I have a weird issue where my school doesn’t even offer AP classes. I’m only a sophomore so I still have time, but should I take the tests even though I would be essentially self studying them? I could probably take AP Spanish, Chinese, and AP music theory right now and pass with a 4 or higher, but none of the other courses offered at my school fully covers what the AP would test me on.
In my school, I’m already taking Advanced and Accel classes which are the highest that you can go. I know that my school has good connections with good colleges, but I just am conflicted if I should start doing APs or continue to do advanced classes within my school. By next year I will have finished Calc BC, so I could take that AP as well, but my worry is that if I take a AP then colleges will think “oh if she took one why didn’t she take others.” Also, the AP music theory and languages are in no way related to what I want to do in college so would it even matter besides resume padding?
If your school offers no AP classes, no AP tests are expected. No admissions office is offering bonus points for self studying.
There may be valid reasons for taking the exams, primarily potential credit or placement. A foreign language AP may fulfill the college’s FL graduation requirement. But if you’re doing it to impress AO’s, they’re not impressed
I don’t really know…it seems crazy of me to think that but everyone who I talk to has at least 5 APs whereas I don’t want to go in with like 3. I’d rather go all in for my school’s ranking of academics then the national standard but if colleges prefer APs then I would do them
apparently you aren’t talking to anybody in your own school…
Your school will send a ‘school report’ to every college you apply to, that will include the AP policy, and you will not be faulted for not taking what isn’t offered.
Trust @skieurope - there is a reason that they are a super mod.
University admissions will want you to do well in the high school that you attend. They do not expect you to fix or change your high school. You will not be penalized for not taking classes that do not exist in your school.
One daughter attended a small high school that offered no AP classes at all. She was still 5 for 5 in university admissions (with merit aid from most of them). She did self study and take the AP Spanish class, but her Spanish is very good and she had already spent a semester in a Spanish speaking country taking all of her classes in Spanish. I do not think that this impacted admissions at all.
AP music theory is a tough course, or at least quite a bit tougher than some people expect.
The daughter who took no AP classes went to university and found a classmate that was bragging that the classmate was far better prepared for biology since she had already taken AP biology. This turned out to not be true either. Our daughter was just as well prepared to take university science classes including biology even without taking any AP classes in high school.
I do not think that you have a problem here. I would either not bother self studying and taking any AP exams, or only take very few and only if you want to.
If it’s either/or - than 100% do the most advanced classes offered by your school that you can handle. That’s the ONLY information that will end up in the transcript that is sent to the colleges you are applying to.
AFTER you have been accepted, it all depends on the college you enroll into. SOME (e.g. state colleges) might accept AP credits very liberally and possibly allow you to graduate half a year early. So the AP credits can be a cost-effective.
Many very selective colleges, will NOT let you use your AP credits towards whatever “major” you eventually choose - but they can still come in handy. You might be able to use them to skip entry level classes in some “general education” areas, or might use them as “electives”,… This can be helpful if you are running into scheduling conflicts some semesters and wished you didn’t have to take class “x” anymore so that you could instead get into class “y”.
So - in summary: ONLY if you have nothing better to do, and ONLY if you strive to graduate early, go ahead prep for out-of-school AP exams. Else, it’s infinitely more important not to burn yourself out.
What type of school do you go to?
APs are becoming less and less impressive at top schools. There are over 50K kids that get 5 on Calc BC. They help with credit but frankly, most schools offer placement tests for that purpose.
If you want to take courses to further a particular interest having saturated options at your school, then taking a few dual enrollment courses that can transfer is not a bad strategy.
True, but colleges’ own math placement testing is often focused on whether a student is ready for calculus, rather than whether a student can take advanced placement ahead of the first calculus course (probably because they assume that the latter will show AP or IB scores or college credit taken while in high school).