How many APs do you take?

[An0maly]

<p>

When you guys list the APs that you took/taking/will take, are those the classes, or the tests?</p>

<p>My school doesn’t even offer that many APs classes.</p>

<p>Also, should I take the APs I actually want to take, or just take them all? I see a lot of you have things like AP Chem, Bio, Physics, Calc, Economy, Comp Science, Art, Language, Psychology, etc.</p>

<p>BTW: Is there such thing as a AP Physics A?

</p>

<p>I only took tests for classes I had, so they’re classes in my case.</p>

<p>Take APs that interest you. Don’t take something like Art or Language if you know that you’re going to end up hating it. </p>

<p>There’s no Physics A :P</p>

[Nintendo360]

<p>so An0maly, did you equally like all the APs that you took?</p>

[An0maly]

<p>I liked some more than others of course, but as a whole I enjoyed every AP class I took, and I’m pretty sure I’ll like the ones I’m taking this year as well.</p>

[Inconclusive]

<p>Classes offered at my HS that I took before I graduated:</p>

<p>None</p>

<p>Classes offered at my HS that I took after I graduated:</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: I went back to school and audited this class and then took the test!</p>

<p>May be I am already disqualified?:(</p>

<p>I think I have a reason: I came to America in my senior year as a refugee, and I had to graduate in one year.</p>

<p>refugee= because of civil wars = little schooling plus other stuff< AP Calculus AB plus other stuff which MAY equall to MIT student! :)</p>

<p>You girls/guys have a lot of AP’s, you really make me feel less smart! I wish I had more AP’s:(
But I also feel good and smart that I inspired a lot of other people:)</p>

[T-bird]

<p>I took APUSH, Gov, German Lang, Calc BC, Chemistry, and English Lang. I’ll be taking Physics, Bio, and English Lit, along with college calc. I’m really not sure how many more my school offers, but I’m going to attempt to list them here:</p>

<p>French Lang
Spanish Lang
Latin: Virgil
Art History
Music Theory
World History
Statistics</p>

<p>… there’s probably some I’m missing. In any case, I feel like I’ve successfully maxed out my science/math opportunities (maybe not stats, but I was told that it was not a very challenging/stimulating class, so I decided to go for calc 3 instead).</p>

[caz330]

<p>Taking Calc BC, Macroeconomics, Physics, Chem. My school only offers one other AP, but they offer several other College-level courses that I’m taking.</p>

[cicero_oratore]

<p>Took 11th grade:</p>

<p>Biology
Chemistry
Calculus BC (self study)
Latin Vergil (self study)</p>

<p>Taking 12th grade:</p>

<p>Statistics
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
English Literature
Physics C M
Physics C EM</p>

[sabortooth1]

<p>i am a freshman and i am taking ap stats, plan to take, 2 english APs, 3 science, 1 more math, and 3 social studies.</p>

[123]

<p>APs offered that I took:</p>

<p>Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Physics B
Chemistry
Computer Science AB
U.S. History
English Literature
German (did not take the AP exam)</p>

<p>APs not offered that I took the AP exam for anyway:</p>

<p>Physics C (both parts)
Biology
World History
European History
Human Geography
English Language</p>

<p>APs offered that I did not take:</p>

<p>Art
Spanish</p>

<hr>

<p>I was deferred EA and accepted RD in 2005. I graduated from MIT this June. I self-studied a lot of AP subjects because:</p>

<p>(1) I just really enjoyed learning things and having a high test score to show for it. I honestly had fun doing it.</p>

<p>(2) I went to a small high school from which MIT had never accepted anyone (and had rejected a few REALLY smart people). I wanted to stand out by going far beyond what my school offered.</p>

[feathers.o_four]

<p>@all: generally, does self-studying an AP course mean self-studying from absolute scratch? or have you already taken the course in freshman/sophomore years or in community college?</p>

[cicero_oratore]

<p>I self studied calculus bc from scratch…learned everything in 4 weeks, did 2 weeks of practice…got a 5.</p>

[mathboy98]

<p>Ditto for physics E&M for me, but over a longer period – you basically use a textbook or some other material and go through it yourself. Typically a textbook has more than one needs to succeed on AP, but one should do it so it’s really the equivalent of having gone through a college class.</p>

[Nintendo360]

<p>Wait - is taking an AP test after doing self study and taking the AP course and then taking the test the same in the eyes of the admissions officers?</p>

[neuron39]

<p>My son took 17 AP tests (he took 15 courses, and then two tests via self-study). The more important issue is whether you challenged yourself by taking as many difficult classes as possible; these could be AP, IB, dual-enrollment, etc. Some schools, like my son’s, offer over 20 AP-level classes each year; some offer few or none.</p>

[wmm8]

<p>My school doesn’t offer any APs until junior year, and even then its limited, so covering 8 AP’s in two years I don’t think is bad at all.</p>

[Vivi]

<p>

@ Vivi, I’m going to assume that you there were two AP English and Frenchs?

At my school, junior year English was AP Language, and senior year English was AP Literature. French III was the equivalent of AP French Language, and French IV was the equivalent of AP French Literature.</p>

<p>AP French Lit was amazing, let me just say this now. I hear that they may be removing the test, though, because of lack of students actually taking the class. Pity =/</p>

<p>@person who asked whether people who take 20 AP’s have lives: first off, my school wasn’t very highly ranked, which means that our "AP"s were definitely on the easier side in order to get more lazy students to actually take the classes. Secondly, I took AP’s in the areas in which I was interested, so I think part of my life and passion comes from those AP’s. For example, we took a trip to the coast for AP Biology; AP Computer Science was where I found most of my friends; and AP Literature (both English and French) introduced me to a lot of literature that I eventually came to love.</p>

<p>If you’re actually taking AP’s in areas that you are passionate about and truly interested, then I am of the belief that taking AP’s constitutes a “life” =)</p>

[YouserName]

<p>dude, my high school doesn’t allow you to take AP courses until junior year, and then it is only AP US. My school offers a TOTAL of 5 AP classes (US, Latin, Calc, Chem, English lit, and studio art) </p>

<p>My courses :)</p>

<p>AP Calc AB (only one offered)
AP Latin Vergil
AP English Lit
AP Chemistry
AP Biology (at MIT)
AP Physics (at MIT)
AP Psychology (self study)
AP Macroeconomics (self study)</p>

[CalAlum]

<p>Whether you can have a life and load up on AP courses will depend on how they’re taught at your high school. It sounds as if some schools offer pretty easy courses with minimal homework. At our local high school, if you sign up for AP courses you’ll have summer homework (very substantial) before school begins the following year. APUSH homework involved creating 6-page single-spaced typed notes on each and every chapter; my son once went on a camping trip and that week turned in only 4 pages of notes; he received a “D” for that effort. So ugh. That one AP course alone involved about 2 hours per night of busywork. </p>

<p>I’m starting to loathe and despise this thread, particularly if it gives some students the idea they should self-study for some huge number of AP tests to “have a shot” at MIT. Truly, there are far more interesting, creative things to do with your time. My son was signed up for AP Gov his senior year but dropped the course. Why? The instructor required summer homework: 6 4-page essays and a binder full of summaries about breaking U.S. news stories (each day over the summer). He went to Japan for a 6-week exchange program, living with a host family, and he decided that following U.S. news and reading/writing in English would not be congruent with the goal of a full immersion experience in Japan. We fully supported that decision.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>This might be a good time to reiterate [a</a> post by Ben Jones](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1278678-post49.html]a”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1278678-post49.html) from a few years ago in the Parents Forum. Ben doesn’t work for MIT anymore (sad face), but the ideas here still stand.

@benjones

I don’t know the exact numbers; I couldn’t tell you even if I thought it would be helpful. Numbers mean nothing to us because ~70% of our applicant pool is qualified in those terms.</p>

<p>Based on the thousands of apps I saw last year both in selection committee and as a reader, I can tell you that the average # of AP’s for admitted kids was 5 or 6 (that’s total for all 4 years of HS - i.e. 1-2 per year if evenly distributed). Many admits (most likely the majority) had no college classes. The most common AP’s taken were in math and science (no surprise, it’s MIT). The overwhelming majority got 4’s and 5’s on all tests.</p>

<p>I’ll pause here to add that I frequently saw kids with perfect SAT scores and perfect grades and a gazillion AP classes get rejected. Why? Because often these kids knew how to grind, but brought nothing else to the table. And that’s not who we’re looking for at MIT. We admit kids who show genuine passion. Sure AP’s can be one of many passion indicators - but I emphasize one of many.</p>

<p>When I was on the road, kids asked me repeatedly whether or not they should take a given AP class.</p>

<p>“Well,” I’d respond, “would you be taking it because you genuinely want to, or simply because you think it will get you into college?”</p>

<p>Sometimes they didn’t know the difference, which is a tragedy that deserves its own thread. But I digress.</p>

<p>And this is where you all start saying that adcoms are talking out of both sides of our mouths: we encourage kids to follow their hearts in the choices they make, and then as adcoms we want to see that they’ve taken “the most challenging courseload.”</p>

<p>To which I say: guys, I work for MIT! If a kid doesn’t want to be taking a challenging courseload in high school, that kid is certainly not going to be happy here.</p>

<p>Quite simply, the students who are happiest here are those who thrive on challenge. Most of our admits have taken AP math and science because they would have been bored silly in the regular classes. Indeed, they genuinely wanted to take those classes. They don’t look at MIT as the prize; they look at MIT as the logical next step. It’s an important distinction.</p>

<p>That said, AP’s are not the only way to demonstrate that one is passionate and likes challenge. Read Anthony’s story for an example:
<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/hello_im_anthony.shtml[/url]”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/hello_im_anthony.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>When faced with the choice, we will always choose “the right match*” over numbers. We’re not lying when we say that. You’ve heard me beat that sentiment to death in other threads, so I won’t do so here.</p>

<p>(*Match = mission, collaborative spirit, hands-on, balance, character, and passion, among others.)</p>

<p>But the reality is that when you have 10,500+ applications for ~1000 spots and 70% of the pool has great numbers, your pool is going to have plenty of kids who have the passion and the match and the scores/grades/AP’s. So we admit those kids - what other choice do we have?</p>

<p>But then (understandably) you guys say “Look! You need X, Y, and Z to get into MIT!” To clarify, we don’t require those things; many of our admits just happen to have them. And, I might add, for the right reasons.

</p>

[Inconclusive]

<p>

I’ll pause here to add that I frequently saw kids with perfect SAT scores and perfect grades and a gazillion AP classes get rejected. Why? Because often these kids knew how to grind, but brought nothing else to the table. And that’s not who we’re looking for at MIT. We admit kids who show genuine passion. Sure AP’s can be one of many passion indicators - but I emphasize one of many.
(*Match = mission, collaborative spirit, hands-on, balance, character, and passion, among others.)

</p>

<p>Woooooooooooooooow</p>

<p>Molliebatmit,</p>

<p>Your link made me confident!
I took ony one AP class and did not get the chance to take more.</p>

<p>wow again
Thanks for the link</p>