Like is there a difference in the strength of academic profiles between…
a) 5 aps up till the end of junior year and 6 aps senior year
b) 8 aps up till the end of junior year and 3 aps senior year
c) 6 aps up till the end of junior year and 2 aps senior year
Please rank each of these options from 1-3 ( 1 being the best) and provide an explanation for your ranking. Also, please consider individually for ED, EA, or RD. And I know I’m bound to get, “the number of aps doesnt matter, the difficulty of them does”. While that’s true, the number is also certainly important (otherwise kids would just take the top 2 toughest aps out there and be good). Thanks in advance 
To what extent are senior year courses considered as compared to your courses from the first 3 years
In-progress 12th grade courses will be considered as part of course rigor.
Admission offers will be conditional on completing the previously reported 12th grade courses with sufficiently high grades and/or GPA (generally, no D or F grades, and do not let your GPA drop by too much, although “too much” varies by college and may only be defined vaguely).
Regarding your question, the most desired answer is:
d) all A grades in the hardest schedule through 11th grade, and all A grades in the hardest schedule in 12th grade.
“Please rank each of these options from 1-3 ( 1 being the best)” plus you want explanations and by timing?
What’s your role in this? You need to understand enough about your targets to make your own best decisions. Not crowdsource your hs schedule.
Talk to your GC. Dig into what your targets look for.
You are correct that the actual courses matter. Yes, students take only Calc BC and Physics C and get accepted to good schools. Probably more than someone taking CSP, ES, HG, Psych.
Comparing course loads that all have 8 or more AP courses isn’t really meaningful. You’re at the point of minimal incremental differences. It’s like the US and Russia adding a few more nuclear weapons so they can destroy the planet 22 times rather than only 18 times.
@ucbalumnus So are senior year courses weighted equally as the first 3 years’ courses even if they can’t see your grades in 12th grade courses when colleges consider course rigor?
Your GC rates your rigor. Colleges usually follow what the GC says.In general, the expectation is that each year will have more rigor, but there is no such thing as super-duper rigor. A well balanced senior schedule containing 3-4 APs (or equivalent) is usually more than enough. No brownie point are awarded for 6.
Rigor is very school dependent so there is going to be no universal answer.
At my D’s school they didn’t allow freshman to take any APs and sophomores could only take 1. The most anyone could have by graduation was 8.
@skieurope What about the advice that “if the top students of your school take x (assume x to be above 8) aps, you should too”? Are you suggesting that there is no real substantial return in following the top students once you’re above 8?
In general, I’m of the opinion that 6-8 over the course of a HS career are enough, provided that they are across most (if not all) core subjects.
More than 8 can be beneficial for course credit, but probably not move the needle in the admissions process. If there’s a hypothetical student from your HS applying to the same college, then the answer is “It depends.” There is no such thing (IMO) as all other things being equal, and without comparing both applications side by side, and looking at which AP classes, nobody can make a blanket statement that X is better than Y
OP has a thread about T20. They will expect increasing rigor, top grades (and any AP scores.) Kids generally jump in rigor in junior year, then in senior. This doesn’t necessarily mean an increasing number, from jr to sr. Depends what you’ve taken so far and what’s left available. Eg, many top stem candidates max out their math-sci rigor before senior year. If DE isn’t available, they may insert, say, AP stats. But they don’t set an easy, senior slump courseload. They make sure they have other rigor.
Yes, there is a logical and functional max, little point in stretching the number to include lots of easy AP.
Your GC can mark your work as “most demanding.” Or not. He/she might just count the AP, but T20 will be looking at the transcript and see what you took, how well you did. Then AP scores. It all needs to make sense: to them, to your proposed major, and in light of the long line of competing applicants.
See how your GC does things. If the best students take, say, 8, and you have 6, you might not get “most demanding.” If your GC is in awe of those kids with 12 or 15, they may designate per that. But count on T20 adcoms looking at your specific transcript and assessing per their expectations. This isn’t a case of CC poster favorite answers.
You seem to be trying to quantify this. But it’s a qualitative process. Know your targets well enough to know what they want and the sort of competition you face. It means doing your own due diligence, notsurveying an anon forum.
Right, no “equal.” And ECs, your level of thinking, how well you know the targets, how effectively you self present, etc, all play a significant role.
You could take some hypotehetical perfect # of AP and STILL miss the mark, get the wrong recommendations, ramble in an essay, not be able to answer a Why Us, have a string of misc activities, etc…and get nowhere.
but the quality is more important than the quantity.
You and I know that there is a big difference in rigor between AP Environmental Science and AP Calc BC, but you’re trying to find a system where an AO at a top 20 school doesn’t know that. The AO knows the most about AP rigor!
In terms of the number of APs a student should take the best person to ask is the guidance counselor. Rigor is relative to what is offered in a particular HS.
The top tier colleges will want to see the guidance counselor check the box on the recommendation saying that a student has taken the most rigorous course-load available at the HS (which doesn’t mean taking every AP class – there is often some latitude in this). If the guidance counselor says that a student’s prior and current HS schedules are sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked then the person is fine. In some schools 6-8 APs will be sufficient to get that most rigorous box checked, in other high schools more APs may be required – there is no one “right” number of APs for every HS. And I agree with the above that what AP courses are taken will also matter.
And to go back to the original question, every single admission officer I’ve heard speak says that senior year course rigor does matter to them.
Senior year course load matters, and your 1st semester grades are reviewed.
There maybe some students with only 2 APs, and other kids with 15 APs, and they are considered in the context of their school.
Talk to your guidance counselor on what is considered as “Most Rigorous” at your school.
Also, there is no use filling up with AP’s just for the sake of having a high number.
Also, taking an AP course is not necessarily seen positively if it displaces some other important course. For example, choosing AP human geography instead of foreign language level 4, choosing AP environmental science instead of completing all three of biology, chemistry, and physics, or choosing AP statistics instead of precalculus may not necessarily be beneficial for college admissions or preparing for actual college work.
My daughter will graduate in May with 13 AP classes. Did she go out of her way to take all of them? No. Did I advise her to do that? No. Looking back on her 4 years the only thing I suggested was not to take AP Biology and AP Chemistry this year. Could I see her sitting in a regular History class instead of APUSH? A regular Psychology class instead of an AP psychology class? A regular macroeconomics instead of Macro? LOL no. Her group of kids are honors kids and I don’t mean this insulting but not the kid going to a Community College. She is aware obviously of AP credit and it will be helpful in college but it’s not the reason she took those AP classes.