<p>I'm extremely curious about this. Some people say they've been from 9 to even 12 AP classes and got into Harvard. Anyway, I would like to know people's opinions on what you think is a good amount of AP classes to get into Harvard through high school. If you also know what the senior course load should, I would like to know that, too. My school offers 18 AP classes.
(P.S. I know Harvard looks at many other things- like Sat/Act scores, extracurriculars, after school jobs, if any, etc.- but I just want to know about the amount of AP classes.)</p>
<p>Take as many as you can that your school offers. They consider you in the context of opportunities available to you.</p>
<p>There is not an exact number of AP classes one can take to get into Harvard. It depends on how many your school offers. I think that a person aiming for Harvard should take as many rigorous courses available ( AP, IB, Dual Enrollment, etc.) while still recieving good grades. Since you said your school offers 18 AP courses, take several of them ( 10 to 12 is reasonable) but remember to maintain a good GPA.</p>
<p>I would aim from 9 to 13.</p>
<p>Cal Newport says no more than 2 per term.</p>
<p>As many as you can possibly handle. I’ve taken all the APs I possibly can (about 10 or 12 in total) and I have pulled off straight A’s while never feeling overwhelmed and usually doing about 30 minutes of homework per night.</p>
<p>The reason? My school is bad and offers no challenge. My point is that no one can really respond to this properly because we don’t know you or your school. Just take as many as you know you can handle while maintaining a good GPA. This could be 2 if your school is hard and you know you need to study hard, or all of them if your situation is like mine.</p>
<p>Yep, it’ll depend on the school. I’ll have completed 10 APs by the end of this year, and while my school offers many, many more, I could not have taken them because of the other graduation requirements (ex. Health, Personal Financial Management, fine arts credit which I took guitar for haha).</p>
<p>I think the most APs a person can take at my school is 15 (and that’s not even all of them), because you can only take one as a sophomore and there are seven classes per year for junior/senior year. Nevertheless, I don’t think more than one or two students a year takes that many; usually it’s somewhere around 7-12 for the best of the best.</p>
<p>Again, point is that there is no limit. Some schools only offer a couple, so it’ll depend.</p>
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<p>I think that’s quite an overgeneralization. OP, you should take as many as you personally feel comfortable with, but you also need to try to challenge yourself the best you can given the opportunities presented by your school</p>
<p>My school offers 10 AP courses, and I’m have taken or am taking 9 of them(inc. 1 independent study). I always feel slightly inferior to the students who are taking 10+, but come from affluent and successful schools. My school is in South Dakota.</p>
<p>The only one I’m not taking is AP Chemistry, due to prerequisite issues (I transferred during my sophomore year…requirement issues, etc…)</p>
<p>Will Harvard view the number of my AP’s in context?</p>
<p>P.S. I’m taking more AP’s than anyone in my grade.</p>
<p>^LOL, I’ve only taken five AP courses ever, only one by the time of the college applications. What’s more, I come from a huge state on the east coast, and I’m sure a good number of people at my high school took more APs than I did. Way to make someone feel inferior ;)!</p>
<p>(Seriously though, there’s no such thing as the “number of APs you need”, and orienting one’s high school years for the sake of Harvard is not such a good idea in the first place.)</p>
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<p>Yes. Colleges will be able to see what classes are available to you and will take that into consideration.</p>
<p>Take the classes that best reflect your interests. In my case, I took all the science and math classes at my school (including the AP ones) because I’m interested in medicine, and was accelerated (though not very good) at math. And take the AP alternative to the Honors one.</p>
<p>I think I have 13 AP’s? Human Geo, USGov, Bio, APUSH, EnglishIII, Stats, Calc BC, APES, Physics, WHAP, Chem, English IV, Psych.</p>
<p>I’ve taken 3 AP’s in high school, and I’m applying to Harvard. I would have taken more this year, but scheduling problems prevented that. It’s intimidating! I would like to think that they don’t care as much about that as people like to say, but I really don’t know for certain.</p>
<p>Our local HS only offers 3 APs. Our two Ds took those three, then supplemented them with joint enrollment courses at the local college and both wound up at Harvard.</p>
<p>I’m homeschooled, and there aren’t any AP classes offered. 
Is that ok?</p>
<p>I do not know about Harvard, but I have read that the average number of AP courses taken by students at MIT is six. Personally, I think taking more and earining 5s and A grades is not easy, unless one has been participating in competitions, prepped in summer school or speaker of a foreign language at home and taking an AP in it. </p>
<p>Also, I do not think all AP courses are equal. For example, AP Calc AB is not as rigorous as AP Calc BC. Also, AP Govt, AP Psychology and AP economics are probably not as rigorous as AP Chemistry. At my son’s school they are 1 semester courses. Then there is the question is Calc BC one AP or two? At my son’s school it is very difficult to take more than 3 full rigor AP courses and get good grades since there is a lot of busy work associated with them. The Calc BC teacher makes it clear, one should expect to spend 3 hours a day on homework (60 problems a day) or not take the course.</p>
<p>azuresky, you don’t need to be enrolled in a given high school to take AP tests at that location.</p>
<p>It’s important to demonstrate that your independent education is as rigorous as regular high school. Taking some AP tests at a nearby school seems like a great way to do this.</p>
<p>My school offers 10 AP courses and by the end of this year I will have completed a total of 7. I do feel a bit inferior to my other classmates who take more AP’s than me but I just remind myself than I’m only taking as much as I can handle. :-)</p>
<p>As far as APs go, I’ve only taken 4 through the end of junior year, 9 upon graduating. One glaring “red flag” in my app is that I will have graduated with only Pre-Calc. (This is because of a guidance counselor let-down who didnt let me switch into honors once I entered HS). But to make up for it, I have consistently posted A+ avg in math including 100 on every NYS regents exam. Also, I was named a Regional Semifinalist for Siemens. I’m applying RD. How bad is the pre calc situation??</p>
<p>*Regional Finalist</p>