My kid and the high school counselor has allowed this course load at the competitive high school
AP ENglish
AP Euro History
AP French
AP BC calclus
AP Biology
AP computer Science
Is this competitive enough?
Looking for merit based scholarships
taking a thousand APs does not equate to getting into an ivy or a top college
not that many students take a course load like that. If your kid can handle it without killing himself then go for it
Seems solid its all in the gpa.
Mine is taking:
DC biology
DC physics
DC calculus
DC world gov
Networking
DC statistics
DC eng
2 electives
It will be her hardest year. 9 classes.
Just hoping for merit or scholarship at a state.public
“Is this competitive enough?”
I guess that if a student really wants to do this it might be okay to let them try, but I would be concerned about how much stress the student is taking on. As someone I know said in an only slightly different context: “You have to want to do it”.
One daughter took AP European History and came up with IMHO the hardest earned A- that I have ever seen in my life. There is a LOT of detail to study in European History.
That is NOT the question you should even be considering.
There are so many other considerations that trump being competitive. First- can the student handle the workload? Does this person want to take the courses? Would s/he rather take some other classes? Are there classes to take just for the fun of it instead of some of the AP’s? Is the student gifted and would be bored with a lesser schedule?
Remember the purpose of taking classes is to get an education. Learn skills and knowledge. Life in HS is not just about preparing for the future, it is about enjoying being a teen.
Getting merit scholarships depends on the school-public or private. Some state flagships try to attract top students with merit money. Others don’t. Please, do not try to game the system/plan the resume. Instead try to get the best education for the individual person with also having a good childhood.
I’d can several of the AP classes and focus on the PSAT in the Fall because many colleges have special packages for NMF kids. Is your kid a good standardized test taker? If so, have them take a full ACT soon to get one under their belt in preparation for PSAT/SAT/ACT in junior year.
AP classes are not necessarily harder or more time consuming than regular versions. Having a ton of homework is also not an indicator of how good the class is (having many students do well on AP exams is an indicator of a well taught class, regardless of the workload). Look at how well taught the individual classes are- a great teacher can make it must take class. Consider why the French class is proposed. Usually 4 HS years worth of a foreign language meets even college graduation requirements. Once passed the fourth year of a language the basics are covered and the subsequent classes are only for student enjoyment of the literature and culture. Not necessary to take AP computer science to major in it. Likewise AP exams can be taken and good scores obtained without always taking the course.
I don’t get forgoing an AP class just to attempt to do well on the PSAT. Top students will do well because they have strong skills and the knowledge base from taking rigorous classes. That test is a mere blip in the year- not worth giving up the preparation for doing well in a top college.
Competitive enough for exactly what?
A rigorous class load in and of itself will not deliver merit mornies.
GPA and test scores do. A well rounded interesting happy kid who pursues things that that have passions for can too believe it or not. If the rigor hurts the GPA or leaves them with the appearance of zero interests of their own then it may or may not be with it.
But really. Are they classes the student wants to take or are they all simply to try to game the system? Colleges can smell that pretty far away.
Students should take what they are truly interested in. Not a prescribed list that they think will earn “x”.
That schedule is similar to my kids’ junior year schedules and, for what it’s worth, they were both accepted by their top choice colleges.
I would reconsider letting your child take that many AP classes. What do you mean competitive enough? Enough for what? First, unless she can handle a ton of stress, that load is going to be incredibly stressful. You realize that colleges don’t admit people based on how many AP classes they take? Very senior posters on this website say that 6-8 is a good number of APs for the tippy top colleges. The problem is that if your child is aiming high, the colleges want to see more than lots of AP classes.
But you are looking for merit. Merit awards are given based on a combination of grades and test scores, and at the more selelctive schools, ECs too. It’s more important that your daughter gets high grades and high test scores. It’s just as good to get high grades in, say, two normal classes and four AP classes. That schedule might easily be unmanageable and she risks not getting merit money if she can’t get A’s in those classes. She needs to do very well on the PSAT which will help her qualify for National Merit Scholar. Is she going to spend enough time prepping for the SAT or ACT with that workload? Can she still maintain her other activities with that burden?
Taking six APs is not going to get her in over a kid who takes four in a year. To counter the anecdotal story above, our Harvard kid got in with about five APs total, and our MIT and Amherst kids had eight total. Our school offers 18, so it isn’t that they didn’t have plenty of choices available. He who takes the most APs doesn’t necessarily win.
Merit doesn’t come from a heavy workload, but from test scores + a well balanced schedule that leaves plenty of time for one or two activities pursued in-depth.
Top schools want to see 6-8 total, judiciously chosen, for all of high school. After that you run the risk of looking like an AP junkie (a kid who takes AP 's for the sake of their being AP) or a ‘drone’(kid programmed by parent).
If you’re looking for merit, your child’s time will be better spent working on test prep and on diving in depth into whatever she’s into.
Keep in mind that growing adolescents need 8-9 hours of sleep per night. Less than that and you run the real risk of harming their brain and body (the consequences reveal themselves in college, with often devastating results.)
Now, how do you transform this schedule into something competitive and reasonable ?
- if your school offers an AB->BC sequence, have her take AB junior year, BC senior year.
If she can only take AB OR BC, take AB and plan for her to dual enroll in calculus 2 at a local community college senior year (this will 'count’as BC with the added bonus of showing autonomy and college readiness in time management and social terms.) - keep AP English
- select a ’ logical ’ combination such as French + European history, or bio + CS.
- look at possible combinations over Jr -sr year, mixing AP 's and dual enrollment.
Competitive for what??? Merit scholarships in college will be largely awarded based on the GPA and SAT or ACT scores…not the number of AP courses taken.
Your kid would need to get excellent grades in those AP courses for college merit aid consideration.
You kid goes to a competitive prep high school. TBH, I think that’s a mighty heavy courseload for a student.
Why ALL AP courses?
Also…how come no courses in say…music or the arts?
Colleges also like to see students who are not ONLY academically inclined.
Merit is based on GPA and test scores. I would not allow my child to take 6 AP classes junior year. My D had a total of 6 during HS and she received a lot of merit. Highly selective schools will also look at extra curricular activities.
Your child will need time to study for the ACT/SAT as well as eat/sleep and enjoy his/her activities.
Depends on the context of the school and what your kid is going for. If all the other top juniors (say top ten percent of the class) are taking six APs AND YOUR KID CAN HANDLE THEM, then your kid should be fine. Both parts need to be true. The “elites only look for 6-8 APs” advice only applies to high schools that are not AP arms races. My kid’s school is one where 5-6 APs are necessary in junior year alone (and 14-15 by graduation) in order to have a shot at elites. Look at Naviance data for your school. If the school weights APs more heavily than honors and level you will be able to look at the acceptance scattergrams for elite colleges and approximate how many APs the accepted students had.
The main thing to think about is whether your kid can handle the schedule and wants to take those classes. My son is taking six APs this year entirely because he wanted to; I asked him repeatedly if he was sure, suggested lower level alternatives for him to consider, etc. I offered the same suggestions for his senior year and he is going to take six APs again anyway. He isn’t even looking at elite colleges, he just wants the challenging classes. If that sounds like your kid, it will be ok. If, however, your kid doesn’t have great time management skills and just seems to be blindly chasing prestige, you should step in and make sure the kid knows it is better to take a schedule that is appropriate for him/her.
Just providing little background. I have two kids who attended prep school on full need based aid. They were both admitted to Harvard and Yale on full need based. Therefore they attended those colleges. Both girls work iin Wall Street.
our third kid attends prep school too. She is thinking to go venture capital route and not sure what and where she will graduate. My both daughters took similar hard course load but third child coursework is very hard. I am worried that she is taking to much harder level and was asking her to drop one level out of six. So far her one AP and five other honors level classes, she is doing well and is placed among top 10 percent
@nynycasino1234 how is your child doing in school now? What classes does he/she take? How does he/she handle stress? Is he/she a perfectionist? Do most juniors take such a heavy AP load and still do well on the AP tests as well as the ACT/SAT?
@wis75 I am the only one concerned about this hard course work load. That is why I am writing here. I am asking her to invest more time with her friends at school. My older two daughters and the third child says she can handle it. Her guidance counselor does says if anyone can do it it is she. This is not to resume building. She has so far received 200 k in scholarships for high school. This summer she will be traveling to Europe on a full scholarship.
@myos1634 she scored 770 in Sat Math1 and 660 in Sat English while in 7th grade