<p>In my school one took 4 and the other took 10 . </p>
<p>@csdad </p>
<p>You are correct that AP scores are not required for admissions. However, at top schools, students often submit them anyway. The college may not require them, but most do not say that they do not consider them. If you have taken 3 -5 AP courses by the end of Junior year, and submit that you received all 5’s on those AP exams, as part of your application, and another student has taken the same courses and submits nothing, it will not harm their assessment of the student who submits nothing, but it may help the student who does submit scores. </p>
<p>@csdad
" the thing that students have to be concerned about is that their guidance counselor checks the “took the most rigorous courses offered”</p>
<p>Yes, it is important that the counselor checks the most rigorous box, and students should ask about it. However, if your school offers a large number of APs and you have a counselor who will check the most rigorous box when you take even one AP, there is a very good chance that you will be at a disadvantage if you only take one. Therefore, checking the most rigorous box is not the only thing that matters.</p>
<p>@csdad “the only person who knows this is the GC, and that who students should consult, not someone on a forum.” </p>
<ol>
<li>If you think that overloaded, overworked and underpaid high school counselors are the leading experts on what top 20 Universities want to see, then I do not think that we have met the same ones. Most are much more focused on getting the marginal students in somewhere, and rightfully so. If we had waited for the GC to tell our kid to take SAT Subject Tests, we would still be waiting. I do not know about Cornell’s practices specifically, but if you do not believe me, you should call the top 20 colleges and ask them? Colleges know that taking AP classes is not predictive of college success, but top scores on English, and BC Calculus, and Physics C, for example, is very predictive.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>The key is that when you ask an admissions office, is to ask whether they will consider AP scores, if an applicant submits them. Admissions offices will say that it is a positive system and that no applicant is penalized for not doing something. It is simply that if another applicant does it, they may benefit. No one is penalized for anything. </p>
<ol>
<li>If students should not consult the forum about the college process, why are you posting here? </li>
</ol>
<p>I am a School Psychologist, but oversee our guidance dept. I learned an awful lot about college admissions through my own children & countless others that have come through our school. Most schools should have a set criteria for gauging how they will answer the “rigor” question on the common app., so the different counselors are consistent. All I am saying is that the student should find this out directly from the GC, not from people posting on a forum who are not in that school & will not fill out any part of the common app. I learned a great deal from this forum for my own children, especially my youngest who is a rising senior at Cornell (alot of what I learned from other parents who had children admitted greatly improved her chances for admit). In her case, she had 3’s & 4’s on her AP exams, and an SAT / ACT score which was not at the 50th percentile of applicants. However, she took the most rigorous courses offered, was in the top 10% of her class, showed outstanding leadership in her EC’s, had good letters of rec., & must have written good essays. </p>
<p>@csdad
“she had 3’s & 4’s on her AP exams, and an SAT / ACT score which was not at the 50th percentile of applicants. However, she took the most rigorous courses offered, was in the top 10% of her class, showed outstanding leadership in her EC’s, had good letters of rec., & must have written good essays.”</p>
<p>Yes!</p>
<p>What I am trying to say is that once you have the most rigorous box checked and maybe 7-9 APs on your transcript, the benefit of additional APs may be limited. Most students would benefit more by improving other aspects of their applications: keep your grades high, improve your ECs, gain leadership experience, improve essays and raise your test scores. </p>
<p>It is not a competition to see who can take the most APs. </p>
<p>We are saying the same thing…only difference is that what I am saying is that the student should find out just how many AP’s get that box checked at their school & the only way to do this is to go to their GC & ask. </p>
<p>@ csdad</p>
<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>It just drives me crazy to see kids worrying about how many APs other kids are taking and parents pushing them to take more of them because they think they need to “keep up” to get into a top school. They are often just making themselves miserable of no reason.</p>
<p>In reality, I see kids with 7-9 APs often being accepted at better schools than the kids with 15 APs because they were able to allocate more time other pursuits that do more to make them a better applicant.</p>
<p>One of the CS kids in my graduating class got 5s on 25+ APs, ended up getting AP International Scholar</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted this year taking only 7 AP’s (Calc AB, Calc BC, Physics, US History, World History 2 English) and a an SAT score well below 2400. Didn’t even take the Physics test as she felt the teacher didn’t have her prepared enough.</p>
<p>2 factors that meant a whole lot more and helped her chances more than an extra 8 AP’s</p>
<p>1) She applied ED - if Cornell is your clear top choice there shouldn’t be a second thought about it.</p>
<p>2) EC’s - She was a 4 year Varsity Athlete - 2 year team captain, president of multiple honor societies, state winner in bridge building competition, band member (and manager), 200 hours of community service etc.</p>
<p>The fact is there are many 2400’s with a boatload of AP’s in the application pool. Having those numbers alone are going to get you in the Ivy league lottery, but it is still a crap shoot.</p>
<p>Being well rounded and showing a true desire to be there will help you stand out.</p>
<p>I got accepted to Cornell.
I took 7 APs, and my school offers 17. We have six classes in one day and our freshman can’t take APs- sophomores are limited to two. I took the hardest classes I could since freshmen year. Don’t take APs because you want the college, take them because you actually want to challenge yourself. You know when the non-AP classes are too easy for you, that’s when you need to take more. Compared to the kids in my school, 7 is a lot. People thought I was crazy for taken four in one year.
btw- my lacking spot was in math- regular math all throughout high school. </p>
<p>@nkconfidivy Hi, I’ll answer the question but I wanted to say this: it DOESNT matter how many APs you took. What cornell wants to see is that you took a rigorous load at the school you attended. They understand that some kids attend HS with 1 or no APs, and so they look to see if the kid took those few optioned/ took an outside course. It doesn’t put you at a disadvantage, and it doesnttook 11.
1 sophomore year, 4 junior year, 6 senior year, but that was pretty common for my high school</p>
Sophomore: 3 (Bio, Econ, Human Geo)
Junior: 3 (Chem, Calc BC, English)
Senior: 6 (Physics, Environmental, Stats, English, Spanish, Government)
My D took 10
Soph: 1 (only allowed to take one)
Junior: 3
Senior: 6
None.
My D’s school didn’t offer any (but she took 3 AP exams plus about 6 college courses).
Our school only offers 3 APs, and DD took all of them. She got 5s in all of them, but since 2 were senior year, that didn’t factor in at all.
I believe my D’s school offers 11 APs and none offered to freshman and sophomores. My D took 8 of the 11.
3 her junior year and five her senior. She is a senior now and will take the five AP exams in the spring.
She scored 5’s on the three she took last year.
My Daughter took 16:
Soph: 3
Junior: 6 (Natl AP Scholar and AP Intl Diploma)
Senior: 6
But it all depends on the student to decide how many to take. You can still get in with no AP.
My school offers almost all of the APs. I got accepted ed to arts and sciences and
Junior year: 3 (US Chem Lang)
Senior year: 4 (Lit Bio Stat Psych)
Don’t go crazy over APs… My friend took like 7 her junior year and 6 her senior year and she got rejected from UChicago. This other girl in my school applied to Cornell with more APs and she also got rejected
just saw this and wanted to offer advice since a lot of my younger friends have been asking similar questions. everyone on this website always talks about taking as many APs possible being the best way to go. my biggest piece of advice for any high schooler:
don’t take APs just because they will “make you look better in the college process.”
you will end up hating school and hating these classes because the material is hard and fast paced. take the classes/subjects that you enjoy and you want deeper knowledge or understanding. these are the classes that places like cornell looks for on your transcript. they want to know you’re pursuing your interests and you are going to excel at a greater level in these subjects when you arrive at the university.
i got in with taking only 2 APs junior year and 4 senior year. i focused on what i liked and didn’t like when registering for classes. do what you love and you’ll end up where you’re meant to be.
^But you still took 6 of them, which I would say is a good amount…
@csdad post:
This is what’s relevant. It is not about just taking courses you like in HS. You are taking general education in high school, and colleges like Cornell expect you to take the most rigorous courses offered by your high school.