<p>I’d do some investigating about how terrible the AP English teacher is, but if the teacher is terrible I wouldn’t take the class. Our AP English teacher was okay, but my kids did not like her approach or workload and both opted not to take AP English. My oldest (top 2% rank, stellar SAT scores) got into Harvard without AP English, but he had 9 APs and was taking Linear Algebra as a senior. Younger son (with top 6% rank, stellar verbal SAT, but not so stellar math) and 7 or 8 APs didn’t get into the most selective schools on his list (Harvard, Georgetown SFS, Brown), but did get into U of Chicago, Tufts and Vassar. </p>
<p>Every admissions officer I’ve heard speak on the subject says they don’t expect you to take every AP offered, but they do expect you to challenge yourself at least in the areas that interest you. It’s partly about context, a school that offers a lot of APs will probably have kids taking more APs than one that offers very few. You do want to take enough so that the GC checks the “rigorous curriculum” box.</p>
<p>I have no regrets for my kids. They both were decent writers and did very well in their freshman writing classes.</p>