<p>I'm applying next year as an international applicant to severel ivy league schools and hoping to get into Harvard, but with 20,000 applicants and 1600 seats, hope isn't enough.</p>
<p>I taking the sat in fall and have pretty good expectations. I took it 2-3 years ago and got 1200 without studying and the spelling of a 4th grader. so i'm aiming for the perfect score this time.</p>
<p>In Israel we don't have highschool ratings but my school is one of the best, and it's intergrated with Tel-Aviv's university. I've taken the most challenging program the school offered that includes 5 Ap level subjects. </p>
<p>I've graduated 2 years ago and currently I'm retaking some of my AP tests for better grades. I'm hoping for an average higher than 4.0. But I'll also have to exclude one of my AP results. so I'll have 4 AP subjects, and 4 reguler.</p>
<p>I was wondering if that's enough. Yes I realize how anal that sounds. but Harvard is tough, and some kids take 20 AP classes. Will my 4 be enough?</p>
<p>Ask a harvard student. A kid from my school got in with non AP's. Another kid (the val) got rejected, and she had all AP's and a 4.4. Who know's. There's no right answer to that question.</p>
<p>There is (virtually) no formula for entering in terms of class prowess. It is good take APs, and some international students go out and take AP exams even though the specific subject is not offered in the country. However, you are international, so it will be more difficult just on basic principle since most need full rides.</p>
<p>no offense to the op, but has anyone else noticed that harvard questions are popping up a lot lately? (not that i have a problem with it, just an observation).</p>
<p>EskimoGirl- Yes, I have noticed that as well. Although I will probably be applying there next year (and undoubtedly it is a good school), I feel like qualified kids apply there just because it is the school everyone thinks of when someone says college. When you ask your six year old where they want to go to college, most or all will respond with certainty, "Harvard." </p>
<p>As I said before, there is no doubt to whether Harvard is a good school (period). It seems as though kids want to go to Harvard for reasons unrelated to the experience the school will provide. Kids want to go there because it's the 'easy' choice, everyone knows it's a good school. Instead of doing a little extra research, (or any research at all for that matter), prospective college students choose places like Harvard, Stanford, and Yale just because of their Ivy name-brand. </p>
<p>Illona86- While your question was certainly meant with good faith and there is nothing wrong with it being posted here because after all, this is a 'college discussion board,' I urge you to learn more about the college process before you ask questions like this. No one on this board can definitively and objectively answer your question because that kind of information doesn't exist. Kids with all kinds of SAT scores, GPAs, and course loads (ie AP) get into Harvard/top ivy league schools each year. [Illona- sorry, I thought you were a freshman who knew nothing about college when typing this.]</p>
<p>You wrote: "I've taken the most challenging program the school offered ..." Let colleges know that. </p>
<p>Sorry, I just realized that my response doesn't exactly fit your question, but it may be important to other readers.</p>
<p>it's cool, thanks everyone for taking the time.</p>
<p>no, i'm not a freshmen, and i'm far from clueless when it comes to these stuff, but no offense taken if someone assumed.</p>
<p>this question was a asked at an anxious moment. and no there's not formula, but certein things tend to get u through more than others. i asked harvard the same question, they said that ap tests aren't really considered while reviewing an application.</p>
<p>as for the ivy league frenzy, i see no harm, but my advice is not to put all your eggs in that basket, u can never be sure when the competition is so rough.</p>
<p>and as for the remark of my international student status, i didn't get it, if u'd like to expend on that i'd love to hear about it. the way i see it, the diversity colleges seek works for my benefit here.</p>
<p>^ Rarely. Only if the school offers not that many APs. If your school offers 10+ APs, colleges like Harvard expect to see at least 5 completed before senior year.</p>
<p>"wow. Think about it - does anyone really have any objective response other than trivial anecdotal examples????"</p>
<p>lol excuse me - i believed the others stated the objective response and i was just offering anecdotal examples to support it. my school offers over 20 AP courses, by the way. </p>
<p>think about it - how are you contributing to the discussion other than trying to downplay others' responses?</p>
<p>Sure, you're right, I was downplaying your responses. But that's all they are, right? They're anecdotes, they just apply to you, they don't apply to the school in the next district over, nor do they apply to a state across the country. I was responding to the person asking explaining that there was no way he/she was going to get a reliable response because all of our responses will pertain to our own situations. There's no way we can say, "you need 6 APs to get into Harvard." We don't know his school or his situation - we cannot objectively respond.</p>
<p>My commend was directed toward the person who asked it, indicating that this isn't the place to ask that kind of question. Harvard's WEBSITE actually responds to this EXACT question. Do some RESEARCH before you ask these kinds of questions. Simply knowing about other people's situations won't help you because we all come from different academic and social backgrounds meaning that enough AP classes for me may be drastically different for the next guy.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Colleges don't consider AP scores in the admission process, except for a few schools like UC Berkeley. In those cases, they only use the scores in a positive way (ie. they only consider scores of 3 or better and ignore the rest). So, you don't really have a reason to be retaking any APs...in fact, many colleges might not like that, as it indicates an obsessive nature about you.</p></li>
<li><p>All colleges, Harvard included, ideally would like for you to have taken the most challenging curriculum that your school has to offer. Therefore, if you school offers no AP classes, you aren't expected to take any. If your school offers 32 AP classes, 3 might not be considered enough, and a student might be expected to take as many as 12. Yet if a school offers 8 AP classes, 4 could be seen as enough. You should really only take AP classes that interest you.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In your case, your school offers 5. You probably wouldn't need to take more than 3 to be considered an academically competitive applicant...although I'm sure they wouldn't look down on taking more. So 4 is definitely enough. If you are rejected, it will be for other reasons.</p>
<p>"It doesn't matter how many you take, as long as you take nearly as many as your school offers."</p>
<p>My school has around 25. There is no way you can take anywhere near that many at my school. Max is pretty much about 12, and acceptance into AP classes is competitive- we have qualifying tests and only the best get in. Yet we have tons of kids going to ivies, some of whom took fewer than 10.</p>
<p>...i could barley handel 2 APs in one year...</p>
<p>i hear that AP classes are completly different from school to school. in a sense of difficulty. my school, so i hear, has some of the most rigerous AP classes (with the toughest teachers) in the area...</p>