Number of APs
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Anonymous
It depends. |
Anonymous
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I find this chart (see link below) from the link posted above VERY enlightening. It gives total number of APs and # of students reporting to the top 200 univ/colleges. Depending on the school, I am thinking about what the average number of tests per kids must be since we all know in this area there is a pretty large group of AP-crazed kids reporting 6-8 or more exams. If so, then many other students are reporting just 1-2 AP exam scores to many of these schools (I'm just looking at the large public Us at the top of the list. UVA trends a bit higher. Even MIT isn't as high as I would expect. I realize plenty of prep school kids don't often take APs or self-study for them but still, these numbers are lower than I'd imagined.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2013/2013-200-Top-Colleges.pdf |
Anonymous
Agree with 10:55. It depends on so many different factors - what APs are offered at your school, which college you want to apply to..etc. No one-size-fits-all answer here. |
Anonymous
| I believe 8 is the number to be at least considered remotely competitive. |
Anonymous
| It depends where child is going. My son was able to get 30 credits from his school(the maximum). A lot of schools will not give that kind of credit. It enabled him to get both a BS and MS engineering degrees in 4 1/2 years. |
Anonymous
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DC will be going to a top ten engineering school in the fall. He took:
AP World History sophomore AP US History junior AP Chemistry junior AP Government senior AP Calculus BC senior AP Physics C senior AP Statistics senior |
Anonymous
That is very interesting but has some limitations. First, kids are probably only reporting scores of 4 or 5 (or whatever qualifies for credit). Mine didn't report a score of 4 because the school would only accept a 5 for that particular exam. So kids are probably taking more than they are reporting. Some schools (not in this area of course) actually offer very few APs. I looked at one small town high school recently that offered 5-6 APs (depending on the availability of qualified teachers). If you weren't interested in all the topics you probably would only end up taking 2-3. |
Anonymous
Agreed...any parent that would sanction that type of behavior is nuts....and you don't need papers to prove it..... Ivy league interviewers here......8-11 MAX...anything more would raise serious questions..... |
Anonymous
17 is excessive but 12 to 14 would not be insane. |
Anonymous
Can I ask how good his ECs were/how competitive his HS was? |
Anonymous
In one of the top 5 FCPS, Eagle, Treasurer of regional committee, instrument, summer volunteer, 3.9 wt. GPA |
Anonymous
Genuinely curious... what questions would be raised? What impression would this give, exactly? |
Anonymous
Unbalanced applicant, NP BTW. Probably one of the most detrimental perceptions of Asian students. |
Anonymous
Thanks. I hadn't considered that. DD (currently in 8th grade) is planning her HS schedule and she wants to do 15 total AP exams (not 15 classes, several exams via self-study). I wasn't sure this sounded like a good plan from the outset, but now that I know it will be detrimental to her for university admissions that is another concern. My oldest niece did 13 plus several extra-curriculars, which I think is why DD finds this reasonable, but now I can use this info to guide her to a more appropriate number. We don't happen to be Asian, but I can't imagine that would matter. The number of APs is probably appropriate or not regardless of the applicant's race/ethnicity. Part of me doesn't want to discourage DD from striving to do her best academically and taking a tough courseload, but I appreciate the perspectives from parents of older kids who are saying it's a better idea to reduce the number she plans to take. I think I will have her cut her list nearly in half. Would that be more reasonable? |
Anonymous
Make the decision on what's best for DD not these boards...that said, however, there is real truth to what pp have said about AP overload. Its just not worth it..... |