<p>I know this may be a stupid question, but I am debating on what classes to take during my Junior year. I want to take at least two AP's, but I am afraid that will be too little. I don't know what to do. The possible AP's that I can take Junior year are:
~AP Social Studies
~AP Math
~AP English
~AP Science </p>
<p>Should I take all four?? I am really confused. Does anyone have any input? Thanks sooooo much!!!!</p>
<p>As many as possible.
If you don't take an active role in challenging yourself, you won't come across as impressive.</p>
<p>Buona fortuna.</p>
<p>You should take the ones taht most interest you and that you will do well in. Ivy League admissions officers that I have heard speak have said over and over you do not need to take every AP your school offers. (Good thing too - I think our school offers 24 of them!) My son was accepted last year. He took AP Comp Sci as a freshman, Bio as a sophomore, AP Physics C, Calc BC, and US Hist as a junior, and Chem, Latin and Econ as a senior. He refused to do AP English because he didn't like English, and in fact do to scheduling issues didn't even take honors English as a senior. Even at MIT I think the average number of APs entering freshman have taken is five - admittedly kids who go to schools where very few APs are offered get forgiven, and some of those kids may have taken college classes at CCs instead.</p>
<p>One Harvard admission officer was asked that question by a student at a public information meeting I attended a couple years ago. The officer replied by asking the student, "How much sleep do you get at night?" In other words, don't get sick to do what you think you need to do to impress a college. Do what's comfortable and interesting for you. Some juniors like to take a lot of highly challenging classes, and some like to be deeply involved in student activities. If you are doing your personal best and building relationships with teachers and fellow students, you shouldn't worry about the raw count of how many AP courses you are registered for.</p>
<p>mathmom, who is knowledgeable about these issues, mentioned MIT. This is the Harvard Forum, so my first reply was directed to what I have heard from Harvard admission officers. An MIT admission officer has a definitive blog post about how many AP courses to take </p>
<p>MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: "Many Ways To Define "The Best"" </p>
<p>that was originally a post here on CC.</p>
<p>take all 4...it's like kwu said, if a challenge/opportunity is available, take it (well, unless there's a real external issue preventing it...).</p>
<p>My older son took three soph year, three junior year, and will take three senior year. Agree with those who are telling you to a) take the ones that interest you and b) only enough so that you can still get sleep at night, have time for ECs, physical activity and social life. Junior year is a big leap, and I've seen a lot of kids (including my own) who got tripped up and didn't expect it. </p>
<p>DS1 has taken a wide variety of APs (except foreign language). He was lucky that most of his AP courses covered more than the AP curriculum, so he did not have to spend a lot of time cramming or studying material that was never discussed in class. That reduced a lot of the stress. DS had the chance to take more APs, but didn't like seeing his friends burn out with six or seven exams, so he focused on the courses he liked and on doing extremely well on the exams.</p>
<p>I woud also look at how many kids at your school take the APs and how well they perform on them. That may give you an idea as to how well the school prepares students to take the exams. Your GC should have this info -- ours includes those stats on the school reports they send out to colleges.</p>
<p>A caveat: if your school offers post-AP courses or you are interested in taking courses at a college senior year where AP would be a pre-requisite, then take those AP courses junior year to preserve your options for senior year electives. DS found this a useful planning strategy to get to some courses he really wanted to take.</p>
<p>I took 5 my junior year, but my school has a huge AP program.</p>
<p>definitely all of them
but depends on your school</p>
<p>What number does your GC reccomend? at my school you need to get special permission to take more than 2, so i took 1 my soph year and 3 each of my junior and senior years. No one at my school takes 4 unless 1 is an online. Find out how much time each one involves. have you taken an AP class yet? if not, then going from 0 to 4 is going to be hard. I would reccomend 3 this year and 3 or 4 next year.</p>
<p>my ap bio class actually has weekend class sessions. if all of yours are like that, I'd say don't take all of them. otherwise, take them all.</p>
<p>I took 5 - but that's just me. My school really, really focuses on the AP program, and I'll have taken 15 AP classes by the time I graduate. Not as much as some people, but still more than average.</p>
<p>Personally, I would take as many as possible. Not only do they show colleges how demanding you wish your curriculum to be, but they also really prepare you for college-level work. If you CAN do it, why not?</p>
<p>im taking the max my school offers (6 jr year... thats including an honors course which is the highest available). Hopefully it pays off.</p>
<p>You might also want to start looking into taking dual enrollment classes with the nearest community college. My district weighs AP and DE classes the same, but you should check how it applies to you. More often than not, the college classes at my community college are easier than the APs in my school.</p>
<p>I took three, but that's really all that was possible, because of choir, French, gym and my schools other required classes. I thought the course load was definitely manageable.</p>
<p>
[quote]
More often than not, the college classes at my community college are easier than the APs in my school.
[/quote]
my AP classes are harder than those at Ivies =O</p>
<p>I think it really depends on your personal situation. If you're the kind who loves learning and doesn't have much of a social life anyway, take all of them. If you're of the frame of mind that your Beer Pong career is as important your future college, take one or two.</p>
<p>I took one or two.</p>
<p>In our school, sophomores don't take AP classes...there are maybe 7 or 8 offered in all. This question actually makes me feel grateful that the offerings are limited. I feel badly for you that you are already positioning yourself as a Harvard applicant, in your sophomore year. This creates a stressful situation with artificial pressures, based on an admissions process that is unpredictable, and a goal that is questionable anyway. Why do you want to go to Harvard so badly?</p>
<p>If you are genuinely interested in the AP subjects, and want to develop skills for yourself, then take whatever AP courses you can manage sanely. But don't load up and stress yourself out just to get into Harvard. There is no way to be assured that AP classes will get you in there, and there are a lot of other good schools out there, anyway.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don't think academics get people into elite schools, alone. That is just sort of a minimum base to start from. If you load up on too many AP classes, you won't have time to find out what you are really interested in in life, or to participate in extracurriculars or volunteer work or the arts or whatever appeals to you. In other words, in many cases, too much academic work can keep you from finding those "passions" that schools like Harvard focus on, anyway.</p>
<p>Enjoy 10th grade and know that if you spend the next 2 1/2 years figuring out who you are and what you want, in an authentic way, you will end up in the right place for you, eventually. A more sophisticated search, among elite schools and beyond elite schools, will show you how many possibilities are out there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think it really depends on your personal situation. If you're the kind who loves learning and doesn't have much of a social life anyway, take all of them.
[/quote]
or you're one of those people who can not do anything and still get As...</p>
<p>
[quote]
In our school, sophomores don't take AP classes
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mine niether</p>
<p>Thanks for the posts!
Sophomores don't take AP's at my school either. Just to clear up some confusion (which I think exists) I am choosing courses for Junior year not sophomore year. This is a really hard decision to make. I haven't taken any AP's in the past, however I have taken all honors courses. I think I am going towards taking 3 AP's total, because I don't want to stress myself out junior year. Seeing that many students have taken 4 or 5 AP's junior freaks me out. I want to be a good applicant for the colleges I will apply to. There are 4 total I can take next year and I plan to take 3. Is that ok? Thanks for the responses. Thanks!</p>