<p>Both our kids has or will have 11 or 12 AP in 4 years of HS. I know for sure others in their HS have taken more than they do. One student is taking 7 as a junior.</p>
<p>My boss, who happens to be an asian too, has a freshman in another HS. He told me that HS GC told them that 5 for in 4 year of HS is above average. </p>
<p>Another colleague said his D's school only allows three AP per year for juniors and/or seniors. </p>
<p>So, as the title says, what is the norm? Or, how many national AP scholars (8 AP) per year?</p>
<p>Found out that in 2007 there were: National AP Scholar: 9,603. So, out of 3 millions HS graduate each year, about 9000 score 4 or higher on 8 or more AP class. </p>
<p>I’m going to chuckle out loud here, because norms are defined by a group. You didn’t define the group you are asking about so I’ll give you some…</p>
<p>1) Your bi-directional state institution applicant norm - 0 to 2 APs
2) Your average state flagship U applicant norm - 1 to 4 APs
3) Your top state flagship U applicant norm - 2 to 6 APs
4) Your Ivy League obsessed, class rank-obsessed, neurotic CC member norm - All of them and then complain that their school doesn’t offer enough!</p>
<p>Lighten up Dad II. Only category 4 is cares about what the norm is.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago one of the MIT student bloggers posted on this site that the average MIT applicant has 5 APs. I would guess from our high school (3000+ students) only a handful take more than 10 APs. Our high school produces one or two National AP scholars a year.</p>
<p>The most anyone could take at my DD HS would be 10 - which would include both AP French and AP Spanish which is extremely unlikely given both are at the end of a 5 year sequence. Would also include both AP Bio and AP Chem - both of which are only offered first period and can only be taken as a senior. So really 8 would be the max. The high end students usually end up around 5-7. Note that this HS is a Top 100 HS.</p>
<p>Now that the college board is protecting its AP trademark by certifying what AP courses schools may offer, the # may go down. Some prep schools were calling anything and everything AP, bragging that every course for all grades 9-12 were AP (AP phys ed?? AP study hall??) . Impossible, but there was no enforcement.</p>
<p>Schools were instructed to remove the AP label from any course not up to the set AP standards.</p>
<p>There is no “norm”. It depends on what HS offers, and how insane the students and their parents get.
Also, not all APs are created equal. Some are known as fluff. Some make no sense if taken along with others (like Calc AB + Calc BC), etc. The number of tests all by itself does not mean much.</p>
<p>D1 had 8 AP credits, but only took a handful of AP designated courses. She didn’t do self study for those tests either. Her private school doesn’t offer as many AP courses as our local public school, but her school has much better track record of placing their students.</p>
<p>My niece will have three APs by the end of her junior year at her non-Atlanta-area HS and that is considered very unusual. Family friend who was salutatorian at her rural CA HS had four. Another niece in the Atlanta area is taking one as a freshman. Nephew in Kentucky is a soph and has taken none. Some schools limit who can take APs and in what grades. Not everyone has open access.</p>
<p>If you look at Jay Mathews’ “Challenge Index” you’ll see that one can have a “top 100 school” (at least by this measure) without a staggeringly high number of APs per student.</p>
<p>S1 took nine APs, three a year starting soph year, which seemed to be pretty much the norm. His school offered many post-AP courses, which was where he focused his attentions. S2 will have 12 APs (one freshman year, two as a soph, five junior year and four next year) plus a full IB diploma. That is probably higher than average at his program. Five of his APs are to ensure he gets credit/placement because colleges generally do not give course credit for the three corresponding Standard Level IB exams. </p>
<p>At both of their high schools, students in their programs automatically get the “most rigorous” designation, so there is not a lot of one-upping to wrangle that label from the GC. The workload is sufficiently tough that not many self-study additional exams, either. Both of their schools offer ~25 AP exams. Noone gets anywhere near that number.</p>
<p>My feeling is that a student should take APs where the student can manage the workload and do well in while still balancing other classes and activities, and in subjects that one likes to study. Only on CC are folks so focused on this stuff!</p>
<p>DD had 10 APs by Junior year and will have 14 by next month and she is not alone at her school. Still the norm at DD school is 7 - 9 APs ( 2-3 APs from Soph to senior years).</p>
<p>My son took a total of 5 AP courses and exams, all in his junior and senior year (US and World History, English Language and English Literature, and Spanish) – 5’s on all of them, of course! There really weren’t all that many kids at his school who took more than he did; he was certainly in the group at the high end. This was at a small public high school in Northern New Jersey (a suburb of NYC), rated this year by New Jersey magazine as one of the top five public high schools in the entire state of New Jersey.</p>
<p>I think he would have thought anyone taking 9 or 10 AP’s was well into diminishing returns territory with respect to college admissions, and that anyone taking more than that was being ridiculous. He’s at the University of Chicago now (his first choice).</p>
<p>DonnaL, UChicago only grants credit/placement for 6 APs, anyway, so your S had a very reasonable approach! </p>
<p>S1 took APs in the subjects he liked or where he wanted the challenge. Was not taking more just to up the count. He took BC Calc, US Gov’t, Comp Sci AB, World Hist, Eng Lang, Stat, Comparative Gov’t, and Physics C Mech and E&M. The emphasis was on social sciences and math-heavy stuff, both of which are up his alley. MIT had no objection to S not taking AP Bio or Chem – and Chicago probably liked that he took lots of humanities for being such a math-oriented guy. Colleges like to see that a student has challenged – not tortured – him/herself.</p>
<p>I wish colleges would reevaluate IB SL policies – the SL IB classes S2 is taking are taught as AP/IB – both groups of kids are in the class, and the teachers cover both course syllabi. Makes little sense to spend $$ taking duplicative tests, but not every school will give placement exams in lieu of AP/IB scores. S2’s AP/IB Econ class will have four exams in one week – two sittings for SL Econ, then the AP Macro and Micro exams. It makes absolutely no difference which Standard Level Math exam S2 takes next year – neither one will get college credit. Instead, he’ll take Math Studies (the easier of the two SL IBs), shoot for a high score, and use his AB Calc and Stat exams (which he is taking to prepare for the SL) for placement/credit. Why S2 has to do these contortions is the first place is what annoys me right now.</p>
<p>D1 graduated from an IB program last year and took 16 AP tests at the end of her senior year. She had the most AP exams, much more than the norm, which was around 5-6 AP exams among the IB students in her high school.</p>
<p>The whole AP thing is absurd. My D2 waited till senior year to take first (and only) AP. She has had no trouble getting accepted at top colleges. D1, two years older, took ZERO APs, got into first choice - top flagship state U - and is swimming along with B+ average as college soph. Some of her college classmates who took 5-6 APs in HS have similar or lower college GPAs than she does. The whole AP thing is a joke on hyper-competitive PARENTS who keep looking for an “edge” for their kid.</p>
<p>S1 took 7…one soph. yr, three each for jr. and sr. yr. I think that was close to average for his friends but not for the school as a whole. Lots of kids take none.
S2 took two his jr. yr.</p>
<p>University of California is “recommending” that applicants have at least 17 contact hours of AP-equivalent course work at graduation. It is up to the student to show equivalency.</p>
<p>Stanford is seeing an average of 5 to 6 APs from applicants.</p>
<p>Some prep schools have AP course application processes and limit the number of AP-level courses that a student may take to around 4. (College Board frowns on school limiting the number of exams, but school can limit the number of courses.) Higher end schools also have much higher homework standards (2 hours/night) for AP classes. Theoretically colleges know which school are graduating sham AP courses, and which are rigorous. </p>
<p>Due to the paperwork burden, some selected prep schools are dropping the trademark AP designation, and simply describing particular classes as have a good percentage of student who do well on the AP exam (careful drafted by lawyers, no doubt.) </p>
<p>Keep in mind that AP exam from Senior year will not be visible on college applications. Only Junior year exam grades are included in college apps. Senior exams would just be useful for placing out of beginning courses.</p>
<p>Our high school only offers five (US History, Calculus, Physics, Biology, Chemistry), although students self study for others (for example, there is an extra AP study group before school for those taking Psychology).</p>
<p>School is well respected and a few are accepted to Ivies each year.</p>
<p>It depends on what your student can handle. I know that is a strange response, but it’s true. Some kids can only handle a few AP classes and do well. One of my son’s friends will graduate with the six that the school offers. He had two each year and got into some nice schools. He also took lots of technology-type classes that will prepare him for college … and of course, a possible career. Another girl took the same number, got into some great schools, but she also worked as an editor for the yearbook, does a lot of volunteering, etc. </p>
<p>BTW, my son took five of the offered APs and eight more through online classes (has done all the exams, too). He loved the classes. He loved the challenge that the online classes brought (lots of self-discipline and motivation). And he still has done plenty of other things at school. All students are different. If they can manage the workload, great. But many high schools have such a vast array of classes that they can take that not everything has to be an AP class.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school recommends that students take only two AP classes a year.<br>
They will approve up to three classes. Their reasoning is that they want students to be well rounded. The homework load is about 2 hours a night per AP class. Add in the other classes and ECs . . . well, there are only so many hours in a day.</p>
<p>At a Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth seminar, a college counselor from a highly respected Baltimore boys prep school explained his take on AP classes this way: Colleges look for a series of classes with AP being the top level. He referred to all the non-sequence classes as JV-AP (psych, environ. science, music theory, etc.). Now I am certain a bunch of people will jump all over this, but it really does make sense. Colleges are looking for progression. What colleges accept for credit is all over the place. Princeton gives nothing. UVA is very generous with credit (one year less the state has to pay for a student in school).</p>
<p>You absolutely have to consider your child. At a prep a school, the AP load can be overwhelming as I am sure it is at many schools. If my daughter had to do it again, she would skip the second-level AP English; it was a bunch of work, mostly repetitive, and she will get 0 credits for it because she did so well on testing on the first level of AP English.</p>