Our school offers 29 AP classes but does not allow sitting the exam without taking the course.
Our school offered 22 APs when my kids were there, but no one took 12. We are in one of those districts that thinks they are doing well by offering algebra 1 in 8th grade, it was like pulling teeth to get our son allowed to start in 7th. In the end 3 kids did it with him and they all did very well. As far as I know my older son was the only one in his class to take an AP freshman year (AP Comp Sci). A small group of sophomores take AP World instead of just the Regents part 2 of the NYS global history course. And sophomore year I think some now take the Physics 1 AP instead of regular or honor physics. We offer HS bio in 8th grade so there is room for two AP sciences easily. I don’t know anyone who took more than 10 APs.
I don’t think you can really discuss AP’s in general because their rigor varies so widely. For example, at our public high school, the history AP’s are very tough and time consuming. In addition to exams, there is a ton of writing—three research papers and multiple essays. Grading is not inflated. Then again, most students get 4’s and 5’s. It’s not uncommon to get a 4 in AP Euro and a B in the class (only 11% 5’s and 20% 4’s nationwide).
AP Psych, HUG, Environmental, Gov, and CompSci are considered at the level of regular classes as they are easier than honors classes.
The top kids usually take AP Euro, APUSH, AP Calc, an AP world language, AP Lit and one AP science. Some take two AP sciences, so that would be 7. We have great admissions results, but unhooked kids do not get into HYPSM no matter how many AP’s they take.
On CC, when parents tally their student’s AP classes, are they counting each EXAM or each full year CLASS? For example, a child who takes a full year AP economics class, are they counting that as 1 or 2 AP’s (Microeconomics and Macroeconomics)? Is Physics C being counted as 1 or 2 AP’s (Physics C: Electricity, Physics C: Mechanics)?
There is a largish sub-section of honors/AP students within our large, suburban high school (outside of a major US city) that can and do schedule 12+ APs within the 4 year term. Our oldest will complete 8 APs by the end of senior year (if i am adding everything up correctly) but probably won’t be considered to have a “most rigorous schedule”. Oldest chose not to skip lunch (starting sophomore year) in order to take additional AP classes while many of the oldest’s AP classmates did make that choice.
Any good student can take many AP classes or just take exams and pass with 3s. Unless you take classes with rigorous curriculum and score As in classes and 5s on AP exam, it doesn’t impress colleges.
However, if your school doesn’t offer AP classes, it’s not held against you. If you still take couple of AP exams and SAT II, it shows initiative.
If you are first gen, international, poor, rural, URM or inner city, no college expects you to take AP classes or exams. You are judged against your demographics. If you really want to try, ask GC for test fee waivers.
Our school offers 35 AP classes. We are a large urban school with a wide range of socioeconomic differences from homeless students to millionaires. The school has eight class periods and freshmen are not allowed to take study hall. Out of a total of about 2,500 students, about one-third take at least one AP. With the exception of some not-so-popular classes (physics, music theory, Chinese), most have multiple sections so access isn’t an obstacle. I’m not sure how many take 12, but the GPAs of the top students are well over 4.7. To discourage the “rat race,” the school considers rigor to be a combination of at least eight honors and AP classes, with at least four of those being AP. My kiddo will have 7 even with opting to not take Literature or Calculus her senior (our school has some interesting alternatives) and not doubling up on any science ever. She also switched languages midway. She could easily have had 10 APs, so I could see 12 with some effort. It just wasn’t her thing. She took classes she was interested in.
From College Board: The State AP Scholar award is granted to the female and male student in each state with scores of three or higher on the greatest number of AP exams, in addition to the highest average score of at least 3.5.
An old thread on CC.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ap-tests-preparation/1912557-state-ap-scholars-2016.html
lol on the student with 24 AP exams
I have two kids. The first graduated from a small high school that offered a rigorous classical curriculum but no APs. College outcomes are very good with a few students attaining acceptance to T20 schools annually, although the majority opt for LACs, Jesuit colleges, and regional public universities. The second attends a larger HS that offers AP courses but sets limits - no APs Freshman year, maximum of 2 for sophomore year, and then ramping up depending on the ability and prior track record of the student. The most academically ambitious students probably take between 8-10 by graduation, although there are probably a few outliers that attempt more. The school also offers some advanced courses in alternative formats that are weighted the same as APs. College outcomes are similar.
My general take on APs is for the student to take only the courses that make sense in terms of interest level and ability.
Note at our school there is no honors social studies. APHug, Euro, USH, 2 of Gov/Micro or Macro is the normal honors track. Getting a B and a 5 is quite common.
Likewise there is no honors Language Ats in 11 and 12, only Lit and Lang. So that’s another 2 for typical honors kid.
Foreign Languages start in eighth grade and go 1, 2, 3, AP. So there’s another AP for kids who stay in a language through junior.year.
Science track for honors is Bio, Chem, AP Physics 1 then another AP senior year.
That’s 10 APs right there without taking any zero periods or missing lunch or doing anything crazy.
^^^That explains it succinctly. I would add that if you are not taking many AP courses and Not getting top scores on the exams and you are at a school where your peers are doing so, it is highly likely it will be held against you. You are judged among your peers
“My general take on APs is for the student to take only the courses that make sense in terms of interest level and ability.”
This is how I look at it too. Of the 5 AP classes offered at our school, my son taking AP Lit, History or Political Science would have made him miserable and would have probably hurt his GPA. He hates all those subjects. Math and science are his strengths so we settled on just AP calc and Physics…then they cancelled the Physics, so he’ll only graduate with one.
Our school does have a very strong college prep curriculum without the APs. Last year there were 4 NMS is a class of 60 kids. All students are required to take 4 years of math, science, english, social studies and fine arts. Add in that it’s a Catholic school so there are also 4 years of religion and there isn’t a lot of room left for anything else.
My cousin’s son is at a school where only a handful of APs are offered. The typical graduate does not have calculus upon graduation. A student at this school could stand out by taking an AP course or 2 on his own junior year and getting a 5 on it. Then taking 2 more senior year and frack the test results, you’re in before they come out.
A school like that has its advantages and disadvantages
Our school participates in the state virtual program. So, in addition to the usual APs/DE, they have access to the fun ones like economics, art history, human geography, psychology, and comparative politics. Junior/senior year they had 8 AP/DE classes per year. My younger son actually took 9 classes in 11th grade because they doubled up the virtual classes in 1 block. The 9th class was the required personal finance.
And as an aside, our DE program is harder than the AP. Those kids leave high school and meet up with the county kids at a different institution. Had our school had not participated in that program, we would have final a different alternative for their high school years.
By switching districts, our daughter was able to take 9 AP classes instead of 2 or 3 in her previous district. When she started, there were no freshman AP classes. I believe her high school offers about 15, including art and computer science. Very few take 12 since scheduling would be extremely difficult, but I do believe some students take AP Art as independent study with regular meetings with the teacher.
Our school strongly recommends against more than 3 aps per year. I mean, kids do it… there are definitely kids who take 5, especially senior year… but it’s way more normal for a smart kid to stick with the aps that are in their interest area. At our school we have all of the STEM ap classes plus a robust hands-on biotech 3 year program so a lot of the STEM kids take all of those classes but not ap English or social studies. Or maybe they’ll do APEuro in 10th and APUSH in 11th since those teachers are great but then drop back to cp government/econ for senior year.
It is uncommon here. Middle son placed out of Calc 1 and 2, Chem 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2 (or A and 2??) US History, Statistics, and maybe one other but he also took dual credit English which was the bomb. If you are going to an Ivy they do not want dual credit (where you take it at the high school through a local community college) but all the state schools here and many other ones accept them. With Dual Credit you do not have to take the AP test at the end. It worked so well S#3 has dual credit English and History. (they also treat it as an honors class)
6-10 would be normal for high achievers at our HS, 12 would be tough to do, for a few reasons, among them: (1) school really pushes 4 years of all 5 core academic subjects, including world languages; so, for example, if you take French or Spanish, you get (potentially) one AP out of the 4 years; if you take Mandarin, you get none; (2) school requires 2 years of art, and the culture of the school is such that many students take 3-4+ years, and there’s only 2 art APs (history and studio); (3) school offers advanced, post-AP classes in math, English, science, and world languages that are not AP or DE, eg, multivariate calculus/linear algebra for those who complete AP Calc BC in junior year, or Grade 12 Honors English, which the school considers more advanced than AP Lit (AP Lit is offered but must be taken as a second, elective English).
Other factors: (1) school has very stringent gatekeeping for entry into AP classes and (2) school requires students sit for the AP exam.
Our school only lets kids take a max of 4 APs in one year…
My daughter is in 5 full year AP classes as a junior but those are her only classes. It seems like much less of a work load than many kids on c.c. with schools with 8 periods or block schedule. Her sixth period is athletics. I will be very surprised if she gets anything below a 4 and expect majority 5’s. Quality over quantity.