I was going to put this in College Admissions but nah
I’m a junior choosing my senior classes and want to focus more on STEM. I’m in Latin IV and don’t want to take AP Latin next year because of all the work. Since I have no other options, I’ll just have no 1st period, and will be taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count two 1/2-credits as separate) + orchestra at school, along with Calc III and another math at a local uni.
However, my school is what I’ve heard someone call “AP arms-race land,” and all the competitive people in my grade take 6-8 AP’s each + who-knows-what online, and my rank is in the 20’s out of ~800 (I’ve taken as many AP as possible).
I’m just afraid of my guidance counselor not choosing “most rigorous” in her assessment of my class rigor, and my college classes not being counted as meriting as much “rigor” as an AP. To me it seems worth it to not take AP Latin and keeping the free period (extra sleep), but I don’t want these factors to work against me in getting into a great college (something that I’ve made one of my goals).
I guess what I’m asking is: 1) how do counselors determine the rigor of your schedule? 2) will this hurt me in elite college admissions? 3) should I even be worrying about this?
Don’t take more than 5. You will kill yourself if you do that.
Your schedule is already rigorous. Don’t worry.
@coolweather my school has a lot of grade inflation (I’m currently taking 6 and am doing fine). What I’m concerned about is measuring up to everyone else in my grade. Should I be concerned about this?
I would suggest talking to your GC about your concerns. That question was not intended such that a “yes” means that student engaged in an AP arms race or took every single available AP or honors class. Rather, that the student took a set of classes considered rigorous. It does not have to include the most APs possible!
@lostaccount ok I’ll ask her about it. I’ve always heard college advice people say you should be taking “as many AP classes as possible to compare with your peers” but maybe my schedule will be considered equal to theirs.
You have 5 APs and 2 classes at the local college. That’s a lot. You will be busy with college admission. And you may have senioritis and your grades will go down hill.
Don’t worry about everyone else. Do what makes sense for you. Your GC should be able to say you have the most rigorous schedule. They don’t mean a schedule that sends you to the nuthouse or that results in a poor outcome. They mean one that makes sense for you.
@lostaccount ok, that’s really good to know. And yeah @coolweather that’s why I’m not doing AP Latin haha
You don’t need to take Latin.
After 8 Ap’s or so (10 tops for all 4 years of HS, and that includes IB, DE, AICE), the impact of Aps diminishes - law of diminishing returns. Taking more may be pointless for the purpose of
The concept of “most rigorous” is relative, in that if your HS offers 4 APs you need to take all 4, but if your school offers 20 and you take 4 you wouldn’t be considered the same way as someone who took 8. But more than 10? No change. With 8 to 10 carefully chosen AP’s, you’ve shown you can handle rigorous coursework. Adcoms move to other criteria in your application. As Stanford put it “it’s not a game of who has the most Ap’s, wins.”
DE is considered as highly as AP - sometimes even more so, since the normal college pace is faster than the normal AP pace. Of course, if you’re in an Ap arms race college, the Aps may not be taught at the high school pace and all bets are off, but it doesn’t matter to colleges - they don’t care if your HS teaches differently than the AP curriculum, they won’t count “your” APs as worth more than a DE class; you could be taking 4 APs next year, plus 3 semester- long DE classes, and be better off than taking 5 or 6 APs + 2 DEs. Take what makes the most sense and allows you to sleep.
Sometimes, GCs don’t check “most rigorous” for a kid who has 10 APs, because someone else took 15. This probably wouldn’t be admitted publicly (although the recent report by Harvard is alluding to it) but this is chalked up to “GC lost track of reality outside their bubble”.
“Most rigorous” means 5 honors/AP classes per year; English, Social Science, and Science (including bio, chem, physics) every year + math up to Precalc Honors or Calculus + Foreign Language up to level 4 or AP; “personal picks” that reflect academic areas you’re interested in; any class missing should be offset by something else, especially senior year when a core class could be switched out to double up in something else (ie., you don’t have calculus but you have AP French, or you don’t have 3 sciences but 2 college-level philosophy classes, or Foreign Language up to level 3 but both Ap Physics and AP Chem, etc). There’s flexibility on this. Taking classes just for the fun of it (and explaining your reasoning in Additional Information) is well looked-at, as is anything that shows you learn stuff for learning’s sake.
In short, don’t overload. Make sure you have plenty of sleep - 8 hours would be best, as a teenager your brain and body need 9 hours, and under 7 you start seriously affecting your health.