<p>And I just want to clarify that my schedule was 100% my decision not my parents. My parents are very supportive but they are not the type of parents who force me to take certain classes to help my gpa.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that you focus on “quality outcomes”. Your course load will be impressive to any adcom if and only if your AP scores (5’s, at least 4’s) back up your grades, particularly if your high school is not among the elites.</p>
<p>OP, I realize you aren’t asking, but if you were my child I would really discourage you from doing this. If I was an adcom, I might look askance at this as a kid trying too hard, focusing too much on “getting in” versus growing into a young adult with her or his own POV who would add something special to the campus. Just some food for thought. I wish you luck.</p>
<p>OP, I know you want to challenge yourself, but the biggest thing that sets off warning signs in my head is that you’ve never taken an AP class before. My high school is known for its academics, but I also find Honors classes to be boring. Generally, the teachers are sub-par, the students are disinterested, and the pace is extremely slow. HOWEVER, AP classes are at a much more advanced level than Honors courses, which is great if you want to challenge yourself. But they also mean a lot more work, probably more than you’ve ever had to do in a school environment. I think that you’re seriously underestimating the course load you’re signing on for, and will likely be overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take AP classes in sophomore year (after all, I did too!). I’m just saying that you should tone it down a bit until you know how difficult an AP class actually is, and whether you can successfully juggle, school, ECs, a social life, family life, etc. </p>
<p>If you’re still doing well sophomore year, then you always have junior and senior years to take and self-study as many APs as you want. But I think you should use sophomore year to test the waters before you dive in.</p>
<p>I agree I think you’re rushing things, just a bit, when you have full 2 years left. Opaline explained it well.</p>
<p>Oh man, coming back, I just realized what the above posters said: You’ve never taken an AP class before. That changes everything. Don’t plan for so many APs your first year. I managed one class and three self-studies easily my Soph year, but I only studied for Bio and I only spent two weeks on it. Plan for six or seven APs, maximum - if you can manage three or four classes and an easier self-study or two, then you could consider adding more.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the OP knows this or not, but College Board does not allow students to take both Calc AB and BC in one year for the simple reason that students will just study for BC and easily pass AB.</p>
<p>Also directed to the OP: you’re going into calculus without knowledge of many precalculus topics. Honors geo barely grazes euclidean geometry and you’ll lack knowledge in vectors, complex numbers, as well as conic sections. </p>
<p>You might want to look into that. I would say it’s much better to do very well in Precalc than do average in Calc.</p>
<p>Dude you still have 2 years, chill the heck out. I know you’re ambitious, but you still have time to focus better. Take less exams and do better on them, whereas taking like 15 and getting 2’s. Think about it, I’m sure you will still be doing volunteer work, school activites, etc. At the same time. So you have to balance your time and be wise. </p>
<p>Sent from my Desire HD using CC</p>
<p>@Moose My school allows AP Calculus AB/BC and it’s a yearlong class. </p>
<p>This thread annoys me in a way, I think the OP needs to realize that maybe that his/her school maybe has easy Honors classes. My school has easy Honors classes too, but the AP classes are killer. Many students underestimates the AP class and especially the exam and get scores like 1’s and 2’s. It doesn’t look so good when the OP gets 2’s on 10+ exams. Dirkslam41 has great advice.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s input! I have decided to drop all the self-studies and also only take calc AB yearlong rather than AB-BC.</p>
<p>LOL some you guys have total idiots at your school. APs are a total joke. I am not sure how you get below a 3/4 unless there are extenuating circumstances. APs are so easy, you should not have a problem with them. You can easily self-study for ANY exam in just a few days if you are smart(except languages and art). At my school, no one has ever failed an AP exam, and for AP Calc BC, 49/50 got 5s last year. Please, self-study as many as you want. Don’t let people discourage you, this happened to me last year but I could tell i was talking to kids who were stupid and I got four 5s with minimal studying. You can do it!</p>
<p>^ Watch out, guys. We’ve got a badass over here.</p>
<p>@ImSoAmbitious, I understand where you are coming from with thinking AP’s are a joke; however, was that your thinking as a Sophomore? My school only offered 1 AP sophomore year (Human Geography lol), but I ended up with 12 AP’s with 1 self-study. I only thought APUSH and Eng Lang were hard because I am not a history person and I hated the freaking reading passages. Yeah, AP is a joke and I don’t understand how people get under a 3, but as a sophomore, there is no reason to take that many AP’s. If you take 5 or so as classes, fine. Then you can try 10+ your junior year and it really won’t look different for college admission. After around 15 AP’s, there is pretty much no point anyway. You run out of General Education requirements to fill at that point. God damn, is it so hard for people on here to take reasonable amounts of AP’s.</p>
<p>I am going into Sophomore year year this upcoming school year. I am not trying to offend anyone. I am telling the OP that she should do whatever she feels comfortable with and not to feel discouraged by other people, who’s inferiority complex gets in the way of them giving good advice. “After around 15 APs, there is pretty much no point.” What kind of an attitude is that? Maybe you just want to LEARN? If you do not have the capacity to take more than that, whatever the reason may be(dont care, your stupid, lack of time, etc.), don’t tell someone else that they can’t. People like you tried discouraging me Freshman year, but I didn’t listen and got four 5s in self-studies with minimal studying. I am a confident person, but had I not been, you guys would have handicapped me. </p>
<p>@ Opaline</p>
<p>Sorry for offending you. If you read my post again, my tone was not braggadocios in any way, I was simply trying to encourage the OP to go against your advice and not get discouraged, while presenting facts.</p>
<p>I didn’t read after the ECs came into play but here’s my opinion, assuming your goal of taking so many APs is for your college application process. If you take and self-study all those courses, you leave yourself no time to do anything. If you take just one or two APs and score well, you will prove yourself capable of performing college-level work. But college students are defined by more than just their academics. College students are involved in an array of activities and leadership positions. You seem one-dimensional at this point. Spend more time rounding yourself out rather than becoming an academic.</p>
<p>^IvyHopeful is one hundred percent correct. Don’t skimp on ECs for APs. Take APs for fun, not for admissions. If you can do both, then do it. Thats what I do, however I don’t get more than 4 hours of sleep, but that is not a problem for me.</p>