I’m currently a sophomore in HS, and I took this year relatively easy just to get some elective credits out of the way, like art and business. I’m taking the highest level courses possible (including APUSH), but others in my grade are taking different AP classes like Bio, Seminar, Macro, etc. I honestly regret not taking more challenging classes because I’m worried about how this will look to colleges especially in comparison to other students in my grade. However, I plan to take many AP classes Junior and Senior year. I know most people say taking more than 4 APs in one year is a bad idea, but I want to take 4 APs Junior year and 5 or 6 Senior year. I’m not only doing this to make up for my rather bland Freshman and Sophomore years, but I’m genuinely interested in all of these classes. I just need to know I’m not making (or have already made) any mistakes I’ll regret in the future.
We don’t know you ability or past academic record, so it’s hard to advise on how you will succeed.
My D is currently taking four AP courses as a Junior with no issue and has five planned for next year. She has a strong academic record and work ethic, so I have no concerns over the workload (they are all just natural progressions of her past courses). Her older sister didn’t have the same track record and dropped one of her Junior year APs when it was obvious the workload would be overwhelming.
Your advisor, parents, and teachers would be appropriate advisors, knowing you better and having seen many students over the years.
No college is going to look at 9+ AP courses as less than rigorous.
You’re a sophomore, so, you’re okay.
Also, 6-8APs is all you need even for the most selective colleges.
They do expect :
4 years of English (including 1AP if offered)
4 years of history/social science (including 1 AP history if youre going into Hunanities and it’s offered)
Bio, chem, physics + 1 of these at AP level (APES ok if you’re not going into a STEM or quantitative field)
Math through precalculus + an AP calculus; AP statistics acceptable but calculus preferred if you’re going into humanities, calculus required for anything stem or quantitative.
Foreign language3through level 4 or AP (level 3 acceptable if going into stem but 4 preferred)
A couple electives that shoz what your academic interests or strengths are (creative writing, robotics, anything)
Senior year make sure you have 5 academic classes.
Usually electives aren’t the ones you just want to “get out of the way”. They’re supposed to be the fun-for-you classes. Taking them in place of cores, though, is indeed a mistake.
Four APs for a junior is fairly common in a lot of high schools for high-performing students. If you can qualify for them, and your guidance counselor gives a thumbs up, then give them a try.
If you want to keep as many doors open as possible, then you’ll want to take a close look at @MYOS1634’s list in addition to your own high school’s list of graduation requirements.
I think the OP meant “elective” in the sense of having a range of courses from which to choose, but something in the range is required… So if the HS requires arts credit for graduation, the student can elect from a variety of visual arts, music and theater courses. Knocking out these non-core requirements in freshman and sophomore years in a common, and valid, strategy.
I would reccomend AP Bio, AP Stats, APUSH, AP US Gov, AP Econ, APES, & AP Psych for ANYONE! They have honestly been such amazing and interesting courses that not only shift my worldviews, but they have made me a better citizen of the world. That’s just my opinion, but fr those were some of the best classes I’ve ever taken. Good luck!