<p>I had a nice reply and CC lost it!</p>
<p>POIH, I am glad to see you asking the question.</p>
<p>I would have big concerns if my DS (a rising senior) took six APs, and he is an excellent student. I can feel your pain about your D having excellent grades, SATs and APs, yet unsure if she'll be in the top 10%. DS also atteneds a highly competitive school, and the AP exams to him are easy compared with what the school expects. As others have mentioned, there is a big difference between schools as far as the quality of AP coursework.</p>
<p>That said, DS knows a number of kids who took 5-6 APs junior year and did fine. Most only took one AP soph year. DS has chosen to spread his APs evenly over 10th-12th grade, and will also have 11 semesters of post-AP courses.</p>
<p>Junior year is a time of transitions. Kids start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and there are a lot more things vying for their attention. Internships, LOTS of testing, looking at/thinking about colleges, research projects/mentors, etc. all come into play. I think colleges are spot-on in looking at junior year trends, because I think the multifaceted nature of the demands on a HS junior will reflect on a student's ability to handle the inevitable distractions of real life, academics, etc. in college.</p>
<p>DS spent the first part of junior year engrossed in a fascinating independent study project, for which he's written a paper and hopes to get published. While it was absolutely a worthy endeavor, his absent-minded professor habits showed up in his first semester grades, which took a surpirse hit. </p>
<p>Another thing that happened junior year was that the ECs my son has invested much time and love in over the past several years began to reap wonderful, well-deserved rewards. With those accolades have come opportunities for travel, leadership and creativity -- but those things take time away from academics. I wouldn't have it any other way, and neither would my son -- he would argue that the ECs are what have shaped him far more than the corresponding academic classes he's taken. I mention this because these are excellent, worthy endeavors and absolutely deserve his attention. But -- they do take time.</p>
<p>I would ask your D a few questions:
1) Why is she taking three AP sciences junior year? Colleges will be FINE with taking one senior year. I would push Bio to senior year.
2) Your D will remember more of the calculus if she takes MV/DiffEq junior year than waiting til senior year to take it -- even if she plans to continue calc in college. For a kid who got a 5 in BC Calc as a soph, AP Stat will just not be that difficult. (DS took BC as a soph, MV/DiffEq as a junior. He also took AP Stat as a junior, but his school teaches it as a one-semester compressed course, so it didn't represent a big chunk of time in his overall schedule.)
3) MV/DiffEq will be of use in Physics C; though it is not a pre- or co-requisite by any means, it will make the math part of AP Phys a LOT easier.
4) What is she planning to take senior year? If your D's HS offers interesting post-AP electives, getting the APs in this year that are pre-requisites MAY make sense.<br>
5) Most importantly -- is your D a marathon runner in terms of academics? Is she exhausted at the end of the finish line and does she need to be coaxed through to the bitter end? Does the challenge energize her? Absent parental involvement, how would she do? How much time DOES she spend studying? Will she need to devote lots of time to SAT prep? Even if she is an excellent test-taker and will only need to familiarize herself with the tests' formats, that, too is a distraction from her regular studies. How much of a distraction it will be is something only she can answer.</p>
<p>I have one kid who lives for the major, intense, adenaline-spurting challenge, and another who likes his challenge spread out in manageable increments so he can maximize all the other aspects of his life and minimize the stress. Both ways are fine -- both kids are in extremely challenging programs, but their needs are different. Different management strategies apply.</p>