I don’t think you need the AP classes and if you think they will add stress certainly forego them to focus energies on Auditions. That said my D found her senior APs fairly easy and her teachers really worked with her through all the absences. And the credits should you teat well can open up room in your curriculum for extra dance/music/or other electives. So it really is a personal choice. If you are near the top bracket for scholarsips a few (like 3 of 21) of her schools required a minimum number of AP for honors programs and the elite academic scholarships. But I think that’s more the exception than the rule!
@themomager Agree with all that has been said. I will add that GPA and test scores are what seem to bring scholarship money. I don’t think they look at what the classes were that got you the GPA. (Except at the few notable schools that make academics 50%. And at least some of those - NYU - don’t give much if any merit aid) My kid only had one AP and had great merit offers from several schools based on his GPA and test scores.
As an AP teacher - I just want to throw out the thought that it’s not a bad idea to keep some rigor in the class schedule senior year - just to be prepared for college classes. Doesn’t mean you have to take a killer load… but good to keep an oar in the academic water. I fought with my D to get her NOT to take AP Calc senior year - b/c I knew the HW would be brutal (and she wasn’t going to need math for her major - her AP Stats fulfilled need). A place where she wanted to step down and I fought the opposite direction was for her to KEEP AP English - after all, being a good reader/writer is key to about 90% of (non STEM) academic college grades. Not to mention that analyzing text is something that comes up now and again for theater… She was NOT thrilled at the time, but said over and over her freshman year in college how GLAD she was to have taken AP English. YMMV - and it can depend on the teacher in question - the AP Eng teacher at her school was/is a rockstar
An important consideration: We found for academic merit scholarships most schools used an unweighted GPA, so there was not a benefit from that standpoint of taking the harder class. In fact it could work against you if you could have gotten an A in the non-AP course but you got a B in the AP class.
The real benefit of AP classes, besides the actual subject knowledge you gain, is getting some of your required classes out of the way which can free up your schedule for other things. I know in hindsight our D would have been less stressed had she taken an easier schedule her senior year.
thank you for these responses! She will plan to take AP english as planned with several more electives involving the arts. It feels strange backing off academically since we have been programmed to focus on academic rigor but I know my daughter and this process sounds tremendously daunting on it’s very own!
@themomager interestingly we learned on a college visit for my NON MT child & @vvnstar may be able to confirm this…we were surprised to learn that you can actually take the AP exam even if you didnt take the AP class…now that may be a waste of $90 & maybe without taking the class you are unlikely to get the 4 or 5 you need to get credit, but a class like AP literature which is primarily reading comprehension & based on some classic books read before senior year ( ie of mice and men) why not take the test & maybe get freshman English credit? just a thought for May of next year after the chaos has hopefully passed.
I have heard rumors that a surprising amount of AP credits end up not transferring in college…(there are so many kids taking full loads of AP in high school). I’m guessing if your child is at a conservatory the credits will not transfer at all:)
@mamaboyz - in my experience, it is far more common for dual enrollment credits not to transfer (esp to a private or out of state school) than AP credits, because of the variations from state to state. (AP is easier for colleges - as it is a national system) You are correct that AP classes with not have a benefit for conservatory classes, but then, most AP classes wouldn’t have a connection - the kids who took my AP European History class for example, should not be exempt from a class on Shakespearean Text 
I imagine an exception “might” be AP Music Theory - but I think some schools have the ability to test out of theory whether you took AP or not.
Some of the most academically competitive schools do have AP restrictions BUT - it can be really hard to get accepted to those schools without a “most rigorous curriculum” designation on transcript. So you may not get the CREDIT for AP - but you still need the AP class to get accepted.
Schools that weight academics in Applications to theater programs - and therefore APs might matter
Northwestern (you need some SERIOUS rigor for them)
NYU (admission is 50/50 - and academics are intense)
Michigan, Penn State, Syracuse, Boston all have an academic component to admission (though not 50/50) and since they are all schools with strong academics - APs/rigor would seem valuable in admissions
@NYYFanNowMTdad it’s definitely true that you don’t have take an official AP class to take the AP test. My D’s school only offers 3 “official” AP classes, but has many students every year who take and pass many different AP tests in other courses. My D has never participated, but apparently interested students form study groups and are sometimes aided/guided by faculty in their studies. From what I understand, it’s not an easy task to self-study, but if you have the discipline and dedication (and the right study materials) you can do it. My D has never been interested in attempting self-study though, so we haven’t pushed it.
And yes @mamaboyz my D’s academic counselor actually cautioned us that it happened to her own son that he took something like 8 AP classes in HS but then his college didn’t end up accepting them for anything other than “general/elective credits”. His whole purpose in taking them had been to avoid having to take those subjects in college, but his college had a policy that classes like math, english, science, history, etc. all had to be taken at the university, hence the awarding of only general/elective credit for all of this AP classes. So she cautioned us to not have our D take APs just for the sake of taking them (especially since she goes to a PA HS with long hours), but rather to only take the ones where she had a sincere interest in the subject and would enjoy being enriched by the deep dive that AP classes require.
Hope that info can help someone! As usual, YMMV…and as @themomager said we had initial difficulty swallowing the counselor’s advice of backing off on the AP classes (especially since our D has always been a good student, and H and I took them ourselves in HS and there was never any discussion of “if”, lol), but for our D I am very glad we listened to that advice because honestly, the regular college prep classes (her school doesn’t offer honors classes either) along with the late school hours, rehearsals, and lessons have been more than enough stress for our D.
All of my d’s AP credits transferred, and for some of them she received two semesters of credit for one test. She placed out of 7 Gen Ed courses, all of which fully “counted” towards her degree and a couple of which were 4 hour courses, for a total of 23 hours - more than a semester of coursework. This opened up many options for her schedule - she was able to basically double-major in acting, take extra dance, as well as taking a year of guitar in the music department.
However, at some of the programs to which she was accepted, not all of her AP credits would have counted. My observation at the time was that the higher the academic standards for acceptance, the less likely all AP credits will transfer, and public schools are more likely to fully count them than private schools. Of course, the higher the academic standards for acceptance at school, the higher the AP scores required for credit.
@EmsDad - my D’s AP allowed her to have a minor with out overloading the crowded BFA schedule - which was very helpful.
Also - D has a wonderfully talented friend who did VERY well in the audition process (he had a number of great choices) and nearly didn’t make it through the 1st year - because he had not taken challenging classes in HS. He had never written at the college level - and was completely unprepared. Even though he was at a conservatory style program - his ONE academic class each semester nearly did him in. He had to do summer school (instead of summer stock) after freshman year to get the credits to move on.
To build on what @NYYFanNowMTdad indicated - I wasn’t going to post anything on this until we saw how this worked out, but since the topic is out here… The college board has a program called college level exams. (Search for CLEP) They even have a list of schools and which exams the school recognizes for credit. The cost of the exam is, I think, $89. For $35, you can buy a study guide that has info for all the tests included and then for another $10 you can buy the supplement for the specific class/test. My son just finished his freshman year, and decided he wants to try to do 4 of these this summer to knock out a bunch of generals. (4?! Really. I guess we’ll see how that goes.) Anyway, he had to jump through a bunch of hoops at the school to get this OK’d, and I think we then have to pay the school $200 per class he’s transferring over from these tests. (far cheaper than extra credits at the school!) If he gets this done, he will be able to at least minor and possibly even double major. It’s an interesting concept. I’m worried he’ll burn out, but the tests he wants to take fit well with his strengths and interests and he is a good test taker - so we’ll see. He is waiting for the study materials to arrive right now.
My son took 4 AP classes as a junior and 3 AP classes this year while auditioning and it was fine. He’ll start college with all of his gen ed requirements satisfied which gives him some freedom. We did not pay for dual enrollment when available because many of the schools he applied to would not give credit for those classes. I do think the rigor of his schedule probably helped at least a little bit to admission at several schools which do consider academics. None of the schools told him why he was receiving any specific merit award so I don’t know whether it helped with that too. All of that being said, I think if we had to do it over again, he would have taken fewer AP classes just to have some free time to enjoy some of the other things about senior year. These kids have so much on their plate - applications, prescreens, auditions, show rehearsals and when you throw in the extra requirements for AP classes and testing, it ends up being non-stop virtually all year.
Many schools are taking less AP as transfer credit. My husband is an administrator in our district and the trend is to take a college level course (such as a community college) that will fulfill a high school class requirement and also is more likely to transfer at the college level. You can often take these online. Examples are US history, Poli Sci (US govt) and Econ, although foreign language and English can too. I recommend speaking with your counselors. The college classes (taken at college but dual enrollment for HS credit) were transferable to both Ivy League and academically select colleges.
@loribelle - Milage may vary by state - and depend on where classes were taken. Sounds like things have been going well for your district, it has not been the case in mine. The dual enrollment my district offers is at a local community college. It has transferred to state publics, and to some local privates, but has not to more competitive schools. Kids here have gotten a lot more credits from AP. So probably best to check with your HS based on a potential college list…
As I mentioned before, definitely check with your counselor. But, I did want to point out that “dual enrollment” can mean taken at the HS for college credit and taken at the college for HS credit…the second option often being more widely accepted.
Many colleges are starting to cap AP credit as more schools offer more sections…it’s a cut in their revenue.
From the student perspective, I am taking 4 APs and a DE my senior year. I took 4 APs this year along with a DE theatre class. I rehearsed two shows simultaneously (one which included a lot of travel) and survived junior year so I am hopeful I will survive senior year! I take APs mostly because I enjoy them. I love theatre and definitely cannot seeing myself doing anything else. However, I really love math and love to learn and surround myself with other students who take school as seriously as I do. I know the reality of making a career out of MT is really hard and I want to have some other skills to fall back on. My school has been really great at working with me when I am out for auditions/shows etc. so I am hopeful I can survive senior year!!!
@DramaLove2020 Senior year will be a lot different than junior due to the added beast of the application process, especially MT auditions, don’t forget that. You will have to put a lot of attention and time into that if you are going that route.
I had refrained from posting in this discussion about rigor of courses because my opinion differs a lot from many of the posts, but @DramaLove2020, a student’s, post 156 aligns a lot with my thinking and own experiences as a parent.
My kids took the most demanding level of courses offered in their high school and then some (“then some” such as acceleration, independent study, going beyond the HS courses, long distance courses, etc.). The reason they did so really was not for college admissions purposes, but because they would not be happy in easier level classes. They liked to be challenged, to learn, and to be with others with similar motivation and drive. They wanted to be in classes or go beyond what was even offered, to meet their learning needs at the appropriate level. No intention was put into getting college credits.
At our high school, at the time my kids attended, the most challenging classes were designated “honors,” and there was only one AP…Calculus, which my kids took in 11th grade. Truly, the Honors courses were very demanding. Rather than teach to a test, there were lots of major papers, and so on, and the use of primary sources, not text books.
My MT daughter applied to college in her junior year. She was taking the most demanding course schedule offered (all Honors level), which included French V and AP Calculus (which she had to do as an independent study because no juniors at our school were in Calculus, just seniors, and so the class was not offered at a time my D could take it as it conflicted with the most rigorous level of English/History for juniors). During this time, obviously my D had all her applications to do, audition prep, did all her auditions on campus (so lotsa trips), and took 13 hours of dance each week 25 miles from home, piano lessons, guitar lessons, voice lessons (50 miles from home), monologue coaching (50 mies from home), was in an adult musical production (50 miles from home), created/produced/directed/choreographed/performed in her original student run musical revue production, was a lead in the school musical, was in chorus and also select a cappella group, and jazz band, entered Young Arts, entered All States plus All State Scholarship auditions, and so on. Was it hectic? Yes. But she would not have it any other way. She did not give up any of her activities/shows in her admissions year, or any of the challenging coursework.
People have commented about what is needed to get into a MT program in terms of academics. The thing is, many of the BFA in MT programs are located in universities that are not that academically selective, where an applicant might be fine without taking the most demanding courses available at their high school. But the more academically selective colleges indeed DO care about the rigor or an applicant’s coursework and not just their grades/GPA. Many BFA programs also have a separate academic acceptance process. When we met with an administrator in the department at UMich, we were told that they definitely are looking for applicants to have taken very demanding classes, such as AP (or what’s offered at their high school). So, if anyone is considering applying to BFA programs in more selective universities, they really ought to be considering the more demanding courses offered at their high school.
Putting my college counselor hat on, my advice is to take the most demanding coursework you can handle.
@soozievt very impressive daughter both in and out of MT im sure you are super proud now and then…thanks for always chiming in after all these years! happy memorial day weekend to all!