Guys, I am self-studying three easy AP’s (apparently) which are environmental science, psychology, and human geography. I bought Barron’s books but they are simply too wordy and I can’t bother to review from them. Can I watch full exam reviews on youtube as well as other youtube videos and study from online exam review outlines and get 5s? I am a very hard worker and have pretty much A+'s in all my classes but I’m stressed for them.
Self-studying APs does not help you with admissions. They don’t look at your AP test scores for admissions…seniors who take APs don’t get the scores back until after they are admitted, for example.
So if you do it, you would be doing it for College credit. See if your colleges of choice would give you credit and if that credit would be useful. Like for ES…if you want to be an engineer you would take other sciences…maybe you could get elective credit?
Also realize that doing well in your HS courses is vastly more important than self studying…also would you have time to do ECs if you are self studying?
if you do this, I would do less than 3 to increase chance of doing well on tests.
Why are you self-studying?
- Love to learn - great! Take the classes
- Want college credit? Fine…but make sure it is not at the expense of your regular HS courses or ECs
- AP Scholars award with distinction…this is cool and all…but is not useful for college admissions
- College Admissions…doesn’t help. Many people take AP tests senior year after they are already admitted. Colleges don’t generally take AP scores into account. They take your GPA/SAT into account
See my school only offers 5 APs and I realized that to boost my admission chances I should take a lot more, now that I think about it, it is quite dumb but its all good I already paid like 400 dollars for those exams. I have a 4.0 gpa so I am not worried about grades for school and I just needed an element that would make me on par with applicants from the neighboring high school where they have 24 aps (costs like 25k). Thanks for the heads up but unfortunately its too late to do that now. My Ec’s are looking pretty good for the amount of time I still have till I graduate and I am confident about my SAT score after doing the PSAT. It is just the APs part that I was lacking in.
What’s done is done, since you already signed up for the exams, but you should be aware that if you think these are easy APs, colleges think the same. Based upon your user name, you can look at AP credit charts for the 8 Ivy League schools. Almost universally, they will give placement or credit or waiver for courses like Calc BC, Physics C or Spanish Lit. Only one or 2 will do the same for the 3 you’re self studying.
No college has an expectation that applicants take courses that the HS does not offer.
yeah for ivy I will probably get no credit but for my safeties and targets, they would help I think. But as an international student, wouldn’t it help me look more hard working? Also, I plan to take the harder aps next year cause I am still a sophomore.
No.
The selective colleges say, over and over again, they don’t want people grubbing for APs. If your ECs are so easy that you have them locked up as a sophomore, take it to the next level.
If @lookingforward were here, s/he would tell you to use all that extra time to learn more about what the colleges you are planning to apply to really care about- if you think it’s APs, you have more to learn.
No. They want you to show your hard work through your coursework in school.
When I was going through the admissions process a few years ago, I went to an Exploring College Options event, which had reps from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Duke, and Georgetown, among others. During the Q&A, someone asked, “What do you think of applicants who self-study for additional AP’s over and above the AP classes they take?” One rep responded, “Please don’t do that. We’re not impressed by that.” The other reps all nodded.
@collegemom3717 Thanks for the reply I am still learning a lot about the process if you can’t tell.
@skieurope, For example, I take all the hard courses at school but there is a course I want to take that is not offered and it relates to economics which is what I want to major in (micro or macro) then do I self study it? Or do I choose the college course route?
The priorities are
- Classes and grades. The courses should be whatever the GC considers “most demanding”. The UW GPA should be as close to 4.0 as possible.
- ECs, including at least two strong leadership ECs, and also competitions with awards.
- Volunteer work and/or job(s).
- Anything else, including personal enrichment and self-studying for AP exams.
Make sure the higher-ranked objective is met before devoting effort to the next.
There is no formula, no one order of things.
Your choices matter because they can reveal your thinking, maturity, and more. Leadership isn’t any old titles, it’s about how you get involved, with what, any impact. (Not necessarily glitzy.) And many admits will have no awards. Classes should include broad rigor, but also in your interest area. You don’t need econ as much as the challenging humanities courses and math strengths.
Look deeper into what your targets do look for.
@damon30 Yeah I hope to be able to cross off all these things but yes at the same time @lookingforward has a point. I am already going to be the president of our school’s MUN club and I am going to use this leadership position to really make a change in my community. I am also looking for internships in my interest that I can do for the summer.
Hi @IwantIvy25, I self-studied for Psych too. How do you think you did (without disclosing any information about the test)?
MUN isn’t really about community service. If you think you’ll just start working with younger kids, that’s not what the most competitive colleges look for. Try to see the diff between the gloss of a title or “founder” vs the real work.