So next year I will be taking AP Biology, and AP Calculus AB. I don’t want to take APush because I’m not the best at history and the ap lit teachers at my school are awful.
Is 2 AP’s too little? Will college penalize me for not taking an ap English class and AP US history my junior year?
If you could post what schools you’re applying to, it’d probably help get a more accurate assessment of whether it’s too little or not. Good on you for taking those two, they’re pretty difficult IMO.
Ivy leagues and a couple of UC’s
UC’s consider HS course rigor very important in their application review.
1.) I’m currently a sophomore only taking AP world
2.) My school offers around 20 AP’s
3.) The top students usually take around 7-9 AP’s?
4.) Most of the people I know will be taking calc and ap bio next year and won’t be taking apush and ap lit, if that means anything. Also some people in sophomore year choose either AP World or AP Physics. Though the majority chooses AP World
Usually Junior year is the most important when it comes to college admissions and if you want to be competitive with 20 AP’s offered, 2 will probably not be enough to be considered rigorous. I think you need to try to take at least 1 more AP class since Senior year will be even more difficult if you load up on these courses along with college applications to deal with.
Alright. Do I have to take both ap’s along with ap biology and apush? Or I can i choose one of the two AP’s (apush and ap lit) Would 3 AP’s be considered rigorous enough or should I aim for 4?
Aim for what you think you will be able to handle at once. If you think you can handle 4 APs in one year, then go for it. I would definitely recommend APUSH because, while it can be challenging, you don’t need to have dates and events memorized, like in WHAP. It is a big picture course and a big picture test, rather than a hundred or so items in a list that may or may not appear on the test.
Conventional wisdom says that 6-8 AP’s over the course of a HS career is a good mix when targeting top schools. While some applicants may take more, in most cases, each additional AP will not add meaningfully to a college app.
Are you sure the English option is AP Lit? Usually (but not always) AP Lang is taken by juniors and AP Lit by seniors. Regardless, no you don’t need to take both AP Lit and APUSH if you don’t want to. However, if you ever get challenged, you need to come up with a better reason for AP Lit, at least. “the ap lit teachers at my school are awful” will be viewed positively by no college.
Do you think college admissions view a student taking 3 AP’s and another student taking 4 AP’s the same?
I would love to take AP Lang but it’s only offered to seniors. I do plan on taking Lang in my senior year though.
Colleges are not going to get into the nitty gritty of your transcript in the 12-15 minutes they spend reading your application. They will not be counting number of AP’s per year. At best, they will look at your GC’s rigor rating. Then they might count total AP courses. If you take 6 and another applicant from your school takes 7, I doubt it will be the determining factor in either’s acceptance/rejection.
if your school offers 20 APs you should probably take more if youre applying to ivies
For Ivies, they can expect the academic balance in APs for core subjects and the APs related to your possible major. They won’t count, per se, but look for what specific choices you did make. Ivies can expect you stretched in each subject area. It can matter less which year you took X in, as long as you took it and did well.
Look, if it were as easy as just the count, lots of kids would load up on enviro, human geo, AP stats.
If your school offers 20 AP and the top kids take 7-9, I don’t think your GC will consider your 3-5 “most rigorous.” Talk to him or her.
And no, they don’t accept that you don’t like a teacher or do your best in history. They look at how you do take on challenges. And succeed.
If I take 8 AP courses would that be considered rigorous by the end of senior year? (WHAP, AP bio, Ap Lit, APush, AP Gov, AP Lang, Calc AB and BC) My foreign language also doesn’t have an AP course although our school considers its final level to be a “college” course
I also took “only” 2 AP classes last year in my junior year: Bio and Calc. However I self studied the BC part of Calculus and Physiology (which is really easy another easy one is environmental science). You may want to do that if you are not having that many AP classes.
Another recommendation I’ll have (only if you are a science-mathematic person) to take AP Physics!!
I am totally regretting it now in my senior year to not having taken it in my junior year. Because then I could have been in higher physics classes. oh well.
UCs might still accept it, depends. But Ivies probably won’t.
Good luck
Ivy leagues won’t accept what? Me not taking ap physics? I don’t think I can last in that class
No. Most students who get enrolled into the Ivy league genially have more AP classes and stuff.
I meant it in general not because of physics
What are you planning to major in though ?
Honestly I’m really indecisive lol I was thinking about doing business but microbiology is way more interesting to me
How many ap classes is Ivy League ready
Again, the first person to ask about rigor is the GC. He/she tells the colleges if your courseload is considered “most rigorous” in your high school. Then the adcoms look at your courses and get their impressions. If you are asking if an Ivy would be ok with just “rigorous,” that’s where it gets tougher.
What possible major? That matters.
Talk to the GC. Read up on the colleges.