<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>I'm currently in my junior year at a Dutch school; my school doesnt offer any AP's so I plan to take some independently (self-study)! </p>
<p>I was thinking about:</p>
<p>Junior year: Micro-economics, biology, calculus, U.S. Politics and English Literature
Senior year: Macro-economics, statistics, world history, German, </p>
<p>Feedback, please? :D </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I would assume there is a subforum here for international applicants? I’m not sure US based posters would know enough to answer your question.</p>
<p>found the link – here it is: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/</a> </p>
<p>Those posters I’m sure would be more capable of anwering that question.</p>
<p>I am not an admissions counselor, but I think you should look at the U.S. colleges you are most interested in applying to, pick your top two universities which you think you have a reasonable chance of admissions, and see which AP classes will give you course credit. Also, since you live in Europe, I suggest you take European foreign languages AP exams since they will probably be easy for you. Also, I suggest the AP European history since you probably studied this subject in school.</p>
<p>Depends on what you indicate you want to major in when you apply. I don’t really know about the economics ones you are taking but the other ones I’ve taken/will take (well not german) so I think they are good.</p>
<p>The “hard” AP’s are typically: Calc BC, USHist, EuroHist, Eng Lit/Lang, & the big three sciences (bio, chem, physics) bcos they represent close to a full year of college-level work.</p>
<p>OTOH, besides foreign language ap, the others are easier to study for bcos they only represent one quarter/semester worth of college work. Note, not all colleges provide credit for all AP courses (such as Gov).</p>
<p>Thanks all! </p>
<p>Isn’t it a disadvantage for me to take European History or European languages? Because it kind of looks like an easy way out, because I’ve of course a big advantage when it comes to history or german (since it’s pretty much the same as Dutch, my first language?) </p>
<p>I want to major in economics, btw! </p>
<p>Ooh, and, I was wondering which AP’s regular American students take, I want to create an AP-package as competitive as possible!</p>
<p>Thank again!</p>
<p>GuiltyBystander –</p>
<p>Here is a suburban better-than-average public school’s typical curriculum for the top about 15% of the students:</p>
<p>Honors everything, 9th grade and also 10th grade except for the APs.
AP Euro -or- AP World History: – 10th grade
AP US History, AP BIO, AP English, – 11th grade
AP Calculus AB -or- BC, AP Chemistry and/or AP Physics, AP Span/French 12th grade</p>
<p>The distribution of AP classes taken by applicants to colleges in the US is very large… many admits to Top 10 schools will have only taken 1-2 AP, some 13-15. The average is probably 6 or 7 for the most selective schools. This is a matter of much discussion. Some adcoms have gone on record as saying they think kids are taking too many APs, yet at the same time, most selective schools say they look to see if the applicant has taken “most demanding curriculum offered by the school”.</p>
<p>Admissions officers always look at AP classes in the context of the school. Not all high schools in the US offer AP classes (and some that do offer only a few of them and/or restrict how many students can take). Students who attend these schools are not penalized if they don’t have a lot of AP classes on their transcript, as long as they have taken the “most rigorous” course load possible at that particular school. </p>
<p>Since your school does not offer AP classes, you will not be at a disadvantage if you don’t take any AP exams. And taking any of them – including Euro History and German – will show initiative and be a plus on your application. If you have any other subjects that you think you would do well in (particularly calculus, for a prospectivel economics major), you might want to take a look at some sample AP tests to see what kind of score you could expect.</p>
<p>In my opinion, there is no need for you to try to do U.S. politics/government.
In my opinion, if you think you can handle BC Calculus, a good grade in BC calculus always looks impressive.
I agree with worried_mom:
</p>
<p>“Ooh, and, I was wondering which AP’s regular American students take, I want to create an AP-package as competitive as possible!”</p>
<p>Chem, bio, calc AB/BC, phys, english lit, us history are probably the most common at my shcool.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much!
You’ve been a tremendous help! </p>
<p>I particularly want to take the AP’s to show initiative and because my school doesn’t offer GPA’s/ranking etc., thus by taking AP’s I can be compared to other students (instead of being a vague case, haha)</p>
<p>I think I’ll go for Calculus, Some social science (US. Politics (though don’t know much about it, it seems really interesting) or world history), Micro economics and Biology this year and statistics, german, english literature, another social science and macro-economics next year! </p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>I would suggest
Calculus BC (not the hardest, or the hardest to get a 5 statistically…)</p>
<p>US Politics is plenty of understanding the concept and not very much fact like in US History…
Statistics can be a tricky course to self study so I’d definitely be careful.
Biology is an easy one to self study although it’s a ton of information.</p>
<p>Thanks! I was already afraid the statistics one would be a bit too hard to do on my own (since I have, like, zero knowledge on the subject)!
I already take a biology course in school (for 5 years now ^_0, strange Dutch school system), so I’m pretty confident about that one..
And I’m still very tempted to do the US government one as well, because I love politics, and I don’t really like the comp gov contents.. </p>
<p>Thanks for the tip about Calculus BC btw, cause I wasn’t really sure about which one to take!</p>
<p>“good” and “hard” is subjective.</p>
<p>With that said, eh, I guess the general population would consider something like AP Physics C to be more difficult/“good” than AP…computer science A?</p>
<p>I would suggest:</p>
<p>AP English Language
AP English Literature</p>
<p>AP World History
AP US History
AP Macro
AP Micro</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC</p>
<p>AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP Physics</p>
<p>and one in the foreign language of you’re choice.</p>
<p>Thats quite a list! Thank you! </p>
<p>Another question: Exactly how important is it to include a lot of science/ exact subjects? I’m not a really big psysics/chemistry fan, I’ve heard it really hurts your application if you don’t take any science courses? (Or science AP’s for that matter? Or will an AP in Biology and Calculus be sufficient? (and maybe statistics?)</p>
<p>I think biology will suffice for the science part, after all you’re not majoring in science…
Many people don’t even take science AP anyway.</p>
<p>I’d recommend you to take German, even if it doesn’t impress the admissions it will probably give you many credits once you get into college.</p>
<p>hmmm, are the OP’s self-studied AP exams (i.e. taken outside of school) accepted for advanced course placement and earning AP credits towards advanced standing, once in college?</p>