My school doesn't offer many AP classes or honor courses are my chances lowered for top schools?

Applying to College
1

My school only offers 8 AP classes and 4 honors classes

AP biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP government, AP Spanish, AP statistics, and APUSH. Also it has 2 elective like AP classes, art and computer science. The honors classes are honors physics, honors English 3, honors English 4, and honors Spanish 4.

I plan on taking all the AP classes and all the honors classes except for Spanish, computer science, and art. However, when comparing myself to other applicants they’ve taken all honors and APs since freshman year and a lot more AP classes since more AP classes are offered. For my school, you can only take AP classes in your junior year and you can only take a couple honors classes sophomore year, none for freshman.

So my question is are my chances lowered even if I have an average GPA, average test scores, and I’m top of my class? Will I have to make it up with extracurriculars, outstanding grades/test scores? Is there anything I can do to boost my chances because of the lack of AP classes.

2

You are measured against what your school offers, not what students at other schools have available. Your school will provide a profile that outlines what’s available, and your GC will indicate whether you have pursued the ‘most rigorous’ curriculum offered. Note that that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have taken every single AP/Honors class available- just that in the context of your school, your curriculum was considered to be in the category of ‘most rigorous’.

For top schools you don’t ‘make it up’ with ECs, etc. You are at the top of your class, have top test scores and have great ECs. An “average” GPA and test scores won’t get you into “top” schools no matter how many APs you have.