I am currently an African American sophomore girl, deciding my class schedule for junior year. I know junior year is important and I want to take 5 APs next year to raise my GPA. My current weighted GPA is a 4.3 with an unweighted around 3.9 (not completely sure what it is). I intend to go to an ivy and I would like to raise my GPA. The only AP I’ve taken is AP World this year, getting high A’s year round. My guidance counselor and others have told me that I can handle the load but if it’s not completely necessary, I’m not sure if it’s worth it. Keep in mind that my final grades freshman year were all A’s, an A-, and one B+ in a higher level math class. This year all of my grades are A’s. I’m really leaning towards taking this number of AP’s mainly because of my lower grades freshman year, but still need help on what to do.
Not sure if going from 1 AP to 5 AP’s is a good idea. I wish people would realize that the AP thing is not an arms race, no one needs every single AP strapped under their belt. If you feel like you can handle it, go for it. If you feel like it’ll compromise your GPA, then drop a few in exchange for honors/regular courses.
I think you should take 7 APs
5 is really not enough for ivys nowadays
Don’t do that to yourself. Top 20 universities/LACs want to see a TOTAL of 6-8 AP’s for all of high school. Stanford put it succinctly: “it’s not a game of who has the most AP’s, wins”.
Since you already took one, take 3 junior year, 3 senior year, and you’re good to go.
What AP’s were you thinking about?
My daughter is a Junior and takes AP Cal AB, AP Chem, AP English, honors physics, honors french, honors Anotony & physiology, honors world History and she gets ALMOST NO SLEEP. One of her friends takes 4 easier AP’s. and it is reasonable. She was deciding between 4 and 5 AP’s for her senior year, but is taking 4 so she can have a study. This year and last year she took 7 classes so didn’t have a study. There have been 3 to 4 days this year she skipped school because she couldn’t get all of her work done. I sometimes feel guilty as a parent I let her do this. AP Chemistry in particular is really hard for her, hopefully she will pull off a B-, but she may get her first C ever.
My D has an all AP schedule and she does great but gets very little sleep. But that’s really her own fault. It’s manageable. But if there are some non-AP classes that interest you, take those. My D had no interest in being in honors or regular classes because of the types of students in those classes.
Does course selection affect rank at your school? There are schools in our area that unless you are taking mostly AP’s, you will not be top 10% due to weighting and that may affect admissions chances to top schools.
I was planning on taking AP Calc AB, AP French (which I’ve heard is just watching movies the whole year, not much of a challenge), AP Environmental (also an easy class), AP English, and APUSH. I’m considering switching from AP Environmental to on level Physics, which is what most juniors take. If I did take all of those APs though, I would be in the top 10%.
@studentz158 This is what happened to me with all me AP classes in my time during HS:
Sophomore, 6-7 hours of sleep a night: AP Chinese (5 on the test), Chem Honors (only science honors)
Junior, 6 hours of sleep a night: Lit Honors (took the Lang test on my own, got a 4), Pre-Calc H (only math honors), APUSH (5 on the test), AP Chem (5 on test, probably the easiest AP class I have ever taken, highest science grades ever)
Senior, 4-5 hours a sleep a night: AP Gov, AP Physics 1, AP Econ, AP Calc BC, AP English Lit. I. Am. Dying. Did I mention I pulled my first ever all nighter during senior year? Yeah.
My D took 17 APs, including independent study, and is loving it at Stanford. She needed to take that many to push herself, and she wanted the boost to weighted GPA so she could become valedictorian.
Many of her peers at Stanford also took 10+, but there are a few who had 4 (their HS did not allow so many).
S had 15 APs, and is graduating from Columbia next month.
If lots of other kids at your school regularly take 5 APs as a junior and do well at them, and you only take 2 or 3, then IMHO it would be hard for your GC to report that you take the “most rigorous” schedule.
You know yourself - do you do better when you have more to do?
I think it depends a lot on what your alternatives are. Our high school doesn’t offer honors classes to upperclassmen. It’s AP or regular. We have many students taking 5 AP classes both years. I don’t think you can make the top 10% without at least 8 APs, maybe more.
I’ve noticed that students on this site are way too focused on the number of APs. APs don’t happen in a vacuum. 5 APs with 6 total classes is a lot easier than 5 APs with 8 total classes. 5 APs with moderate EC’s is a lot easier than 5 APs with very timeconsuming ECs. And some AP classes aren’t really that hard. My daughter spent more time on freshman Art than she did on AP Psych. And she’s struggling more with 3 APs than her sister did with 5 harder ones because she spends more time on ECs. So stop obsessing about the number of APs and think about which classes are interesting to you and are at an appropriately challenging level.
@studentz158: I would limit those. AP Calc AB, AP English Language, and APUSH, and then, if you’re interested int them, at most, EITHER APES or AP French. If AP French really is easy, it’s the best ROI, since it counts as a “strong” AP (on par with Calc BC) so you get that for a relatively easy class, whereas APES is known to be easy. In addition, it means you can take Regular Physics, which is more valuable than APES (Bio, chem, and physics are the “core” sciences, whereas APES is seen as an elective).
That, to me, means parental intervention is needed. Adolescents need 8-9 hours of sleep, or they cause all kinds of damage to their growing bodies and, especially, brain, increasing health risks including mental health. “getting very little sleep” is the opposite of “manageable” and veers into “dangerous”.
OP, you sound like a great student. S #2 has the same grades, a B+ for geometry freshman year (thanks, common core ), A- in bio, As and A+s in everything else. All As and A+s this year. He is also registering this week for next year.
There is some really good advice in another recent thread on this topic. MYOS wrote about “the law of diminishing returns” on APs after 8. In 's case, three to four junior year and three to four senior year are fine. One will be a self-study because for the third year in a row, no AP Spanish being offered 
As others have pointed out, your decision depends on…
– the course schedule overall. For example, in our HS there is a full year required religion class and it is pretty easy. An intro level language class would also be light. If you have a free period, that also helps.
– how many APs are offered? At our school, only 10 APs offered, anyway, and some years not all 10.
– are you filling up on “easy” APs like Psych, or others that are supposedly easy? If so, is it worth it to overburden yourself (potentially lowering grades/scores) under the mistaken idea that the sheer number impresses more than ace-ing the other classes/exams? Mathyone’s advice about not obsessing about numbers but thinking about your level of interest and level of challenge was right on.
Be sure you are looking ahead to your senior year, as well.
If you overload on APs you will have less time for ECs…which are also important. Once you get to that level – if you have the stats for top schools – ECs are what truly make you stand out.
S #1 did a total of 7 APs in school, making sure to do at least one in each of the 5 core subjects:
Studio (very time-consuming), APUSH, Calc, Physics, Psych, Spanish, Lit. He self-studied Art Hist and Euro sophomore and junior years respectively – because those fit in with his interest in art. So the total was 9. He never took more than 3 AP classes a year. He had time to ace his classes AND excel in ECs. His scores were mostly 5s (2 4s but thankfully those came in at the end of senior year). He is now at an Ivy.
If you are a strong STEM kid I would not be afraid of both AP Calc and Physics. However if you are not, I would take them at the same time. Also I would not recommend taking any AP just because it is “easy.” Sounds like you have enough selection to choose more wisely than that.
@MYOS1634 I don’t disagree with you. Sleep is definitely important. But I don’t know a single 16 year old that gets 8-9 hours of sleep during the week. My D usually catches up on the weekends. When I said its manageable, I was referring to her full AP schedule. Managing school work isn’t her problem. What causes her not to get enough sleep is all the time she spends texting friends and on social media. We’re working on that.
^yeah, having to turn in all electronic and connected devices at 10pm helps tremendously. Also, it guarantees your teen doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night when her phone beeps due to a random text.
Sorry, I figured she was up doing AP hw.
The fact 16 year olds aren’t getting 8-9 hours of sleep is a problem. But we can only fix it one kid at a time. It IS the amount of sleep they need in order to develop and grow healthy.
“But I don’t know a single 16 year old that gets 8-9 hours of sleep during the week.” My first kid did. Second one is getting 7.5-8 and I am not happy about it.
Just keep in mind the jump from honors courses to AP courses is very large, so if taking an honors course is a little challenging for you, I wouldn’t suggest taking the AP for that course unless you want a challenge.