<p>Would it be detrimental to my chances of admission into Caltech for not taking all the AP's at my school? I'm considering whether or not I should take AP U.S. History right now. Apparently, the work load is insane, with an average of two hours of work every night. If I don't take it, I'll only be taking four AP classes junior year. </p>
<p>If I don't take it, I'll have more time to do other things, such as sports (pretty useless since I probably won't be team captain), a research internship, or starting a new club. </p>
<p>Right now, my GPA is down low, unweighted 3.88 and weighted 4.32. And my SAT isn't that good either: 2380... I think my GPA and my ethnicity (Asian... ;_;) already killed my chances in admission in all top colleges, but I'll still try... </p>
<p>I’m having the same problem. APUSH is the hardest class at my school. I don’t really want to take it, but if I want to keep my class rank, I have to. Colleges would rather see you taking classes that you can handle and doing well in them, while doing other activities, rather than see you struggling the entire year and not getting good grades. AP classes are a good indication to colleges in deciding if you can handle college courses, but getting an A in US History is way better than getting a D in APUSH. Plus, since it looks like you want to major in math, engineering, or some type of science, I would really focus on your science and math classes. To gain acceptance to Caltech/MIT you need to basically be “rocket scientist” material and show a great aptitude for math and science. Being a brainiac is one thing, but being a brainiac and having creativity that makes you stand out from the crowd, is another. Those are the people these colleges are looking for.</p>
<p>Well…to be perfectly blunt, you are pretty screwed… 2380 SAT just doesn’t cut it today. 3.88 uw GPA is abysmally low. If you don’t take all possible AP courses in high school, Caltech adcom will think you were slacking, unless you had an extremely good excuse (such as being a captain on 2 or 3 varsity sports). Also, in case you haven’t heard, Caltech is instituting a strict “no Asian males” policy next year.</p>
<p>I would save the application fee and maybe try and find a job at Starbucks or McDonald’s…</p>
<p>Out of interest, why do you want to go to Caltech?</p>
<p>If you don’t want to take the class, don’t. It’s not worth it to spend lots of time on a class you don’t care about, and I honestly don’t think Caltech will notice. Even if they do, it’s unlikely to make much of a difference. It’s a science/math school. They’re more interested in your science/math APs. Also, on what planet is a 2380 “not that good.” Did they up the max score to 3000 without me knowing?</p>
<p>You guys aren’t putting into account that in high school you have class the entire first half of the day. They have maybe 8-10 hours after school. Six classes of two hours of homework a day would be an insane schedule. </p>
<p>High school was easy because the work wasn’t very difficult, not necessarily because it wasn’t tedious.</p>
<p>Still, if you’re looking to apply to Caltech, you should at least do some research on it and see what it stands for before saying stuff that will make people not take you seriously.</p>
<p>Well, it definitely won’t help you if you opt out of that AP class. It really depends. Managing to get a B and an A in that AP class would be better than two As in a lower level. Caltech is more focused on math/sciences and since it’s only one class you’re opting out of, it’s highly doubtful there would be a difference.</p>
<p>Really, to be serious, you don’t have to take EVERY SINGLE AP class your school offers. Unless you love history, don’t take APUSH (which I didn’t).</p>
<p>There are better ways to show your interest in learning (especially math and science)</p>
<p>I didn’t take AP US History (the exam; I took the class), and I got in. However, if you’re interested enough in the sciences and in math to want to go to Caltech, you might enjoy taking a few math and science APs (or self-studying a few) or trying to get a position at a lab or doing some research on your own.</p>
<p>At my school everyone told me APUSH was insane and took them at least 7 hours a week.
It turned out to be just reading and took me at most 3 hours every Saturday morning.
There were occasional projects that took some time, but no big deal.</p>
<p>From my experience, I wouldn’t really believe what others tell you.</p>
<p>You guys forget the fact that I have 5 other AP classes. 3 of them should take only 1 hour, and 2 of them and APUSH should take about 2-3 hours each. So that’s about 9~12 hours of work right there… I get out of school at 2, so in theory it’ll take me to around 12 to finish all my work, assuming a relative amount of homework is assigned for each class… And this is to get straight A’s and A+'s in those classes of course.</p>
<p>My other option, instead of drowning myself in these wonderful AP’s, is to embark on a research internship. I’m already working in a lab right now under a professor at UCSF, and I’m working towards a research paper. Obviously this takes a lot of my time and it’d be frivolous to even consider taking 6 AP’s while taking a job at a lab afterschool. </p>
<p>Sigh…no offense but you are so asian. 4.32 is pretty freaking good dude…</p>
<p>I’m going to assume that Cal Tech is more competitive because they have such a small undergrad class. Have you looked at MIT? From visiting MIT I feel like it would be so much more fun there.</p>
<p>where did you come up with the 9-12 hours worth of hw? I just finished this year taking 4 APs and all the rest honors with As in all of them and I did less than half an hour of homework per night. An all-AP courseload is definitely doable, and necessary if you’re hoping to compete with top applicants.</p>
![http://img294.imageshack.us/i/232553.jpg/[/url]](http://img294.imageshack.us/i/232553.jpg/%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
