Hi, I am a high school junior who is only taking 2 ap classes this year: ap English lit and apush, as well as 2 honors classes. I plan on taking 6 ap classes next year, but I’m worried that only taking 2 aps this year will harm my chances in getting into an Ivy League. Is this true?
It shouldn’t really. My HS doesn’t let kids take APs until they take the honors class first, so it’s difficult to rack them up for us. As long as you were doing honors classes before you should be on par with everyone else coursework wise. Just remember most kids that are getting in are taking 9 classes, have amazing scores, and amazing ECs. It really depends on what major you plan to do for your scores to translate. Hope this helps, good luck.
I don’t think that you can change your life in order to try to guess what might or might not get you into an Ivy League or equivalent school. Admissions at the top universities in the US is very difficult to predict, and is based on a lot of things that you do not have any control over.
I think that you should do what is right for you. Take classes and participate in ECs that seem right for you. Then find a university that is a good fit for what you want to continue to do. There are a lot of very good universities.
I attended a high school that did not offer any AP classes at all, and still went to MIT for undergrad. One daughter went to a high school that did not offer any AP classes at all. One classmate went to an Ivy League school and another went to a highly ranked LAC in the northeast. Then of course after graduating from MIT I find myself working with very excellent coworkers who graduated from their in-state public university, we all are working for a boss who attended their in-state public university, and none of us care where any of us went to university.
To me, 6 AP classes during your senior year of high school are a lot. During your senior year you will be studying for the SAT or ACT, taking the SAT or ACT, visiting schools, filling out applications, deciding which colleges and universities to apply to, making sure that your references and transcripts and test scores are submitted, waiting for results, and then deciding which college or university to attend (which might involve more visits). This is a time consuming and energy consuming task which to me seems to be about equivalent to another AP class.
I think that you are fine.
It depends on what is usual in your school. Your HS will submit a school profile, so colleges will know what’s typical, and your GC will tick a box that indicates whether your overall courseload is considered ‘most rigorous’ / ‘rigorous’ / etc.
Fwiw, setting your heart on an Ivy league school is not a good plan. Go read this thread:
If you’re the only student taking 2 AP classes while students in your same generation are already taking 5 or 6, you’ll be at a disadvantage, especially for Ivy League schools. The trademark of US colleges is the whole “holistic admissions process,” where everything is relative to where you go to high school, where you live, what your family looks like, your family’s income, your race, etc.