For my senior year, next year, I am planning on taking 6 APs
Ap lit
Ap calc bc
Ap stat
Ap Econ
Ap physics C
And Ap computer science principles (or whatever the new Ap class is called)
I am also taking band.
Is this course load to difficult?
It will be tough and you will have lots of work. If you’ve taken AP courses before, you already know this. If you have not taken prior APs then tred very carefully. My son will be taking a similar schedule.
It won’t be impossible IF you are a good and diligent student. But that means being committed to doing the work ALL year. So, use caution - Be extremely careful to avoid “senioritis”, so you aren’t back on these boards next year worrying about recision.
Best of luck!
Agreed. Some people can handle it, others crash and burn. Only you know which type of person you are. I do question the wisdom/rationale for taking 4 AP STEM classes. Also, you’ve neglected to include your hidden class - College Applications and Essays. Rising seniors always underestimate how time-consuming this will be.
Why do you plan to take 6ap’s? 4would be plenty and taking more won’t serve any point for admissions. What’s your goal?
AP stats is completely un-necessary. As an AP lite, it doesn’t add to your curriculum and it’s a class better taken in college.
What’s your calc and physics background? Are you hoping to major in stem?
Have you reached level 4or AP in a foreign language?
I second Skieurope in that 1st semester is going to require a lot of work, every day, for college apps
Take what you think you should to be a well informed knowledgable person. Colleges don’t care about the # of APs you take.
I would drop the Stats…take it in college if you need it.
To answer some questions people have asked:
I plan on majoring in Computer science or math so that is why I have the emphasis on stem classes. I enjoy those subjects. Also as for my background in those subjects I have taken AP physics 1 and honors Calc A. my school designs the curriculum so physics C and Calc bc are the next classes I would take.
I just finished French level 4 and I don’t plan to take AP French.
As for my reasons for taking these classes, I have a few. One I enjoy learning as well as having a challenge in the class, I don’t like not having to pay attention and still getting an A. Second I see people saying for top schools you want to take the most rigorous courses available. My schedule would be very rigorous, but at my school it would be about the average load of the top students. I wanted to take a similar load because I want to stay competitive to my peers, I guess.
A lot of people in this thread are saying to drop Ap stat. Is that a good idea? What would I take in its place?
Thank you everyone who responded!!!
Like someone else said earlier, only you can really judge whether you are up to that course load. It is manageable, but you can’t fall behind. As for college applications, do them in the summer. All apps will be out by mid-August at the latest.
(why do certain posters automatically assume that a student that wants to take a lot of AP classes is doing it solely for admissions-purposes?)
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While I did not make that assumption, those that did would have been correct because the OP admitted it hem/herself.
Which gives one, what, 2 weeks before school starts? What about those that actually have jobs over the summer? A good college application with essays is quite time consuming, and can’t be cranked out over a weekend.
That’s a conversation for you to have with your GC. IMO, taking 5 AP’s vs. 6 AP’s will not be the difference between your schedule being marked “most rigorous” vs. “very rigorous.” Since there is no “super-duper rigorous,” you get no brownie points for making it more rigorous than necessary.
As a potential CS major, stats with calc is more useful, which is why people are suggesting that you wait to take it in college. As for what to replace it with, none of us have your catalog, so we don’t know what’s available. Explore a new subject. Take something that sounds interesting. Flip a coin. It really does not matter.
How would anyone of CC who don’t know you personally evaluated the difficulty of the proposed schedule? I personally would keep statistics because the class involves improving and reasoning, knowing if your plan to answer a research question is realistic in scope and elements and provides useful data that facilitates problem solving. The computer does the math.
I said by mid-August. The common app opens July 1. The rest of D’s schools release apps Aug 1 with a couple mid-August. She works and will still get them all done before school starts. It’s very doable.
As for the assumption…it was made before the OP explained why he wanted to take the courses and is the usual assumption on CC. Very cynical view, imo, especially when the responder does not know the OP’s capabilities.
Colleges will not make a difference between 4,5, and 6 AP’s. I doubt the guidance counselor will. OP could simply ask “will you check 'most rigorous’if I take 4AP’s?” if the counselor says no (which I doubt), OP can follow up and ask if s/he can take 5.
Many overachievers intend to complete all their apps in the summer. None do. All academically strong seniors struggle balancing their courseload and college apps in the Fall. Taking such an overly ambitious schedule may mean sacrificing apps and will certainly result in sacrificing sleep. Not a winning proposition. Even a super efficient being will need some time to actually learn and do the work for each of these classes, and then there’s the work on essays (which you can’t speed up).
The easiest class to remove (especially since you should take it in college anyway) is AP stats. You could replace it with a ‘fun class’ - is there no class you’ve always wanted to take, not for college, but for fun? Culinary arts? Current events? Shop?
We say to drop stats because you came here and said “is this too hard” which makes us think that you think it might be too hard. Stats is the least useful of the APs you are taking for college admissions. Take an elective of interest.
Also, as a parent, I have seen what happens to students in the Fall…they are taking many difficult courses, are applying to school, and maybe also doing a sport. You don’t realize how much time applying takes.
In the spring, you will not be wanting to take that extra AP…You wil be visiting admitted students day and seeing the finish line.
You want to get all your info ready for your app…you don’t want to be writing that essay in the fall …the prompts will be the same…just have a draft ready so you can have your GC/English teacher review it.
At my school there’s always someone who tries to take 6 APs and it never ends well. Even 5 is very stressful. I would drop stats and/or CSP.