<p>Hello, all!</p>
<p>I am currently a freshman in high school. This year, I took two AP tests. Next year I am planning on taking about 10 AP tests, and then a few more junior year. However, I feel like I may be unnecessarily burdening myself. Are AP test scores really that important? I feel like the only reason AP tests would be important would be for the AP Scholar titles, but I can't see any other reason for taking AP tests (other than college credit, which I'm not considering as a good enough reason). I'm shooting for Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>All Ivy League schools that grant AP credit will limit the amount of AP credit they give, so that’s not a reason.</p>
<p>AP Scholar title is a step above NHS IMHO, so that’s not a reason.</p>
<p>Will it be impressive on college applications, no. There is a law of diminishing returns after about 6-8 AP’s for the total high school career. It’s not an arms race.</p>
<p>On another thread you said that you will be self-studying 8 AP’s next year. I’d posit that anyone that has time to self-study 8 AP’s is going to have a weak application to these uber-selective schools, because there is not enough time in the day to do that and show passion through their EC’s…I’d suggest scaling back.</p>
<p>Yeah I would definitely agree with Skieurope. Especially on the last point about there not being enough time. Even if you just dedicated your entire day every day to studying for these AP exams. You would probably come out with some 4s and 5s and a lot of 3s maybe some 2s. Then you factor in all the other stuff like honors courses and ECs (If you don’t have any then good luck on getting into the ivys), and it is just basically a pipe dream to do 10 APs. Anything beyond 8 really is unrealistic without being a super genius and having unlimited time to study. If you were going from 5 to seven or 6 to eight you probably would be fine but adding 8 APs is adding to much and you may be biting off more than you can chew.</p>
<p>@skieurope @jimmyboy23 Alright, thanks for the responses! How many APs would you suggest I take, then? @skieurope Why is AP scholar not a reason? Should I self-study at all, or is it a waste of time and effort?</p>
<p>AP scholar is nice but is only important to the people who earn it. It is not going to break or make an application. For a sophomore, I would suggest maybe three with four being the max amount of APs they should take. Then you can take 5-6 Junior and Senior year. That would leave you with 16-18 AP courses and that is more than enough. I think the max a person can take without going into the foreign languages is 24.</p>
<p>I would say having GPA 4.0 with a reasonable nuber of AP classes to be better than getting over a dozen AP and suffer in GPA below admission average.</p>