<p>Not having many APs because of your school won’t be held <em>against</em> you but it won’t be held for you either. Let’s put it this way. While they won’t discount your academic abilities because of your limited choices, you also won’t have proved yourself like the kids who have taken many APs successfully (earning mostly As, 5s and 4s). They won’t assume you’d have done badly with lots of APs but they can’t know you’d have done well either. So you’ll have to distinguish yourself in other ways. Definitely get As in the APs you have taken, maximise test scores and do important things in your ECs, because strength of curriculum is after all held to be the single most important factor in admissions. But yes, it will help if you self study a bunch of APs- it shows you have discipline and self motivation.</p>