Personally, I thought 5 honors classes and 1 AP course were good for a junior. As a senior I plan on taking 2-3 more APs, 3 honors, and 1 dual credit course. How do colleges view someone who takes all honors classes? Do they still think honors classes are good? How do they view honors courses? By colleges, I mean average schools with 50%+ acceptance rates—no Ivies or T20s. Or even community colleges.
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This sentence is inaccurate and just plain bad information. A perfect example of why users should take responses from high school students with a huge grain of salt. They just don’t know how much they don’t know.
For the OP, you’re fine. But course selection is just one part of the application for colleges that evaluate holistically.
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colleges will view your courses based on what you are able to take at your school (school profile). If your school offers 20 APs and you only took 1 that may appear as “not challenging”.
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my school offers 4-5 aps for juniors. most of them weren’t appealing to me. but like i said, i’m taking more college level classes as a senior.
So, honors classes are still good enough?
My son’s high school has prerequisites for every honors and AP course so while they offer something like 23 AP classes, they are not open to all students. If he wants to be in an honors course, he has to have a minimum of an A in the previous course. Same with an AP class. They don’t let students sign up for whatever they want. Students are not allowed to sign up for what they want and then drop down to easier courses.
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My school has some prerequisites for both honors and AP courses. For example, to continue on to honors students must have an 85 average or above in the previous honors course. And to get into honors students must have a 90 average in the regular course or perform well on tests. AP courses require students to be in the honors program, and some of them require students to have an A average in the corresponding honors course. None of the APs i’m looking at—other than calculus and Spanish—have many prerequisites. My school offers around 14-15 APs, but I’m taking 3-4 of those offered in high school.
You are doing fine considering that you are not targeting top schools. One of my kids did what you did - mostly honors, one AP junior year and three senior year. She was accepted to every college she applied to including one in the top 40. My son only took one AP class total in high school and that was AP Gov which people here tend to put down as a lesser AP. Both my kids chose to attend the University of Pittsburgh. My son is currently a sophomore there. You don’t need a ton of APs if you aren’t targeting top schools.
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Yeah i’m taking APHUG right now, and like AP Gov it is seen as one of the “lesser” APs. I actually might take AP Gov senior year since i feel that a better knowledge of our government would benefit me. Also, I’m somewhat interested in politics but APUSH seems like too much. I prefer learning about the present than the past. Honors US History is enough for me.
I agree with @me29034 - you’re doing absolutely fine, especially considering that you are targeting colleges with 50% acceptance rates.
Just keep on doing well in the classes that you are taking.
Good luck!
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That’s good lol. I was looking at the Applying to College server and saw many people taking 4+ APs this year. This worried me since I felt like I wasn’t taking enough.
same with my old HS
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“The College Board needs to say a similar thing about taking A.P. courses. We have data that taking up to five A.P. courses over the course of high school helps students complete college on time. But there is no evidence that excessively cramming your schedule with A.P. classes advances you. Let us say to students, ‘If you would like to take more than 5 A.P. courses because you love the class, do so, but not to get into college.’
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