My school only offers 3 APs for junior year. AP Calculus (which I will not take until I am a senior, I’m going to take AB Pre-calc as a junior then AB Calc as a senior), AP US History, and AP Lit. I’m going to be taking Advanced Bio (which is the highest you can be in), AP US History, AB Pre-calc, regular English (there is only regular and AP), 2 regular foreign languages, and a religion class. I don’t know if this course load is advanced enough to get me into a good school. I know there are other factors, but tell me what you think. My dream schools are Cornell, UPenn, and Johns Hopkins.
3 APs wont get you in those, maybe if you’re really lucky
Actually, the rigor of your schedule depends on what your school offers. If you are taking the hardest (or close to the hardest) schedule you can at your school, then it won’t hurt your chances.
Try taking AP lit if your worried its not rigorous enough in context though.
Is there an option to take a different precalc course that leads to AP Calc BC?
Colleges look at your course load in comparison to your classmates, your dream schools all have acceptance rates of 15% or less, so if the top 20% of your classmates are taking AP Lit then its probably a good idea for you to take AP Lit.
@Anish14 There is no set number of APs that are required to get into rigorous schools. All schools look at your course rigor in the context of your school. There are many schools that don’t offer AP, or offer few APs. There are other schools that have other rigorous options, such as IB and dual enrollment. As long as you are taking the most rigorous schedule at your school, you’re fine.
If your guidance counselor rates your schedule as “most rigorous” of the Secondary School Report, you are fine. Nobody here can evaluate your schedule as none of us are admissions officers.
As mentioned above, your course rigor will be dictated, in part, by what your school offers.
@guineagirl96 sorry
This is course load would probably be somewhere near top 40% of my class in terms of rigor since I go to a very academic private school where most kids take the advanced classes. I do not want to push myself too hard because if I am overloaded with work, I am not going to do as well in each class. Do I still have a chance at my dream schools with this course load assuming I get a GPA of around 3.7 out of 4.0?
Very, very unlikely.
I think you have a good chance as long as you apply at regular action instead of early admission so you can do more APs in senior year (online, Maybe?)
I’m also going into junior year next year. This is my schedule:
If your school only offers 2 to 4 APs, you’re expected to take them all.
If your school offers more than that, you’re expected to take 4-8. At schools with an admit rate below 20%, it can be good to have one subject “post AP” taken at a local college via dual enrollment, but this is not always possihle (for example, if you live in a rural area). Ultimately, you’re expected to have one year each of English, Math, Foreign Language, Social Science, and Science; out of the typical 7 or 8 periods, 5 should be Honors or AP (or IB, AICE, DE, PSEO…)
This is just to “make the first cut”. After that, it’ll rest on your essays and your ECs (regional ranking at the very least, national or international awards preferred).