<p>Is it wise to go all out senior year with all APs? I'm aiming for top 20 schools. I plan to play a sport and commit to ECs. Do the admissions officers only look at your Class rank up to the end of your junior year or do they also see/consider the ranking after the 1st semester of your senior year? If I achieved my ranking goal for my junior year, should I still try to outcompete others senior year?? Do colleges see whether you are the valedictorian, etc. and consider that?? ...or do most people want to achieve that for their own honor? I don't see the benefit of working your butt off senior year for that award.</p>
<p>The real question is, how will you look when compared against people who have more challenging curriculums, even though you had the ability to match their efforts? I personally loaded up on APs simply because the lower level classes were never worth my time, rather than for college.</p>
<p>Senior year courses and grades are very important if the applicant
goes ona waiting list especially.</p>
<p>I would caution you that the senior year is enormously stressful for reasons that have nothing to do with classes. If you are aiming at a top 20 school, just doing the applications if you do them right and customize them is going to take way more time than you ever imagined. If you need financial aid, it is amazing how long that process takes - it's not just a form and you're done. One school wanted 2 years of tax returns for personal and business and copies of every piece of financial paper you can imagine. When you add in college trips, scholarship weekends and just getting ready for graduation, it's incredible.</p>
<p>All that to say, be very careful that you don't take such a hard courseload that you don't have time to manage it. If your grades crash, you may lose that hard-won acceptance :-(</p>
<p>Keep in mind that you should go all out with all APs if you can get good grades on these classes. Every year I see thread with students getting Cs and Ds in AP classes that will affect their college admissions. According to my daughter, senior year is the hardest, she said 10 times harder and all her friends agree with her.</p>
<p>i was in this dilemma last year and i decided to go for it, with much success. Here's my advice:</p>
<p>If you are going to take all APs, at least take the classes you are genuinely interested in. Hard classes are a lot easier to deal with if you at least have some interest in the topic. I will warn you that it was extremely difficult for me to balance college apps and hard classes at the same time, but if you have drive and ambition, there is nothing stopping you from doing so. I don't know about your study habits, but its really important to have a very good work ethic, or else it will be next to impossible to succeed. I also must warn you that (depending on how long it usually takes you to learn/finish homework) your social life and extra curricular activities will end up taking the back seat.
...but think how worth it this will be in the long run. it really could change the next four years of your life!</p>
<p>On the bright side, you only need to stress about getting fantastic grades in first semester! I am a second semester senior now, taking all AP classes. I earned some nice A's on my transcript from last semester, and doing the work for that was stressful as hell. ...but now I can relax a bit more and just learn for the sake of learning...basically i don't have to stress about the letter grade anymore, which is just an incredible feeling to have when you are taking such a difficult load.</p>
<p>That's just my two cents on the issue. When it really comes down to it, you are the only person who can decide what is right for you. Therefore, any information or advice you see on here or from anyone else should be taken with a grain of salt. It is easy for people to just say "oh, you'll be fine! you're so smart, blablabla" but you have to remember that it is YOU that must actually do all the work and go through the stress of having too much on your platter. The benefits of doing so, however, could have a really great payoff in the end.</p>
<p>to answer some of your other questions:
-colleges do see your first semester senior year grades. Your school sends this out as the "Midyear Report"
-I am pretty sure colleges do see if you are a valedictorian because most of them like to brag about how many vals they have in their admissions statistics.</p>
<p>wow, sorry this was so long. I hope that I at least gave you a little perspective.</p>
<p>If you decide to do it, start on those college applications just as soon as you possibly can. (Even if you don't, that is still good advice.) huguenot is right about the busy schedule of senior year. It has been one thing after another. Getting good essays together before school starts or early on in the year will relieve some of the time crunch. If you get in, that last quarter you may miss a fair amount of school traveling to admitted students weekends. Also, try to wrap up whatever testing you can this spring.</p>
<p>I've seen some of the posts Columbia_Student is referring to about students who have overdone it, and now have poor grades. Consider your current course load difficulty. Talk to seniors in your school about what the classes you're considering are like. Hopefully, you can find seniors with similar strengths as yours from which to get input.</p>
<p>So far as the last semester goes, I've heard colleges let some grade slippage pass by, but if it is too much they can rescind admission. That happened to someone at our school a few years ago. I don't know how much she slipped, but it was enough for a top school to drop her. Our guidance counselors tell the kids the story and really try to push home the point that you've got to keep those grades up.</p>
<p>It really depends how difficult the APs are at your school, too. Try talking to some other students who've taken the ones you're interested in - find out how the workload compares to other classes in the same departments, how many hours of work per night, etc.</p>
<p>For example, at my school AP English is way harder than any other English class, whereas AP French almost never has homework, and AP Calc assignments are optional but the material is tough. Stuff like that should be the deciding factor in how you plan your schedule - not the opinions of random people online who don't know about your school.</p>
<p>I agree with the posters above me. If you can handle it, then go for it. I have a friend with all 6 periods filled with APs (Gov, Bio, Stats, German, Econ, Lit) and pulled an incredible GPA of 5.0! Personally I'm taking 4 right now and it's all about balance. Best of luck!</p>