How many APs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

Is he URM?

[Anonymous]

8 at a private school

10th- 1 (5)
11th- 3 (2 5’s and a 3)
12th- 4 (2 5’s, a 4 and and a 3)

[Anonymous]

Private school. Zero. Thank God.

[Anonymous]

11 at private school

10th - 1
11th - 4
12th - 6 (but 7 tests because of micro/macro)

[Anonymous]

My son who is a freshman took two. He got a 5 on both.

My daughter who is a senior will have 4 by graduation. Has a 5 on three she’s done with.

Y’all insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

[Anonymous]

OP, also keep in mind that most students take a number of APs senior year, the scores for which are not available during admission season.

[Anonymous]

The fact that kids can take so many APs as sophomores and even freshmen shows how much it has been dumbed down. Kids these days aren't that much smarter.

I would be very worried about how well prepared my child is for classes that build sequentially off of AP classes, or advise them to retake the classes in college, particularly in areas they might be majoring in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, also keep in mind that most students take a number of APs senior year, the scores for which are not available during admission season.

Exactly. By the time of the test most kids know where they are going to college. So they know what the AP will do for them. Why waste time and effort taking a test that does nothing for you. No one cares if you are an "AP Scholar" or whatever it is called. Perhaps it will allow you to place ahead but do you really want to do that in all of the AP classes you took. If you are going to be pre-med but took an AP history or English class and all you are getting is advanced placement, why bother? Focus on the ones that might really matter for you and enjoy being 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

There is AP pre-calculus? WTF? What a joke. If I were in admissions at a top school I would immediately ding someone with this on their transcript for having the nerve to consider submitting it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

There is AP pre-calculus? WTF? What a joke. If I were in admissions at a top school I would immediately ding someone with this on their transcript for having the nerve to consider submitting it.

The other side of that coin is someone saying they'd ding the applicant who didn't submit the score, under the assumption that they must have scored low.

[Anonymous]

Depends on your school- my S23 took 8 total, 4s & 5s, is at Brown.
D26 took:
1 in 10th grade (Comp Sci P),
3 in 11th grade (APES, APUSH, AP Precalc)
5 in 12th grade (Gov, French, Lit, Calc, Bio)
In their school, only a handful of kids take APs in 10th grade, and kids aren’t ‘loading up’ on them. Can’t take APs in 9th grade, and kids who start in 10th are the exception. Personally I’d love to see the school get rid of them altogether, too much information crammed into units and not enough time for creative exploration of material. D23 opted not to take APUSH because of that- he wanted to dive deep into the content and not have to deal with the information dump of AP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

There is AP pre-calculus? WTF? What a joke. If I were in admissions at a top school I would immediately ding someone with this on their transcript for having the nerve to consider submitting it.

That makes no sense. Why would you ding a kid? If that is the most advanced math offered for that level at the school, then why wouldn’t someone take it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

PP. I agree, good point.

I would note that AP precalc has replaced honors precalc at many high schools. I would still report the score simply to show you did well. It won't carry rigor from the college's perspective, but many high schools will give it a point for weighted GPA.