
<p>And haha no! They wouldn’t expect you to take EVERY single honors class, AP class, etc your school offers especially if there’s a lot to choose from. However, if your school offers like 30+ honors/AP/IB classes and you only took like 3 honors classes your whole high school career, then they might not like that. That still doesn’t mean though that you need to take all of them. Just try to take the most academically challenging courses that you can handle.</p>
<p>Besides, it’s just your freshman year 
Now if you were taking an extremely easy course load your senior year, then that would raise eyebrows because it would kind of show laziness especially if your previous years were more challenging.</p>
<p>Thanks man, that relieved me A LOT. Yeah, our school has what, 4 honors classes, and I’m taking 2 of them? But we have upwards of 20 AP courses, so I’m planning on taking advantage of those classes. </p>
<p>And about senior classes, if I don’t take as many APs Senior year as Junior year, will it hurt me? As I said earlier, I’m planning on taking as many APs I possibly can Junior year, while still getting all the other credits I need to graduate. So will not taking as many APs senior year, simply because there are no more I can take, hurt me? I wouldn’t assume so, right?</p>
<p>It’s only freshman year. So long as you take full advantage of any future classes available to you, it shouldn’t hurt you that much. </p>
<p>Admissions officers will get a profile of your school with all the information about what your school offers. If there are fewer things available to you in senior year, the officers will know that and won’t blame you for not taking courses that just weren’t a possibility for you.</p>