9. None allowed until junior year.

11

My kid won’t be a T20 admit but other students from our school are. School limits to a max of 6 APs: max 1 AP in 10th, 2 in 11th, 3 in 12th. Very occasionally kids get a waiver for one more AP, but it’s usually to add something like AP Studio Art as a 4th in senior year, not an additional core.

As others have noted, it’s very school dependent. Colleges compare transcript rigor against other kids from the same school.

First kid : 2
Second kid : 4

Both attended « Big 3 » DMV privates that do not offer AP classes.

First kid: 9 APs (attended a US News top-20)
Second kid: 8 APs (attends a US News top-20)

15, but highly competitive public limited underclass enrollment in AP classes, so sequence was 1 in sophomore year, 5 in junior year (plus one through asynchronous delivery), 2 in summer after junior year, and five in senior year (plus one through asynchronous delivery).

0 + 1 + 8 + 6

Missed three tests due to unavoidable schedule conflicts, but of the 12 taken … 11 scores of 5, and one of 4. I’m not sure the credits all accrued properly, but that translated into 64 units on the opening transcript.

Five Top 25 acceptances, including one Top 10 and two in the 11 - 15 range.

Having said all of that, I don’t think the rigor trending matters much unless it is really unusual … avoid 5 + 7 + 2 + 1, but I really don’t think 0 + 6 + 5 + 4 will be viewed any different than 0 + 4 + 5 + 6.

We're in an AP-heavy public school system.
DS took 12 APs, but he didn't apply to any top 20. He has an academic bent, but also has learning disabilities and needed a more nurturing environment.
DD will have 14 APs by the time she graduates, and she will apply to some Ivies and top-ranked universities.

10 APs, all 5s

11, but kids are compared to their peers, so it's more helpful for you to find out what other top kids are taking at your kids' school. I know someone at a smaller school who only took 3 APs and got into yale, so it's all based on context.

Both mine took 11 APs but they didn't apply to any in the top 20.

Zero. He had 10 Dual Enrollment/Dual Credit courses. But ZERO APs and not an IB curriculum either.

10

This will vary by school. Ours only allowed 1 in sophomore year for current seniors (although that changed for future classes - now 2 are allowed). So, many kids at are school have 10-12 when they graduate if take 2-period AP sciences. Other schools let kids take APs during their freshman year.

12, which was probably as much as anybody in her smallish high school took when she graduated.

DS taking 4 as a sophomore, which feels like a lot but it just sort of turned out that way with each of his current teachers in three core subjects highly recommending he take the AP in their subject and then an AP elective he just really wants to take and not sure when else he will fit it in. Anyway, my thought would be 4 each year in 10-12 for a total of 12, which sounds like plenty, but he feels like he should show increasing rigor each year, or at least from 10th to 11th (so, 4, 5, 5 or 4, 5, 6).