# of AP courses total?

[Anonymous]

HI. The counselor at our "W" school emphasized only taking AP Courses in areas in which you excelled...for my daughter that wound up to be the liberal arts. She has taken honors courses in sciences and math, but not AP. Next year she will take, AP Environmental. She will finish up with 7 total AP Courses. She has already received a score of "5" on her AP NSL test ,and is studying for Lang and lit and World now...hopefully 4s or 5s.

She often tells me that she sees her classmates taking 4 and 5 AP's during the junior year and how very stressed out they all are. it sounds awful and unhealthy to us, so as her parents, we never advocated this much stress for her. She doesn't like it and collapses under that sort of stress.

We recently met with an independent college consultant who told us she had not taken enough "rigorous courses" to apply to top tier schools. (not Ivy Leagues) Of course, DD came away upset and felt a bit led astray by the school guidance counselor, who really didn't recommend 4 to 5 AP's a year.

DD has hopes of being accepted to public ivys, but I don't even know if this is possible given her 1400 SAT and 'only' 7 AP courses.

Talk to me! Tell me your experience with number of AP courses! I know it is all a crap shoot these days.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Independent college counselor is right. To apply to high tier schools you will need higher SAT and need to have taken most rigorous classes. 7 AP classes total not nearly enough.

[Anonymous]

What's a "public Ivy?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Independent college counselor is right. To apply to high tier schools you will need higher SAT and need to have taken most rigorous classes. 7 AP classes total not nearly enough.

“Not nearly “ is too strong. Many schools limit students to 3-4 APs at a time without special permission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HI. The counselor at our "W" school emphasized only taking AP Courses in areas in which you excelled...for my daughter that wound up to be the liberal arts. She has taken honors courses in sciences and math, but not AP. Next year she will take, AP Environmental. She will finish up with 7 total AP Courses. She has already received a score of "5" on her AP NSL test ,and is studying for Lang and lit and World now...hopefully 4s or 5s.

She often tells me that she sees her classmates taking 4 and 5 AP's during the junior year and how very stressed out they all are. it sounds awful and unhealthy to us, so as her parents, we never advocated this much stress for her. She doesn't like it and collapses under that sort of stress.

We recently met with an independent college consultant who told us she had not taken enough "rigorous courses" to apply to top tier schools. (not Ivy Leagues) Of course, DD came away upset and felt a bit led astray by the school guidance counselor, who really didn't recommend 4 to 5 AP's a year.

DD has hopes of being accepted to public ivys, but I don't even know if this is possible given her 1400 SAT and 'only' 7 AP courses.

Talk to me! Tell me your experience with number of AP courses! I know it is all a crap shoot these days.

Thank you.

Yes, taking 5+ APs is a bit crazy IMO. Your kid can get into T30-T50 schools with those scores, it is possible. But you need to consider them reaches and have good targets and safeties as well.

My own DC took 4Aps junior year and 4 APs senior year. All STEM except AP Psych. I suspect taking AP ENG/APUSH/APEuro might have strengthened her resume for T20 schools, but not by much (she had SAT of 1500 and 3.95 UW gpa and engineering major). I'm with you, that more than 4 APs puts too much pressure on most kids and doesn't allow them time to do other stuff. For some kids, more than 2 is too many and that's ok. These are college level work and the kids are in HS!
My DC dances 15-20 hours/week. So APUSH or APEng was going to add another 20+ hours EACH week of work to complete. Yes, my DC could do it, but would it be worth it? She would have never slept: 7 hours at school plus 2-5 hours of dance each night, and then add in HW, there just wouldn't have been time to sleep.
We chose to have her focus on the STEM courses that interested her. Ultimately she's glad she didn't take the AP Eng/APUSH/APEuro, etc. Why? Because both of her top choices do not allow students to use AP credits for "core Curriculum" Only reason she would have done it was to eliminate courses like that for college---so happy she didn't just take them for rigor and make herself miserable.

What you have to realize is that with a 1400 SAT, your chances of a T20 is extremely low. Heck it's extremely low even with a 1600 and 4.8W gpa. So part of the plan needs to be finding great colleges that your kid can get into while "being yourself".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's a "public Ivy?"

It’s generally considered the top public colleges. Michigan, UVA, W&M, UNC, GA Tech, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HI. The counselor at our "W" school emphasized only taking AP Courses in areas in which you excelled...for my daughter that wound up to be the liberal arts. She has taken honors courses in sciences and math, but not AP. Next year she will take, AP Environmental. She will finish up with 7 total AP Courses. She has already received a score of "5" on her AP NSL test ,and is studying for Lang and lit and World now...hopefully 4s or 5s.

She often tells me that she sees her classmates taking 4 and 5 AP's during the junior year and how very stressed out they all are. it sounds awful and unhealthy to us, so as her parents, we never advocated this much stress for her. She doesn't like it and collapses under that sort of stress.

We recently met with an independent college consultant who told us she had not taken enough "rigorous courses" to apply to top tier schools. (not Ivy Leagues) Of course, DD came away upset and felt a bit led astray by the school guidance counselor, who really didn't recommend 4 to 5 AP's a year.

DD has hopes of being accepted to public ivys, but I don't even know if this is possible given her 1400 SAT and 'only' 7 AP courses.

Talk to me! Tell me your experience with number of AP courses! I know it is all a crap shoot these days.

Thank you.

Yes, taking 5+ APs is a bit crazy IMO. Your kid can get into T30-T50 schools with those scores, it is possible. But you need to consider them reaches and have good targets and safeties as well.

My own DC took 4Aps junior year and 4 APs senior year. All STEM except AP Psych. I suspect taking AP ENG/APUSH/APEuro might have strengthened her resume for T20 schools, but not by much (she had SAT of 1500 and 3.95 UW gpa and engineering major). I'm with you, that more than 4 APs puts too much pressure on most kids and doesn't allow them time to do other stuff. For some kids, more than 2 is too many and that's ok. These are college level work and the kids are in HS!
My DC dances 15-20 hours/week. So APUSH or APEng was going to add another 20+ hours EACH week of work to complete. Yes, my DC could do it, but would it be worth it? She would have never slept: 7 hours at school plus 2-5 hours of dance each night, and then add in HW, there just wouldn't have been time to sleep.
We chose to have her focus on the STEM courses that interested her. Ultimately she's glad she didn't take the AP Eng/APUSH/APEuro, etc. Why? Because both of her top choices do not allow students to use AP credits for "core Curriculum" Only reason she would have done it was to eliminate courses like that for college---so happy she didn't just take them for rigor and make herself miserable.

What you have to realize is that with a 1400 SAT, your chances of a T20 is extremely low. Heck it's extremely low even with a 1600 and 4.8W gpa. So part of the plan needs to be finding great colleges that your kid can get into while "being yourself".

If she felt 4-5 APs Junior year would create the kind of stress that she would collapse under, than her choices were correct for her. Now, she adjusts her expectations and starts looking for great colleges that love a kid with 7 APs/1400 SAT. She will have plenty of choices if she builds an appropriate list.

My kids both have ADHD and because of that we limited APs to 3 in junior year. In retrospect, DS really found his footing and probably would have done OK with more. DD, however, is still struggling with her EF skills and had some medical issues on top of that and junior year has been really hard even with "just" 3. We're in VA and both knew in making that choice that they were ruling out being in contention for UVA but understood they would still have lots of good options.

[Anonymous]

My two kids are at UVA and took 8 (plus two DE0 and 9 APs. Their school did not allow an AP in 9th and only one option in 10th so it was heavily towards 11th and 12th that they took more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two kids are at UVA and took 8 (plus two DE and 9 APs. Their school did not allow an AP in 9th and only one option in 10th so it was heavily towards 11th and 12th that they took more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Independent college counselor is right. To apply to high tier schools you will need higher SAT and need to have taken most rigorous classes. 7 AP classes total not nearly enough.

“Not nearly “ is too strong. Many schools limit students to 3-4 APs at a time without special permission.

But you are compared to kids at your own school so if her classmates have been taking APs in all subject areas (not just the humanities or not just STEM), then she will fall short of the "took the most rigorous schedule offered" at her school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HI. The counselor at our "W" school emphasized only taking AP Courses in areas in which you excelled...for my daughter that wound up to be the liberal arts. She has taken honors courses in sciences and math, but not AP. Next year she will take, AP Environmental. She will finish up with 7 total AP Courses. She has already received a score of "5" on her AP NSL test ,and is studying for Lang and lit and World now...hopefully 4s or 5s.

She often tells me that she sees her classmates taking 4 and 5 AP's during the junior year and how very stressed out they all are. it sounds awful and unhealthy to us, so as her parents, we never advocated this much stress for her. She doesn't like it and collapses under that sort of stress.

We recently met with an independent college consultant who told us she had not taken enough "rigorous courses" to apply to top tier schools. (not Ivy Leagues) Of course, DD came away upset and felt a bit led astray by the school guidance counselor, who really didn't recommend 4 to 5 AP's a year.

DD has hopes of being accepted to public ivys, but I don't even know if this is possible given her 1400 SAT and 'only' 7 AP courses.

Talk to me! Tell me your experience with number of AP courses! I know it is all a crap shoot these days.

Thank you.

Yes, taking 5+ APs is a bit crazy IMO. Your kid can get into T30-T50 schools with those scores, it is possible. But you need to consider them reaches and have good targets and safeties as well.

My own DC took 4Aps junior year and 4 APs senior year. All STEM except AP Psych. I suspect taking AP ENG/APUSH/APEuro might have strengthened her resume for T20 schools, but not by much (she had SAT of 1500 and 3.95 UW gpa and engineering major). I'm with you, that more than 4 APs puts too much pressure on most kids and doesn't allow them time to do other stuff. For some kids, more than 2 is too many and that's ok. These are college level work and the kids are in HS!
My DC dances 15-20 hours/week. So APUSH or APEng was going to add another 20+ hours EACH week of work to complete. Yes, my DC could do it, but would it be worth it? She would have never slept: 7 hours at school plus 2-5 hours of dance each night, and then add in HW, there just wouldn't have been time to sleep.
We chose to have her focus on the STEM courses that interested her. Ultimately she's glad she didn't take the AP Eng/APUSH/APEuro, etc. Why? Because both of her top choices do not allow students to use AP credits for "core Curriculum" Only reason she would have done it was to eliminate courses like that for college---so happy she didn't just take them for rigor and make herself miserable.

What you have to realize is that with a 1400 SAT, your chances of a T20 is extremely low. Heck it's extremely low even with a 1600 and 4.8W gpa. So part of the plan needs to be finding great colleges that your kid can get into while "being yourself".

If she felt 4-5 APs Junior year would create the kind of stress that she would collapse under, than her choices were correct for her. Now, she adjusts her expectations and starts looking for great colleges that love a kid with 7 APs/1400 SAT. She will have plenty of choices if she builds an appropriate list.

My kids both have ADHD and because of that we limited APs to 3 in junior year. In retrospect, DS really found his footing and probably would have done OK with more. DD, however, is still struggling with her EF skills and had some medical issues on top of that and junior year has been really hard even with "just" 3. We're in VA and both knew in making that choice that they were ruling out being in contention for UVA but understood they would still have lots of good options.

That is great and exactly what should happen!! Your kids are "being the best of themselves they can" Pushing them too hard can have long term negative effects, especially for kiddos with ADHD---school has already been a struggle for many of them since the way we teach children is not conducive to many kids and especially those with EF issues or ADHD (have a kid with both and didn't know about the ADHD until freshman year of college---before that DC was able to function really well with tutors in HS). There are so many colleges out there, and ideally we should all want our kids to end up at one that's best for their needs, not just the highest ranked one.

[Anonymous]

Yes, taking 5+ APs is a bit crazy IMO. Your kid can get into T30-T50 schools with those scores, it is possible. But you need to consider them reaches and have good targets and safeties as well.

My own DC took 4Aps junior year and 4 APs senior year. All STEM except AP Psych. I suspect taking AP ENG/APUSH/APEuro might have strengthened her resume for T20 schools, but not by much (she had SAT of 1500 and 3.95 UW gpa and engineering major). I'm with you, that more than 4 APs puts too much pressure on most kids and doesn't allow them time to do other stuff. For some kids, more than 2 is too many and that's ok. These are college level work and the kids are in HS!

These are great stats. It's crazy that this isn't top 20 materials. Just nuts..

[Anonymous]

Sorry this guidance counselor was not fully transparent in telling your DD the choices in front of her.

However..... perhaps she was not led astray?

What are the chances she'd be accepted to an Ivy even if she had taken more AP? So many high achieving kids are finding themselves shut out of Ivy's despite high grades, test scores, and rigor.

And would it be worth her mental health? You say she has noticed how stressed her classmates are.

[Anonymous]

I think the test score is a bigger hurdle than the number of AP's. There is no magic formula, as you know if you've read these threads. There are so many great publics. I think this is in the range for Wisconsin, Penn State, Pitt, Ohio State, etc. We know smart, happy kids at all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two kids are at UVA and took 8 (plus two DE0 and 9 APs. Their school did not allow an AP in 9th and only one option in 10th so it was heavily towards 11th and 12th that they took more.

My TJ kid took 6 AP classes (two in senior year; he did not sit for the test because he was not planning on using the credits in college). He got admitted to a bunch of colleges including UVA, Michigan, UMD, UIUC and Purdue.. all for CS. The only "top" school he applied to was Stanford where he did not get in and I don't think it was because of a lack of APs.