<p>I find a lot of people seem to be taking as many APs as possible, whether self-studying or taking the courses. I've taken one AP exam each year so far, and I'm heading into my senior year signed up for two more. Sophomore year and Junior year, I could have taken one more AP each year, but I really don't find history interesting at all, and those were the two I could have taken. Senior year, I'm taking AP Latin and AP Calc. In theory, I could take AP Physics and AP Art History, but I don't find either of those subjects interesting at all. Instead, I'm taking science and history classes I'm very excited about. Will colleges punish me for not taking APs that would bore me to tears?</p>
<p>I would say yes. Your rank and weighted g.p.a will decrease. Also, colleges have credits as well and all of these credits must be taken and they are at the college level. By not taking those ap’s you are not well versed in all subjects. If you are applying to top tier schools, this might warrant a rejection on the grounds that you did not take the most difficult classes set before you.</p>
<p>Justans:</p>
<p>Have you discussed your schedule with your guidance counsellor (in light of the schools you want to apply to)?</p>
<p>How many total AP’s are available at your school?</p>
<p>Honestly, take as many you can, but don’t overload yourself. </p>
<p>Take as many rigorous courses as you think you can handle. Colleges don’t want to see you taking classes and doing poorly in them, so just take an amount that you think you can handle.</p>
<p>It depends on what colleges you are applying to. I don’t think you are doing poorly because you have actually taken some AP classes, just not all that are available to you. If you make sure to let the colleges know about your interests, I think that all the APs you’ve taken or plan to take will be good enough!</p>
<p>yes. in the American education system, they want you to be well- rounded. maybe taking one or two APs wouldn’t hurt, but not more than that. even if the APs would be boring</p>
<p>So this is a bit off topic, but I’m going to be a senior this year at a rural, underprivileged high school in New Mexico.</p>
<p>This year, there are only 4 available AP classes that I have yet to take. I’m interested in schools like UPenn, Rice, and Claremont McKenna. I can’t afford to look like I’m slacking off my senior year! However, availability of AP classes is a problem at my school, because not enough students sign up to fill the classes. This causes most of the AP classes to only be offered during ONE period. Of course, two of the AP classes I need are during the same class period. I’m currently (desperately) asking teachers to allow me to take on an AP course load in a different period. The result is pending.</p>
<p>So as a back up plan, I’m wondering if I could take a course I took last year…again. It sounds bad initially, but I’m talking about AP Calculus AB. I took it last year, and I had a knowledgeable teacher…for half a year. He quit after the first semester, leaving me and my class with an unprepared teacher. This resulted in none of us learning anything. Everyone except two students got a 1 on the AP test. On my transcript, I have a B and an A (even though it’s one class, we get two grades-yeah it makes no sense to me either) . </p>
<p>So if I took AP Calculus again this year, would it be enough to make a school deny me? Or do you think they would understand the situation, if I could possibly explain it? I’d love to hear any/all of your thoughts.</p>
<p>AA</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you’re thinking of this. Take the AP that fits in your schedule, and ask your GC to write in her/his recommendation that you took the most demanding schedule at your school, and that you were unable to take any more APs because of scheduling conflicts. You should be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I’m just concerned because I’ve known people who had stronger applications than mine, and although there may be many factors, their lack of rigor in the senior year was a huge detriment. I actually just discovered a contact who is an admissions officer at Emory so I’ll get the news from him and let you know what he thinks!</p>
<p>Those are the only two APs for which I have completed the prerequisite courses (I could take AP French/Spanish, but I’ve never taken those, so that’s obviously out of the question. The same goes for AP Music Theory).
Nascent, I’m a little offended that you assume I’m “not well versed in all those subjects”. The science class I’m taking isn’t some slacker class, it’s Neuroscience. I’m not deliberately choosing non-AP classes, I’m deliberately avoiding boring classes (IMO).
AA, I think colleges will understand if you are unable to take the APs by no fault of your own. I don’t really get why you would retake AP Calc, though.</p>
<p>Colleges can see what AP’s your school offers and determine if you really did take the most rigorous schedule… obviously they would need this information because a student with 3 APs their entire HS career may seem like they didn’t want to challenge themselves or anything, but when the college sees that their school only offers those three APs, they know that the student took all that was available. If your school offered every single AP and you only took one a year, that wouldn’t look too good. </p>
<p>Also, some colleges look for a certain # of AP’s in your senior year… UF, for example, looks for 3 APs and 4 core classes. Senior year schedule is quite important to a lot of schools as they want to see that you’re continuing to challenge yourself.</p>
<p>Your high school guidance counselor sends your school profile with your transcript. It lists all of the AP, honors, etc. classes offerred. If you are unable to take a class because of a schedule conflict, or the class wasn’t offerred one particular year, your GC should address that in their recommendation on the common app. However, very competetive colleges want to see that you’ve taken “the most rigorous classes offerred at your school”</p>
<p>I would try to get one more in for senior year, if you can, but otherwise I think you are fine. Try to be well rounded. </p>
<p>The average student at my dd’s decent LAC(not top tier though) had gotten credit for 3 AP classes. Which means they took either only 3 classes or pass with 4 or 5 on 3 tests. So my opinion is not the number of AP classes you take but how well you test on the AP classes you have taken.</p>
<p>Why I feel this way is that many more kids are taking AP courses. Many are doing well in the class but are still failing the tests. This means the teachers are not teaching the class well enough to gain college credit. Since so many are failing the test, the high school class must not meet the standard of a true college class.</p>
<p>Mom…</p>
<p>A couple of things. AP exam scores are not weighed in admssion, not even required to be reported for admission purposes. The OP is asking about AP classes in relation to admission, not college credit. In addition there is no “failing” the AP exam. Scores range from 1 to 5. Some coleges give credit for scores of “3” others only “5”'s. This is usually in relationship to the “tier” of college attending. With “many more kids” taking AP classes you are going to have more that receive lower scores, it is a less selective popualtion taking the course. And of course as always, when a student doesn’t score as high as they’d like “the teacher didn’t teach well enough”.</p>
<p>It is true that the sheet that the counselor fills out is the one that speaks of the rigor of your course load. Ask your couselor what is needed to get the most rigorous rating. It will be different for each high school.</p>
<p>I think that AP courses have become less rigorous as more and more kids take them. 5 years ago, it would take a truly exceptional student to be able to take 5AP courses. There simply wouldn’t have been enough hours in the day to prepare. As we see more and more kids taking this many courses, I strongly suspect that they are not as rigorous as they once were.</p>
<p>A couple of things. AP exam scores are not weighed in admssion, not even required to be reported for admission purposes. The OP is asking about AP classes in relation to admission, not college credit. In addition there is no “failing” the AP exam. Scores range from 1 to 5. Some coleges give credit for scores of “3” others only “5”'s. This is usually in relationship to the “tier” of college attending. With “many more kids” taking AP classes you are going to have more that receive lower scores, it is a less selective popualtion taking the course. And of course as always, when a student doesn’t score as high as they’d like “the teacher didn’t teach well enough”. </p>
<p>Yeah I was off topic. I just get annoyed with so many kids being upset that they got an A in the class but did not get credit at college. They scored poorly on the AP tests. I have seen lots of kids get their AP and IB results this summer and both the student and the parent are not happy campers. It is just a pet peeve of mine. I hate for people to waste money on these tests and not get scores which get them credit. I will just have to keep remembering what a teacher told me. Don’t worry about these other people. Your kid did well and got credit. I just have a hard time letting go.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts?</p>
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<p>This may be because the additional ones are not as hard as the original core ones.</p>
<p>I.e. when there was just English, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, US history, and the foreign languages, they all corresponded pretty well to actual common college freshman courses (though some, like Calculus AB and Chemistry, corresponded to only a semester course instead of a year sequence). But now there are additional APs of dubious value like Statistics, Psychology, Environmental Science, and Human Geography.</p>