My daughter took 1freshman year and will take 3 sophmore year. Not sure after that. I’d love for her to get into UF but it seems like even with fantastic stats, nothing is guaranteed. I just wonder if it’s worth the stress.
I never took any AP courses, instead, I took enough dual-enrolled courses to earn my AA degree. I had a very low SAT score and that did not seem to matter to UF. To answer your question, I think it would be beneficial to take many AP or upper college credit courses.
Do you think 12-13 is enough?
I took 13 and got in. But my act and sat was also about average for the school. I didnt have many extracurriculars and i had a strong essay.
She’ll want to take the most rigorous course schedule available at your high school. What do the top 10% of students take? Colleges (including UF) will check to see if it’s the most rigorous. Check with her HS counselor. UF is checking GPA AND course rigor. That’s also the case at many other universities.
Aside from UF, taking these classes will earn her college credit at any Florida public university; it will save her time and money and give her the option of pursuing minors, dual/double majors, lighter course loads, etc.
As a rule, she needs to take as rigorous a course load, as she can handle, and if possible, and one that falls in that top 10% (or there abouts) range. You will need to find the right balance for her, while keeping in mind that she should also be involved in some non-academic activities.
She is in the top 7% now. But I don’t see any reason to give her more than 3 for sophmore year and maybe 4 but absolutely no more than 5 junior and senior. 5 seems excessive and stressful. I don’t want her to be too overloaded and not enjoy high school. There is always FSU. Is she is competing with kids taking 6 or 7 AP, I wouldn’t even allow it.
Actually, 2 sophomore year and 3-4 AP each of Junior and senior year (or equivalent such as dual credit) is plenty enough. 5 is excessive and doesn’t"add" anything.
She would need to have AP English and some ‘core’ AP/dual credits in math, science, history, preferably foreign language.
Aice general paper, aice biology, aice global issues would be good ones for a sophomore - aice classes in the core subjects where she’s not taking AP or dual enrollment is a good idea.
I am definitely doing 3 next year. AP world, AP computer science and AICE business. 4 sounds good for junior and senior year. At our school if she takes less than that she will never be in the top 10% of her class. Even with that amount she probably won’t be too 10%. But I’m ok with that if that’s how the chips fall.
AICE business wouldn’t count much though, because it’s an elective, not a core class. So, she’d need to have a schedule like this (for instance):
AP world*
AP CS Principles
AICE Business
Honors English*
Honors Algebra2*
Honors Chemistry*
Honors French 3*
*= core class
That is exactly her schedule except she has Spanish 2 and that’s not available in honors. Her pre AICE business was her favorite class so that’s why I put her in AICE business.
Then it’s perfect: the electives are well chosen since they reflect her interests AND do not Replace a core class but complement them.
She should think of taking AP or AICE or dual enrollment economics and sociology (the combination of both subjectsbis very fruitful, I think, sine both present society from different and complementary angles).
Nothing more is expected - as Stanford famously put it " it’s not a game of who has the most APs, wins".
Thank you!!
My daughter took 7 AP classes and 11 Dual Enrollment classes, weighted GPA of 5.19, unweighted GPA of 3.97, SAT 1420. She did not take AP Lang. or AP Lit. She chose instead to take ENC 1101 and ENC 1102 Dual Enrollment, as she is a more of a math person. She did take AP Stats. and AP Calc.
Just to be clear, ap econ, aice sociology =j r/Sr year.
What does enc stand for. Mine is more math also
@Gator88NE is correct as usual. It is not the number of APs, but what UF views as most rigorous for the school.
All AP are not equal in rigor. AP lab sciences like Bio, Chem and Physics are seen as more rigorous than AP Environmental and AP Calc cares more weight than AP Stats, so AP should be chosen with care.
Sure, some kids load up on AP classes for college admission purposes at the cost of reduced non-academic activities an excess stress, but a lot of take a heavy load of APs because they prefer the additional challenge and being in classes with other motivated and like-minded (over-achieving?) students.
@Jenwyman30 There is a big difference between freshman and senior year so it is hard to judge where your daughter may be in two years. My daughter did not take any AP her freshman year and just two her sophomore year, which was enough for her. She tended up with 7 her senior year, including Calc I & II, Bio and Latin IV and at the end of the year wished she would have taken more. I suggest you encourage your daughter to challenge herself in a responsible way and see where she ends up. Don’t stress yourself or her and let it play out, you get surprised.
I am not positive but I think ENC stands for English Composition? ENC 1101 and ENC 1102 are required composition courses at many colleges and universities. The dual enrollment credits my daughter got transfer right to UF, and her 4.0 gpa in her dual enrollment classes also transfers to UF. I know there is a “UF gpa” and an overall gpa, and the dual enrollment credits count in the overall gpa.
Thank you everyone for your thoughtful responses. I heard that UF presets AP to dual enrollment. Anyone have any insight on that?
I had 10 APs, 1 each freshman/sophomore year, then 4 each junior/senior year. Didn’t even take any AP English classes (cause I dislike writing), but I found my ENC1101 class a lot easier/more helpful than what my peers were doing in their AP English classes.
This is why my daughter did a combination of AP and dual enrollment. She did AP in the subjects that she felt the strongest in, and dual enrollment in subjects she felt not as strong in. I have heard that once students go beyond more than 8 AP courses, and there is not a significant “boost” to your college application. In other words, yes, they want AP courses. But, if you have 8 or 10 or 12, is not a big difference. Now, 2 AP versus 8 AP…that is a big difference…if that makes sense…