My school has honors/advanced classes, but they only offer them up until sophomore year. I’m currently a sophomore, but I was unfortunately barred from attending any advances classes this year due to capacity issues. I’m beyond frustrated and have no idea if this will negatively affect my collegiate future or not. My plan is to take as rigorous of a course load as I can manage during my junior year to balance out my poor performance (3.7 UW GPA) from years prior. However, I have no idea if I should take 5 AP classes (perhaps even more, seeing as we have AP electives) or just a few APs and regular classes.
Do any of you have experience with taking 5+ APs? Also, how significantly will my sophomore year damage the strength of my future college applications?
If you only have a 3.7 from freshman (and regular level sophomore?) classes, it is probably a bad idea to jump into 5 AP classes without having taken any previously. Talk to students at your school to see how hard these classes are.
I have a 4.0+ this year and I’m taking one AP class, AP World History. I didn’t try at all during freshman year and earned two Bs in Advanced Coordinate Algebra and Advanced Bio. I wouldn’t say I’m unintelligent, but I made several poor choices as a freshman that negatively impacted my performance.
My motivations have changed, but I can’t change the past. I’ll see if I can find any juniors to ask about the course rigor though. Thanks for the suggestions!
5 APs is a lot. Course rigor is important to colleges but not if it means you are sacrificing the quality of your work. Think about taking APs that might be related to what you want to study in college. For instance If you are thinking about a STEM major take the AP math and science courses and maybe one either english OR social studies AP so a total of 3 APs. If you are thinking about humanities major take the english and social studies APs and either the math OR science AP. If you think you can swing in try one elective AP if you want for a total of 4.
Your GC can explain the problems you might have had getting the appropriate courses your sophomore year due to capacity issues and should also be able to explain that the are no advanced/honors courses offered to juniors/seniors on the counselor report required by most colleges/universities for your application.
Is it typical at your school forJuniors and Seniors to take ALL AP classes? If it is than you need to weigh what your course selection looks like in comparison to them. Talk to your GC.
I agree with labegg, another thing is taking 5 AP’s after only only taking one the two years prior can really expose a student who isn’t ready for it or doesn’t have the right frame of mind to manage your time effectively. Not saying you do not, but I would recommend the idea of taking around 2 or 3 AP courses you are interested in and look into those that apply to a major or career that really interest you. That way, you can get the experience of some rigorous courses without overwhelming yourself and possibly hurting your GPA. Then, if you’re feeling confident in yourself with those courses, you can maybe tack on one or stay with a similar workload your senior year if you would like.