<p>I don't know if I should load up on APs for senior year, how important is senior rigor in admissions? I don't want to overwork myself with really hard classes like physics c and calc bc, but if it will help me, then i guess i will take them. </p>
<p>Take a challenging schedule but don’t overload. It will be evaluated with your application.</p>
<p>I am planning on taking a challenging, but i’m wondering if i should take a super challenging schedule just to impress colleges, or do they not care that much?
As of now, i plan on taking calc ab, physics b, and ap econ, would you call this challenging?</p>
<p>It depends on what sorts of schools you’re targeting. If they are uber competitive schools, then you know going in that your competition, for the most part, are taking super challenging schedules and achieving well in them. If you’re not aiming at tippy top schools, choose the hardest schedule in which you can still do well.</p>
<p>yup im aiming for schools that have <20% acceptance </p>
<p>Even if you take the most rigorous schedule, you are still very likely to get rejected from every highly selective school you apply to. Try to imagine yourself a year from now, having overloaded on APs but with a boatload of rejections. Will you be proud of yourself for challenging yourself and thrilled at everything you learned this year? Or will you be resentful and regret “all that hard work for nothing.” </p>
<p>You want to make sure your GC checks off the “most rigorous curriculum” on your application. Find out what you need to take to get that. Senior year rigor is very important to these colleges, but overloading yourself and having a miserable senior year isn’t necessarily the smartest thing to do either.</p>
<p>I am currently a senior who decided to take three extra ap courses and had a miserable start of the year. I would advise taking courses that are actually going to matter or are relevant to what you want to study in college. Nothing else is worse than having supplements due AND an ap bio research paper due at the same time.</p>
<p>what i would also advise you to do is to strengthen your extracurricular and make sure that you are constantly active during the summer (a job, internship, research studies, etc). Colleges are also interested on what you’re doing outside of school aside from your academics.</p>
<p>take it from me, i recently got into several Ivies!</p>
<p>Try to take 4 AP classes in which you’re likely to get A’s, plus 3 more classes (assuming you run on an 8-period day with one period for lunch and 7 class periods). You should have 5 core classes if possible: English, Math, Science, Social Science, Foreign Language. If you only have 4 of those, you need to “double up” on another one. Feel free to take one “fun” class that is out of the ordinary. 
Don’t fixate on Top 20 universities/LACs. Start building your list from the ground up, starting with 2 safeties you like, can afford, and are sure you can get into. Start showing interest to these safeties - no school wants to feel like a safety and they may turn you down just because of this. :)</p>
<p>Thanks guys</p>
<p>I never took AP classes and I never felt like I missed out on anything. I’m in my third year of college now and there were so many students in my classes who took AP classes in high school and were pretty much retaking them in college. </p>
<p>Yazzzer, you didn’t get the point of AP classes: they’re not necessarily takento “'skip” classes (in fact, the more selective schools won’t let you do that because their own freshman courses are more rigorous) but to show you challenged yourself and took the classes that had the most depth ni your HS, required more writing&reading than other high school classes. They show you can handle this kind of work, have the discipline and the skills to succeed in college.</p>
<p>Take as many AP as you want as long as you can maintain a good GPA. The last thing you want is to be rescinded after admission due to a poor grade in one course.</p>
<p>is 3 enough?</p>
<p>Depends on which three, what’s available in your school, and what courses you’ve taken prior.</p>
<p>how rigorous is ap calc ab, physics b and ap econ?</p>
<p>In general you should take a schedule that is similar to schedules you have taken your first three years of HS. Schools look for a strong schedule, but loading up on APs and getting in over your head is a bad idea as well.</p>
<p>@superdub </p>
<p>Not very rigorous, in my opinion</p>
<p>@kawaiiii why do you say that? is it because of the quality or the quantity of my schedule?</p>
<p>You shouldn’t take AP classes if you’re not reasonably certain (from talking with your teachers, not from “magical thinking” ie; I really want this so it’ll happen) to get an A or a B in them. Many students have taken calculus to “look good” when they weren"t ready and got a C (=> hurt their application) or even a D (=> rescinded).</p>
<p>Check with your GC and see what is considered rigorous at your HS. No one call tell you if 3 is rigor enough or not without knowing your school profile. To me 3 AP + 3 Honors classes in senior is pretty good for a school that offers around 10-12AP classes in my area. Many students in CA or NY/NJ take over a dozen or more AP during high school while it may not even be possible in many high schools in other area. </p>