<p>Mollie:</p>
<p>Thanks so much. All this is very helpful.</p>
<p>The irony is you can inagine parents across america cocking their eyebrows and thinking-- "Ah! To get into MIT, my son should be doing more performing arts!"</p>
<p>Xiggi-
Will you give him a personal tour when we come to visit? Better yet, I've already had a quick tour of the campus when s#1 and I came to see Harvey Mudd. How about if I just ship s#2 to you and you keep him for a while? He doesn't eat much-- you'll hardly notice him. Can you give him a few PSAT/SAT pointers while he's there? Send him back when he's employed.</p>
<p>I want to send my S to the xiggi training camp too!</p>
<p>SBmom-
Lets round up a whole passle of kids and send them off to Claremont-McKenna with instructions to go crash with xiggi! Sounds like a plan!</p>
<p>xiggi could finance the rest of his college education if he would actually charge an appropriate rate for his camp ....</p>
<p>Mollie</p>
<p>Great blog! Thanks a bunch!!!</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>Thanks! Always glad to help. :)</p>
<p>Man this is crazy. In my school which is block scheduling, you can fit in only 4 APs a year but they move at a strenuous pace because each class is 90 minutes. Each AP class is all year but an honors or regular year course is only not a semester...so it is like completing 2 years of high school in one year.</p>
<p>The max APs seniors take are 2 a year. I am crazy since I took 2 in tenth grade, 3 APs in eleventh with 2 honors and then 2 APs online, then senior year I have 3 Aps in school and 2 honors with 3 APs and 1 honors class online! I will graduate with 13 Ap courses!! That is the most EVER in my school! Yeah, it has been so darn rought ...I've done online an equivalent of an extra year of PURE AP courses in HS. I hope this pays off for admission in the ivy league since I am also valedictorian.</p>
<p>I'm currently a HS senior. My public school is big, one of the largest on Long Island, so it has the ability to offer more AP classes than neighboring school districts (though, they've cut most ECs and two or three APs because of debt). </p>
<p>I see APs as a challenge. If I didn't challenge myself, I would truly hate school. I love both math and science. Last year my APs were AP Biology, AP Physics B, and AP US History. This year I'm taking AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Eng. Lit, and AP Economics. Am I doing this because there's a "rigorous schedule" requirement? No. Am I doing this because my parents forced me to? Absolutely not. My parents never went to college and only worry about my well being. My friends, in comparison, have the military plan, so to speak. It's quite scary. I see a lot of peers that genuinely dislike what they're doing; it's a tragedy. </p>
<p>At the same time, a Johns Hopkins adcom visited about a week ago and pretty much said, "We look at numbers, numbers, numbers!...And activities!" I want to go to a college for the academic rigor, not because it boasts a statistical powerhouse. I was interested in Johns Hopkins until he visited; I'm glad he came. It was annoying to hear most HS students' nightmares repeated. </p>
<p>By the time I graduate I'll have completed 10 AP exams, 8 AP Courses, and 2 college courses. However, they're all courses I enjoy! My academics increased exceptionally when I was challenged. Students really should take classes that are a) challenging and b) enjoyable. The results are almost always better than the results of hating a class. Sure, there are a lot of colleges that just want to see stats, stats, and more stats. If you're applying, I'm guessing you're really only about statistics as well. Or would you really enjoy it there? There's a big difference. </p>
<p>Even honors classes are good. I know freak out when there isn't the almighty AP designation, but there needs to be a sense of reality somewhere. I found a variety of honors classes great in addition to my AP schedule; Genetics, Anatomy and Physiology, Computer Programming (AP cut), etc. </p>
<p>I think the bottomline is that if you're making your kids feel terrible, or your kids are killing themselves for X amount of APs, there's a serious problem that needs to be addressed. The Military plan for the Ivy League is crazy, but perhaps my view is distorted because my parents only said "we want you to go to college" instead of "You're going to Harvard or I'm disowning you!" As for my own plans, I'm not applying to any Ivy league schools (everyone says I wouldn't make it because of my 1350, anyway); MIT is appealing, however, because of the challenge (it isn't a realistic dream/goal, though). </p>
<p>Just don't go overboard.</p>
<p>Hmmm... interesting thread so far.</p>
<p>Here's my experience, but first, some stats about me:</p>
<p>9th:
AP Stats - 4</p>
<p>10th:
AP Physics B - 5
AP Computer Science - 5
AP Calculus BC(Self-study) - 5(taken while taking precal at school)</p>
<p>Taking now(11th)
AP Chemistry
AP US History
(TBA) AP Eng Lang
AP Physics C Mech + E&M</p>
<p>Next year I'll take 2-3(running out of interesting AP's, so probably some courses at Duke, or subjects like Number theory here.</p>
<p>I am very much against parents driving their kids to take AP exams. If your child doesn't want to AP's, than they don't need to take AP's. You should definetly let them know that such things exist, but if they lack the motivation to drive themselves, do you really think they are going to survive at MSHYP?</p>
<p>I've spent more than a year on these boards, observing as seniors get accepted and rejected to dream colleges. What I've come to realize is that it is pointless to try and plan your way to college like a stock investor. If you just go the way you're taken, you will get much further. If you want to do research in something you are very interested in, do it! Don't do research at the local lab because "everyone else was." If you are into piano, play your heart out. But don't do things for college. A dream college isn't worth it if it is only a dream. Live your life, don't just plan it.</p>
<p>there is always an exception. Like me for instance; I never took an AP exam and only took one AP course and a college course.</p>
<p>I, personally, am not only a fan of AP classes for their ability to challenge the motivated student, but it does look good on the applications...I had a friend who took only APs he was only interested in, and Ivy League and other schools of choice waved good-bye to him. I prefer not to repeat that mistake, and, frankly, I'd be bored.</p>
<p>One big question that is HAUNTING me. </p>
<p>IS MORE APs BETTER?</p>
<p>Assuming you get 5s on all of them. Is it really worth ‘that much’ in colleges’ eyes?</p>
<p>I do not know if it is standard at every high school, but at mine it is pretty standard for many of the top 10% to take about 11 APs. There is no honors, at our school for upper level classes, so it is either take an AP or the regular class, so ppl tend to take the AP.
I think people are greatly inflating the difficulty of AP classes, they really are not hard. Usually about 10% of the people in AP classes get As, like in Bio AP seven people out of about 50 got As in the class. Our school usually does really well on AP tests too, so it can not be that our school’s AP classes are “easy” which means that AP classes in and of themself are not hard.
So I don’t understand when people say that you can have too many AP classes. This year I am taking 6 AP classes+Health, and I don’t think that it is excessive at all. And I got all As in them too, granted they were low As like between 90-93.</p>
<p>I have a question. Do colleges view As differently? Like to the adcom will a 91 be viewed the same as getting a 97?</p>
<p>Re: stanford and what they say. </p>
<p>This reminds me of in my younger days, all my guy friends claimed they preferred women who didn’t wear make up. Yet those same guys also preferred model beautiful women too. Some of us needed makeup…</p>
<p>
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<p>The more the merrier. However, a child with 4 AP’s is not necessarily better off than a child with 1 AP. To wit:</p>
<p>The College wants to know that a child took advantage of what was offered, given their abilities. Thus, if a school only offers AP Calc and no other AP classes, then the child could only take 1 AP class. The school will take that into account when evaluating the child’s transcript.</p>
<p>Contrast that with a child who took 4 AP classes prior to their Senior Year, and then decided to take an easy course load Senior Year. Thus missing out on the opportunity to take another 2 AP classes. That would not reflect favorably at a highly competitive college.</p>
<p>That said, it is probably better to get an “A” in an Honors class than a “C” in an AP class.</p>
<p>OperaDad, I have seen kids on the flip side – take more APs as seniors as they try to impress colleges and universities. The catch is that they need to take them online with a state department of education program – all the teachers are certified and their outlines are approved by CollegeBoard. At first, many hate it, but after a day or two, they wonder why they did not start online classes earlier in their high school career. They love the flexibility, the chance to meet others, etc. My son will graduate with 13 AP exams taken (12 classes total). A total of seven APs will be online. He feels that all the independent learning will make him better prepared for college this fall.</p>
<p>On one side, some HS will not allow on-line and/or college classes or for that matter more than 3 AP’s / year, and you cannot start taking them in freshman year. On the other side, there are selective college programs that applicants will not have a chance at all of being accepted unless they are loaded as much as their HS allowed and have close to GPA= 4.0uw. Third point is that college readiness seems more depend on what HS they went to vs number of AP’s. D (college sophomore) indicated that she felt much stronger in Chem. class than most other kids, including those who took AP. She was not offered AP Chem. in HS. It was apparent to her Chem. prof. also as she was hired by him as Supplemental Instructor (fansy name for paid tutor). D also said that college science classes are much more challenging than any AP that she took in HS. Do not hesitate to start with the first class in college even though you had “5” in AP (science). Some majors will not allow to skip anyway (example, sometime cannot skip first bio if you are pre-med).</p>
<p>Question about “more APs” could be answered if they have clear picture of what they are planning to pursue in college and which one they would like to attend. Sometime they have no idea. One goal could be avoiding taking some classes in college, like English, History, etc. Taking AP and getting “5” on exam will accomplish it.</p>