<p>We have to pick classes in a few weeks for next year. I'm currently in APEuro and its wicked hard.</p>
<p>To really take the "most difficult" courses at my school I would have to take 4 AP's Junior year (CalcBC, Bio, LatinLit, APUSH) on top of honors English, but I think I'd be crushed from the weight! </p>
<p>Do people really do this kind of load well? Some people even add a 6th academic subject, but on top of 4 AP's that seems like Darwin Award material. </p>
<p>I feel like I must take CalcBC, Bio and LatinLit, but I'd like to skip APUSH. Would that automatically prevent my guidance councellor from checking the "most difficult" box? Its a very competitive school, so I'm afraid that not getting that box checked would really put me at a disadvantage. I'll eventually ask my GC but I want to get some other opinions before I do. I don't want her to lower her opinion of me without me having some idea of what's reasonable. </p>
<p>Senior year, I'm planning on Multivariable Calc, APEcon, APEngLit and probably some other non-crazy AP, maybe CompSciA. I heard Econ and CompSciA aren't that hard (we don't have AB), so that doesn't look crushing. </p>
<p>I feel that its crucial to score high enough on CalcBC to place out of it in college because otherwise doing MVCalc senior year is like putting the cart before the horse, and I would end up having to do both of them over again.</p>
<p>I'm afraid there's no right answer. I'd say that, typically, a course load like that one would receive the "most difficult" rating with AP US History, but you're already aware that this may vary by school. Your instinct is dead on. Talk to your GC. He/she is the only one who knows for sure.</p>
<p>In my experience: My son took the most challenging math and science but steered clear of AP and Honors English and history. He's been accepted ED at an Ivy, so I don't think it's clearcut. </p>
<p>I think to take certain courses you don't have that much of an interest in or skill in, just to say you took the hardest your school has to offer, isn't going to make you very happy. It means you'll be up to 1:00 AM every night doing work you don't enjoy and you're not good at, and it will probably keep you from doing activities that you do enjoy and are good at, like sports, music, community service, student government, or whatever floats your boat.</p>
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It means you'll be up to 1:00 AM every night doing work
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<p>I'm doing that right now, it's 1:20 A.M. here: working on AP Calculus AB homework with 2 more homeworks from regular classes needing to be completed.</p>
<p>There was a recent report (forget the source, maybe the Washington Post) that said that 4 or 5 AP courses over the course of a high school career is the most that even the Ivys are looking for. Anything more than that may be overkill.</p>
<p>All I can say in response is that I've had Ivy League admissions officers tell me to my face that, if one of the top two boxes on schedule difficulty isn't checked, there is almost no chance of being accepted barring a strong hook ... and it's better to have the top box checked.</p>
<p>Whether that top box gets checked is going to vary from school to school. There are some high schools that turn out a large number of AP National and Distinguished Scholars. The kids there are taking enormous numbers of APs. I can't imagine that a kid who takes four APs would get that top box checked when other kids are taking 14 or more.</p>
<p>I'm not saying one should load up on APs if one doesn't want to. That's a different issue.</p>
<p>My son took AP Econ and AP Calc BC his junior year -- I thought he was taking two APs. Turns out that each of those is really two (Micro and Macro Econ, and AB and BC Calc). So when he took the AP tests, he wound up with four scores, not two, and because he did well, he was an AP Scholar. Go figure.</p>
<p>So -- is that how some kids wind up with 12 or 14 or more? Otherwise I can't fathom how one has time to eat and sleep.</p>
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Talk to your GC. He/she is the only one who knows for sure.
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<p>I agree. Also, your GC knows how other kids from your school with various courses have done. Your GC will never tell you definitively to do one thing or another, but s/he may be able to point out that, say, your scores combined with your athletics will make you very desirable to an Ivy-level school, even without every AP known to man. Or, s/he may say, considering your scores plus your lack of ECs, taking the hardest course load will be beneficial to your chances.</p>
<p>I'm not really sure about the numbers of APs. Some are only for one semester, but I think I recall that AP National Scholar counts only full year courses. But I could easily be wrong about that.</p>
<p>There are some brilliant, brilliant kids out there. They'll take, maybe, two AP courses in the 9th grade, three in the 10th, and five or more in each of their junior and senior years. I know kids who've taken more than that in high school, and then taken a course or two at the local university in the evenings!!</p>
<p>vin2l, if you are already up till 01:00 AM, that is pretty bad. (No college is worth your health. Did you know that lack of sleep kills brain cells?) IMHO, take only the courses that you can manage well consdering other activities in your life. Forget talking to GC about what should be the most difficult curriculum. Ask yourself, can I handle this much?</p>
<p>I'll reiterate. I have had an Ivy League admissions officer tell me to my face that what counts is the box the GC checks about how challenging the schedule is. Perhaps he was lying to me. But I don't see the motive.</p>
<p>As for the idea that taking more than five APs is "showing off," I find that offensive. I can say with great confidence that some of my own children have taken huge numbers of AP/IB courses for the very simple reason that regular courses bored them silly, and they enjoyed the company of the kids in AP classes.</p>
<p>BTW, there is a tangential issue, here. If your school provides class rank to colleges, and if GPA is computed on a weighted scale, it is an unfortunate truth that you cannot be at or near the top of your class in many high schools without taking a number of AP/honors courses.</p>
<p>dadx3: no mention of Ivy admissions officers agreeing with the theme of the article. </p>
<p>tarhunt: Thank you. I think I now have the information I need. </p>
<p>I'm just going to ask her point blank if I need the APUSH to get the box checked. I just hate to seem like I'd be doing it just for the box check, and I don't want to be talked in or out of it one way or the other, but I think having the information and making an informed decision is the way to go. I'm learning toward just 3 APs but I do want to know if its going to cost me. </p>
<p>Watch her tell me that I need to take a 5th AP as a 6th course to get the box or that I've already blown it by not taking a 6th killer course as a sophmore.</p>
<p>I sure hope a sense of humor gets me somewhere in life :-).</p>
<p>The average number of APs taken at MIT (and I believe most other Ivy's) is five. However you do have to take into account that some school offer no or only a few APs. If you attend a school where the top seniors take all APs or even post AP courses you run the risk of not having the "most difficult" box checked. The best way to find out is to ask the GC. I have heard Ivy admissions officers every year at our school's college night say that they don't expect you to take all AP courses.</p>
<p>Yep. I'd just ask straight out. I do urge you, however, to consider whether you want to put so much emphasis on college admissions that you make yourself miserable.</p>
<p>mathmom:</p>
<p>That's my understanding, too. You're not expected to take all APs, but you are expected to challenge yourself given the challenges you can find at your high school.</p>
<p>often you dont have to literally take the hardest course load at your school to get "most difficult," but as everyone has said it depends on your school. like, at my school, there are some people with maybe 8 APs and some honors AT THE MOST, but the average kid takes like 2-3 APs ever (we dont offer english APs, and limited science ones, and have a lot of non-ap reqs.. so its not typical) so if you take 3-5 APs and some honors courses + more than the recommended course load (5 majors plus a minor, or 6 majors, or something) you can still get "most difficult"</p>
<p>i would ask your gc; but i recommend that you donttake courses just 'cause theyre the hardest... take them because youll be interested in them ! youll do better, be happier, and have more time to excel in other areas.</p>
<p>ask your GC, that's what I did - I took 2 AP courses junior, and 3 senior, and all honor courseload otherwise, and he told me it was definitely the "most challenging" courseload or so he marked on the sheet... so yeah :)</p>