<p>I tuned into this thread because my younger son is figuring out his schedule right now for junior year and is torn between taking two or three AP's. He has a 25-hour-a-week athletic commitment and studies classical piano in addition to school, so those factors have to be weighed into the decision.</p>
<p>Older son graduated having taken a total of five AP classes and was accepted by an Ivy; however, he was also a recruited athlete. </p>
<p>As a parent, I wish the AP classes would go away. Their technical purpose, as I understand it, is to give a student college credit so they can get through college faster. I don't care if my kids graduate in less than four years and I don't think many, if any students really take the AP's for that reason. Do any of you really plan to use your AP's to fast-track your college education? </p>
<p>It seems to be all about assuring the elite colleges/universities that you are a worthy and serious student while racing through material three times faster than you would prefer and subjecting yourself to tests, tests and more tests in hopes that someone, somewhere will care that you took those classes. Do they? Does anyone have proof that they do?</p>
<p>If your plan is to apply to college with ONLY your academics to represent you, then probably AP upon AP upon AP is an option. But if you are trying to develop other areas of your life in addition to your academics, it can be difficult to compete in the I-took-the-most-AP's game.</p>
<p>really, this is all ridiculous. I know plenty of people at the "top ivies" that took fewer than 10. I would recommend no more than 8 or 9, just for your sanity.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the information guys. I'll stick to 3 sophomore year, 4 junior year, 5 senior year. I'm glad I can take it a little easier these last two years of high school. (2 Free Periods each year! whoopee)</p>
<p>I'll only have taken 9 by graduation time....but we can't take them as sophomores......our school offers 14 by the way....but it's impossible for me to take them all (Studio Art? French?? Music Theory? ya, not happening)</p>
<p>I say still take an above average amount and do WELL. Don't take like 13! 8, 9, 10 is MOOOORE than plenty!</p>
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I would say 13 doesn't make that much of a difference over 11. It DOES matter for ivies, however.
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<p>Nah. Ivies don't care. There is pretty much no difference between 11 and 13. (unless the extra two you took were like Physics C and you got 5s or something)</p>
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I tuned into this thread because my younger son is figuring out his schedule right now for junior year and is torn between taking two or three AP's. He has a 25-hour-a-week athletic commitment and studies classical piano in addition to school, so those factors have to be weighed into the decision.
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<p>Honestly I would say take two APs. The difference between one AP class in the schedule for college decisions is minimal. Take two and work hard on getting a high GPA which is MUCH MUCH more important. Trust me I've learned this through the admissions process a little too late. Focus on the sport / ECs and highlight them in the college applications. (i.e. essays)</p>
<p>If you want to get into an Ivy, you must take 33 AP Tests. The only ones acceptable to skip are Computer Science A (for CS AB) and Calculus AB (because BC gives you an AB subscore). If you do not take all 33, you will not get into an Ivy. No questions asked.</p>
<p>I'm taking like 7-8 APs all together by the end of senior year...bu I'm only going to take like 4-5 tests tops, because I know that they hardly make a difference in the admission process</p>
<p>There are so many useless APs that you don't even receive credit for at Ivys. It's better to take courses at a local college in some cases, which I believe may still hold as much weight as some of the lesser AP courses.</p>
<p>15 here, I say 7 is enough by the end of the senior year unless there are far more (25+) at the school and the classes are open to all upperclassmen, in which case one should take more.</p>
<p>Ok I got into Cornell, Yale and Michigan OSS as well as Penn States Schreyers Honors College (on par with Harvard and Yale for admissions criteria) all for Engineering. I decided Penn State is where I am going. I only took Chem and USH Junior year and got a 5 and 4 respectivly and took AB Calc and US Govt this year. I got in so obviously number of APs is not really all that important. Oh and I have a friend who took 4 last year got all 5s and took 4 more this year, has better grades and SATs than me, but does less extracuriculars. He got rejected from Harvard, Yale and MIT, but got into Penn and Cornell but is going to CMU on a half Merit scholarship. That just shows you how little the actualy number matters. It is more about being well rounded and a balanced person.</p>