My freshman year, I self-studied AP World History and scored an easy 5. The following year, I went crazy and self-studied 7 more AP’s, scoring 5 on all of them and attaining National AP Scholar. This year, I’ll have 7 more, rounding out my total to 15 for college.
How much will this help my case? I’m looking to apply to Harvard EA next fall. (My application otherwise is very strong both academically and extra-curricularly.)
Not at all!!
Last Spring, I went to an Exploring College Options event, which had reps from Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Duke, and Georgetown. During the Q&A, someone asked, “What do you think of applicants who self-study for additional AP’s over and above the AP classes they take?” One rep responded, “Please don’t do that. We’re not impressed by that.” The other reps all nodded.
AP scores in general carry little to no weight in college admissions; they are used primarily for placement and/or credit. You’ll have to rely on other strengths within your application.
As @skieurope said, this won’t help your application. In fact, it could harm your application if you are taking easier classes in school to allow you time to self-study. Self-studying does not increase your course rigor because you did not take the class.
The only reasons to self-study IMO is the course is not offered at your school and you’d like to learn the topic and/or get college credit. Note that many of the easier self-studies, such as AP Human Geo, do not receive credit at many colleges.
Self-study, but not at the expense of a tough schedule/grades. The relatively cheap college credit is always nice.
It’ll help you majorly if you go to a low tier. That’s what my 15 APs did for me and got Senior priority as a first year.