When applying if I only have a few honors or AP classes will that lower my chances of getting in? Thanks
This depends on what your school offers. You presumably won’t be penalized if you are taking the most challenging courses that your school offers, and doing exceptionally well at them.
It generally isn’t your fault if your school doesn’t permit students to take more than a few AP classes - and this is the case at several schools where resources are tight.
But if you could have taken, say up to ten AP courses, then it will hurt you if you choose to only take 3 or 4.
Not all APs are created and viewed alike. For example, it you are a STEM person applying to HYPSM and other tippy top colleges, you should take as many of these as are offered: AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C Mechanics, and AP Physics C E&M. It’s not the quantity, it is the quality. AP Environmental Science/Ecology, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Physics I (or maybe it’s called B), and to some extent AP Calculus AB and AP Biology, although AP, are often viewed in a different tier. Classic liberal arts interests would likewise suggest you at least take an English, History, and Foreign language APs.
Colleges judge you in the context of your high school, and they expect you take the MOST RIGOROUS course schedule available. If your high school doesn’t offer many AP’s, colleges don’t expect students to have many AP’s on their transcript. However, if your high school offers a gazillion AP’s, colleges expect to see a good number of AP’s on your transcript.
Ask your guidance counselor for a copy of your high school’s PROFILE, which should describe the number of AP courses offered at your high school and the percentage of students taking AP courses. That should give you a better idea of where you stand in your high school’s AP pecking order. For example, at Stuyvesant High School, which offers 31 AP courses, student’s in the top 10% of their class are taking 8+ AP’s. If a Stuyvesant student only has 3 or 4 AP’s on their transcript, colleges understand the student did not take the most rigorous course schedule available to them. But at another high school, which offers just 8 AP courses, having 3 to 4 AP’s on your transcript is considered quite rigorous. Bottom line: Everything is relative!
FWIW: While not all AP’s are viewed equally, there are two AP’s that seem to be more valued than others. AP Calc BC is viewed by many top colleges as the holy grail of AP’s – and that’s true for student’s who are interested in Liberal Arts, as well as STEM. Likewise, colleges look favorably on the AP Foreign Language test. Scoring a 5 (and sometimes a 4) on an AP Foreign Language test will exempt a student from all or part of a college’s Foreign Language graduation requirement.
you’ve only finishing ninth grade – have you chosen your 10th grade classes? Did you pursue the toughest ones? Why not? If you don’t maximize yourself now, selective colleges will rightly assume you won’t maximize their great offerings and will bypass you. Or, perhaps you’re realizing that you’re discovering that one of the academic superstars typically viable for top schools?