What's the typical HS practice for taking APs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be super interesting to see a study on whether more APs results in admissions to higher ranked schools after a certain threshold (for example, is 12 really better than 8 for admissions purposes).

IDK but this thread is bonkers. My DC took 9, and I’ve posted here that DC failed several tests. But, then again DC is only at a top-25 school, not top-20.

DC 2 will probably have 7, which is fine and probably normal or even higher than normal at the same school.

I suspect some of these my kid took 15+ APs posts are fake just to stir things up and get people worried. But if not fake, they are truly outliers.

Remember that some AP classes are one semester, and some people are counting post-AP as AP (but they aren't).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be super interesting to see a study on whether more APs results in admissions to higher ranked schools after a certain threshold (for example, is 12 really better than 8 for admissions purposes).

IDK but this thread is bonkers. My DC took 9, and I’ve posted here that DC failed several tests. But, then again DC is only at a top-25 school, not top-20.

DC 2 will probably have 7, which is fine and probably normal or even higher than normal at the same school.

Athlete?

Legacy?

URM?

If none of these, then 9 will not get your child into a T25 from TJ/Langley/McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington

9th grade -1 (AP World History)
10th Grade - 2
11th Grade - 5
12 Grade - 5 (one science = two class periods)

13 classes will equal 15 AP exams (Econ is 2, Physics is 2)

Not common but also not unusual.

Common if you are looking at the group of kids applying to top universities or UVA/WM. Unusual if looking at the school as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be super interesting to see a study on whether more APs results in admissions to higher ranked schools after a certain threshold (for example, is 12 really better than 8 for admissions purposes).

IDK but this thread is bonkers. My DC took 9, and I’ve posted here that DC failed several tests. But, then again DC is only at a top-25 school, not top-20.

DC 2 will probably have 7, which is fine and probably normal or even higher than normal at the same school.

Athlete?

Legacy?

URM?

If none of these, then 9 will not get your child into a T25 from TJ/Langley/McLean.

UCB and UCLA don’t even count past 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington

9th grade -1 (AP World History)
10th Grade - 2
11th Grade - 5
12 Grade - 5 (one science = two class periods)

13 classes will equal 15 AP exams (Econ is 2, Physics is 2)

Not common but also not unusual.

Common if you are looking at the group of kids applying to top universities or UVA/WM. Unusual if looking at the school as a whole.

Unusual at our private high school.

Kids can't take APs Freshmen year. Only 1 AP is offered Sophomore year. In many subjects you need to complete the Honors course in the subject as a prerequisite for the AP course.

So JR-SR year are more like 3-4. For a total of 7-8.

It's a rigorous school.

The high school matters. Your kid will be compared against the kids from THEIR OWN high school in terms of numbers of AP and what the high school offers. IF you are at a big public, your kid needs to be doing what the kids in the top 5% of the class are doing to even get looked at by Admissions. If your school offers IB, then your kid needs to do IB for the top 20 schools, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington

9th grade -1 (AP World History)
10th Grade - 2
11th Grade - 5
12 Grade - 5 (one science = two class periods)

13 classes will equal 15 AP exams (Econ is 2, Physics is 2)

Not common but also not unusual.

Common if you are looking at the group of kids applying to top universities or UVA/WM. Unusual if looking at the school as a whole.

Unusual at our private high school.

Kids can't take APs Freshmen year. Only 1 AP is offered Sophomore year. In many subjects you need to complete the Honors course in the subject as a prerequisite for the AP course.

So JR-SR year are more like 3-4. For a total of 7-8.

It's a rigorous school.

The high school matters. Your kid will be compared against the kids from THEIR OWN high school in terms of numbers of AP and what the high school offers. IF you are at a big public, your kid needs to be doing what the kids in the top 5% of the class are doing to even get looked at by Admissions. If your school offers IB, then your kid needs to do IB for the top 20 schools, etc.

Our private is similar and the majority of kids score a minimum of a 4, but most score 5s on the AP exams. They have a better foundation, instead of whizzing through AP and not getting into depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington

9th grade -1 (AP World History)
10th Grade - 2
11th Grade - 5
12 Grade - 5 (one science = two class periods)

13 classes will equal 15 AP exams (Econ is 2, Physics is 2)

Not common but also not unusual.

Common if you are looking at the group of kids applying to top universities or UVA/WM. Unusual if looking at the school as a whole.

Unusual at our private high school.

Kids can't take APs Freshmen year. Only 1 AP is offered Sophomore year. In many subjects you need to complete the Honors course in the subject as a prerequisite for the AP course.

So JR-SR year are more like 3-4. For a total of 7-8.

It's a rigorous school.

The high school matters. Your kid will be compared against the kids from THEIR OWN high school in terms of numbers of AP and what the high school offers. IF you are at a big public, your kid needs to be doing what the kids in the top 5% of the class are doing to even get looked at by Admissions. If your school offers IB, then your kid needs to do IB for the top 20 schools, etc.

That does make sense. But its not what is happening at FCPS high schools. The pressure for as many APs as possible is intense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is doing 0-1-3-4. I think that’s pretty typical for a strong (UMD, W&M, SLACs beyond T15) but not T20-bound student. For someone applying T20, at our school, which has no limits, I’d anticipate something like 1-2-4-5 or 2-2-4-4 (with post AP counting as AP).

You can't do that at our HS

9th: NONE ALLOWED
10TH: Only 1 allowed

[Anonymous]

Our previous private school had an AP limit of 7 classes. They did not allow you to take more than 7 APs because kids were racking up AP classes with no other interests outside of school which HURT their college applications. There was a lot of pushback from parents.

Our new high school, a public high school, that is good but not intense does not allow any APs freshman year. Only 2 APs are offered to sophomores, AP Chem and AP CS. But for AP Chem, you need to take Honors Chemistry as a prerequisite so some kids take Honor Chemistry during the previous summer. My DC is not a STEM kid so I figure she won't take AP CS as a sophomore, and she'll be doing some other activities/projects/camps in the summer, so she can't take Honors Chem in the summer.

So, she'll have 0 APs freshman year and 0 APs sophomores year(just all honours classes).
I'm thinking she'll have 4 APs junior year and 4 APs senior year, which puts her at about 8 APs total.

We'll see if this disadvantages her. I just don't see how anyone can still fit in 15 APs into their high school schedule and get straight As and have a pointy interest?

Does anyone have a kid who took a normal amount of APs in the 5-9 range and got into their college of choice?

[Anonymous]

DS took 11/12 - AP Gov, APUSH, World, Econ(2), Bio, Chem, Physics, Calc AB, Stats, Spanish, Env Sci.

Went to UMD for Engineering.

[Anonymous]

I do not believe for one second the courses offered to 14 year old high school freshmen are true college level courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not believe for one second the courses offered to 14 year old high school freshmen are true college level courses.

Taking AP Gov as an example. They learn all the facts on the college level. They memorize them. There’s a little theory in there. But they aren’t reading 400 pages a week of scholarly works like I had to as a Gov major back in the day. But to be fair, none of those painful hours spent in the reading room really stuck. The HS kids also don’t write anything except some FRQ responses or whatever they need for the exam. My kid is only finally getting some writing practice in AP Lang.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not believe for one second the courses offered to 14 year old high school freshmen are true college level courses.

Of course they aren’t. But at many high schools, like my own kids’ mcps high school, it is a way of taking the highest level/modt rigorous courses. So frankly I don’t care if my kids repeat many of these classes in college, in fact I’d encourage them to repeat some if them like ap econ which is in no way equivalent to my first micro and macro classes in college— but I do want them ro be taking the most rigorous classes in their hs when appropriate for them from a learning and peer enagement stabdpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not believe for one second the courses offered to 14 year old high school freshmen are true college level courses.

Of course they aren’t. But at many high schools, like my own kids’ mcps high school, it is a way of taking the highest level/modt rigorous courses. So frankly I don’t care if my kids repeat many of these classes in college, in fact I’d encourage them to repeat some if them like ap econ which is in no way equivalent to my first micro and macro classes in college— but I do want them ro be taking the most rigorous classes in their hs when appropriate for them from a learning and peer enagement stabdpoint.

But are they learning if it is really just teaching to a test? It may be different in your school, but many have a formulaic curriculum to teach facts, not analysis. It’s very old school. Facts can be looked up. True scholars are analytical. I get it if that’s the best the school offers, but why are we buying into this being good education? It’s big business for the CB, not good education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not believe for one second the courses offered to 14 year old high school freshmen are true college level courses.

Of course they aren’t. But at many high schools, like my own kids’ mcps high school, it is a way of taking the highest level/modt rigorous courses. So frankly I don’t care if my kids repeat many of these classes in college, in fact I’d encourage them to repeat some if them like ap econ which is in no way equivalent to my first micro and macro classes in college— but I do want them ro be taking the most rigorous classes in their hs when appropriate for them from a learning and peer enagement stabdpoint.

But are they learning if it is really just teaching to a test? It may be different in your school, but many have a formulaic curriculum to teach facts, not analysis. It’s very old school. Facts can be looked up. True scholars are analytical. I get it if that’s the best the school offers, but why are we buying into this being good education? It’s big business for the CB, not good education.

I agree with you - but at my kids’ mcps HS it is the “deepest” class offered (kids aren’t encouraged to be more analyticsl in the honors/on level versions of these classes).