I’m a junior now, and I am only taking 2.5 AP’s (Im taking AP Econ, which is half regular and half AP Micro). My school is in the competitive Fairfax County, where there are many AP’s offered. A lot of people in my class are taking 3-5. I am doing well in all of mine, and I even took 2 AP’s my sophomore year when most took 1 (however, I got A’s in the classes, but didnt do so well on the AP tests) . I am taking 5 my senior year, but colleges wont even see my grades for the whole senior year. Even though my junior year courseload will be weaker than a lot of strong applicants in my class, will this hurt my chances at top colleges. I feel like I have a few other distinguishing activities that can make up for it, but I am just curious if the weakness of my course rigor will overshadow it.
Usually course rigor is considered a very important factor for college admissions. You can look up the “common data set” on google for each of the schools you want to apply to, and see how admissions looks at course rigor, GPA, test scores, activities, personal qualities, etc. when making decisions. If you have compelling extracurriculars, exceptional letters of rec, and strong essays, then it could conceivably make up for a weaker course load. I’m not sure what schools you are considering, but most private colleges will often see your first semester of senior year when you send a mid-year report, so they will see that you are continuing to challenge yourself, which is a positive.
Make sure you apply to a good mix of reach/matches/safeties and keep up your grades. Good luck! (:
It’s your school guidance counselor who determines the level of academic rigor for your course load relative to what’s offered at the school and what other students typically take. Go see you GC today and ask him/her how your transcript will be evaluated. If they say they are rating it ‘most rigorous’ in their recommendation letter, then you have nothing to worry about. If they aren’t, then you will have to accept that fact that your transcript isn’t perfect - and it may or may not matter depending on where you apply. Overall, there’s nothing else you can do about it at this point except have the conversation that will settle it one way or another - and apply to matches and safeties as well as reaches, as sophie9999 says.
There are 3000 colleges in the USA. THere is one out there for you.
Don’t worry about the other kids…yes they may take 8 APs and go to Harvard…
but that isn’t you. You are taking 2.5 APs and you will find an awesome college for you.
You’re showing an increase in rigor as time passes on. Many students overestimate the amount of APs they need to have what is considered a rigorous schedule. Some colleges like the University of Florida don’t even look at senior grades and only look at the rigor of senior year classes.
So by the end of senior year you will have 9.5 APs? I realize that you will be judged in the context of your school, but that should be enough APs to get into all sorts of excellent colleges.