Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 19:34     Subject: Re:# of AP courses total?
Where it gets tricky is the lack of transparency. We’re in FCPS. My DS is signed up for 4 APs jr year next year. He’d prefer to take 2-3, but it’s not that he. Any handle or succeed in the 4, just that he’d prefer not to be overwhelmed with work, which I think is very fair, but he’d really like to know how that impacts his college chances and it’s frustratingly unclear.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 19:22     Subject: # of AP courses total?
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.


Off topic but once again for the record can people please get it straight that math and science ARE liberal arts? Maybe what you are trying to say is that she is strong in social sciences or humanities.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 19:19     Subject: Re:# of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:12 APs is typical at our school but I also know kids who got into good schools they enjoy without taking any. If it’s too stressful, it’s not worth it. I don’t know why we expect high school kids to do college work anyway. Let them be in high school and think broad and deep instead of hammering away for test scores. And yes, you have time to work on the SAT score we thought pressure of she’s up for it.


+1

12 is typical at our “W” school as well. I have one child on track to have 12 or 13, but the other may only take 5-6. It really depends on the kid. Also not AP’s are equal in rigor or amount of work. AP Physics C or AP Chem is way different from AP Physics 1 or AP NSL.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 19:03     Subject: Re:# of AP courses total?
12 APs is typical at our school but I also know kids who got into good schools they enjoy without taking any. If it’s too stressful, it’s not worth it. I don’t know why we expect high school kids to do college work anyway. Let them be in high school and think broad and deep instead of hammering away for test scores. And yes, you have time to work on the SAT score we thought pressure of she’s up for it.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 18:06     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:W school, one kid has 11 and the other will have 12 at graduation. Ten 5s and one 4 for DC1, DC2 has all 5s so far, but has many this year and next to go. And there are many other students with significantly more.

In MCPS, with their giant high schools, many APs is one of the ways to show rigor.


What were the 12 AP classes?
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 18:02     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Lol. 6 APs, and 6 post APs?


4 post APs. In the OP's child's case, that's not relevant since her cohort does not have access to post-AP classes.


But it is relevant in your kids case. Your post is a bit misleading. It creates an impression that you can be competitive for UVA, Umich, UIUC etc with just 6 APs. Not everyone knows that TJ offers a bunch of very tough post AP courses. I bet your kid would not have a chance without taking those or whatever other activities they have that compensated for their relatively low number of APs


Of course it is relevant in my kid's case. *Everyone* around here knows exactly what TJ is about and the post-APs available there. Also, pretty much every kid at TJ takes post-AP courses. Again, If I was advising a TJ parent, those details are relevant. Not so for a non-TJ parent. This is not a brag-fest. In my DC's case, the "compensation" you talk about was through post-APs and a few activities. In OP's case, it will likely be EC activities which I'm sure the private counselor advised them on.

In addition, OP's kid has an obvious issue with the SAT score, which def. can be improved with some effort.

Not knowing
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:53     Subject: # of AP courses total?
W school, one kid has 11 and the other will have 12 at graduation. Ten 5s and one 4 for DC1, DC2 has all 5s so far, but has many this year and next to go. And there are many other students with significantly more.

In MCPS, with their giant high schools, many APs is one of the ways to show rigor.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:38     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Lol. 6 APs, and 6 post APs?


4 post APs. In the OP's child's case, that's not relevant since her cohort does not have access to post-AP classes.


But it is relevant in your kids case. Your post is a bit misleading. It creates an impression that you can be competitive for UVA, Umich, UIUC etc with just 6 APs. Not everyone knows that TJ offers a bunch of very tough post AP courses. I bet your kid would not have a chance without taking those or whatever other activities they have that compensated for their relatively low number of APs
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:35     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Op, for a student who scores 1400 on the SAT, having (only) 7 APs will not make a difference in admissions.

Your student is taking an appropriate schedule and will have a good admissions outcome. Apply widely.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:28     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Lol. 6 APs, and 6 post APs?


4 post APs. In the OP's child's case, that's not relevant since her cohort does not have access to post-AP classes.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:27     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote:
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.


Lol. 6 APs, and 6 post APs?
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:18     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote: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.


good point! +10
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:18     Subject: # of AP courses total?
OP. I'd focus on improving her test score. See if she can get her SAT score past 1500. That's something you can "fix" vs. causing year-long stress with additional APs.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:12     Subject: Re:# of AP courses total?
If she would “collapse” under the pressure of taking more then it doesn’t really matter. More wouldn’t be for her so work with what you have. Might have a shot at some, but should adjust expectations and look at schools like Wisconsin, Indiana, Penn State. Did she take APUSH? If liberal arts and didn’t that seems to be more of an issue than not taking AP math or science.
Anonymous
Post 05/03/2022 17:11     Subject: # of AP courses total?
Anonymous wrote: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.


+1 Lots of great places. Start looking around and find things to be excited about at places that she'd might not have heard people talk about. I'm the PP who said we limited the APs for our kids with ADHD. DD was really freaking out about college in 10th grade. So, we started looking at LACs where she can get in with a B average and have lots of opportunities for the sciences she is interested in. It really helped lower the stress for her to find places that excited her that didn't expect her to be perfect super-start student.