<p>Unfortunately, my HS places an unofficial cap on the # of AP's you can take ... they strongly discourage students from taking > 3 AP's, due to a recent suicide incident...</p>
<p>To make matters worse, our school offers 30+ AP's. How is that going to look to colleges (I'm applying to the top schools HYPS) ? Will it seem like I'm not taking advantage of the school system?</p>
<p>ignore them and just take more still</p>
<p>Think about the pool of competitive students at your school. If most or all of them are only taking 3 APs, then you should be fine. If you're worried you should definitely have your counselor writing a note explaining that you couldn't take more than 3 APs.</p>
<p>umm.. that's a really stupid rule. how many APs was the person who commited suicide taking? like, 20? why would the cap be as low as 3?</p>
<p>anyways, you could self-study a bunch of APs. when you apply to colleges, tell them about your school's 'cap', and it will look good that you found a way to get around it.</p>
<p>I took 6 APs last year and didn't work nearly hard enough to commit suicide...this was also dual AP/IB work, as this year I'm finishing the rest of my IB requirements...</p>
<p>APs and IBs are definitely not as hard as people make them out to be. You can pass most of the math/sci classes by memorizing a few simple formulas, and the history classes by reading the princeton review book.</p>
<p>Just take more. Unless your school is really different from the schools I've encountered, if you're a high achieving kid it won't really be that much of a stretch. Only reason some people stress is because of procrastination.</p>
<p>Just don't procrastinate. My advice is to do more ECs, which will force you to better time manage.</p>
<p>Yeah... there are people who break the rule.... but you need "special permission" aka you need the connections...</p>
<p>Last year I didnt have connections so i took 3 AP's in 10th and 3 AP's in 11th (this year)... This year, I got to know the head counselor very well so next year (senior) I'm taking 6... finally...</p>
<p>But as you know.. this is not a good progression 3, 3, 6 looks weird... plus... that's only 12 out of 30 AP's offered... really not a good plan...</p>
<p>well it's too late to self study now...</p>
<p>sorry forgot to emphasize one thing...</p>
<p>the worst thing is that it is unofficial... meaning they don't say it explicitly you can't take more than 3... they just state "we strongly recommend not taking 3"... but it's the same concept just worded differently... I don't know how colleges will look at that though...</p>
<p>my school didn't let me take BC calc because I got an A- in one semester of precalc. I just said screw 'em, got a text book, and learned all that crap.</p>
<p>the colleges will see how many APs each student takes, on average</p>
<p>go eat a cookie...12 APs is darn good</p>
<p>my Ds school doesn't allow more than 3 a year either, with ONLY ones allowed as a sophmore in a foreign language and gosh we have kids in some amazing schools</p>
<p>schools with 30 APs, well colleges also may make an assumption that the courses may not all be as strong as they should be</p>
<p>My school offered one AP to sophmores, and due to pre-reqs you can't take more than about 7-9(with 2+ of those being Advanced, not true AP, so you would have to self study) without passing out of classes or talking through a lot of stuff with counselors. I've managed to get around that a bit(without just plain self studying), but still, don't complain about 'I only did 12'.</p>
<p>Citygirlsmom, maybe their school simply chose to offer a lot of APs since they felt the investment was worth it, and liked to give their students choices? </p>
<p>Actually, I've heard of a lot of private schools/special program schools have that kind of rule. Pretty stupid in my opinion. The AP curriculum is only nominally harder than regular courses. Only reason people always assume it's hard is because people procrastinate and then complain a lot. People in the AP and IB programs are always the biggest complainers. A school that limited students to 3 a year better be getting all 5s...</p>
<p>Your school prohibits taking more than three APs, you mean. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Also, we have 'reccomended' caps too, but if you have good grades, it's worth arguing for it. I got my counselor on my side, and I'm taking one more than we're supposed to be allowed to.</p>
<p>My D's school (small private) also strongly recommends no more than 3, and rarely do students take ANY before Junior year. And because it's a small school there are not nearly as many AP offerings as larger schools. But the overall curriculum is rigorous, including many honors classes. She took two APs this year as a junior and will take three next, graduating with 5 total, which is about average for the most competitive kids at her school.</p>
<p>Our local public hs had 18 admits to HPS this year, and nearly all of them took fewer APs than you.</p>
<p>So does mine...that didn't stop me from taking 7.</p>
<p>my school has no APs</p>
<p>Bay: Which HS; I must say 18 to HPS is a good number. how big is the high school?</p>
<p>My D's is taking 4 AP in her Sophomore year now. Today is her 3rd AP test.
Lots of student at her school take AP as Sophomore while taking AP as freshman is rare but not impossible.</p>
<p>My daughter's high school has a similar recommended cap on AP classes, though they don't offer anywhere near 30 AP classes. I think the big problem I see with their AP classes is, even for the ones they offer, they don't have teachers who can teach the AP classes. So though there are teachers that might have some understanding of, say Calculus BC, they don't have a teacher that really knows how to teach Calculus BC, so the students really have to learn it on their own. So, if you take three periods of AP classes not only do you need to show up for class, and often just sit there, you also need to go home and read the books, search the internet for help, and basically do self study for these classes. Some will actually teach the class, but not anything close to what is tested for on the AP tests. Other than looking good on your high school records, the classes are pretty useless.</p>
<p>At the AP/Honors parent meeting every year the principal begs the parents to tell the students to take the AP tests, as many are skipping the tests. There is some list of high achieving high schools that several of the near by public high schools make, but ours doesn't. And one of the metrics is how many students pass an AP test. I think the principal is missing the point.</p>
<p>I believe that the Common App counselor's report asks whether the school limits how many AP's its students can take.</p>