My kids went/go to a very competitive public hs that is very diverse. I would say 12 APs is probably very common at this school. My D18 graduated with 9 and my son will probably have 10. My S21 said some of his friends are taking 8 APs just in Junior year. I would never allow that, but some of these parents are actually insistent on it.
The most recent stats (for seniors in 2018):
12 APs: 8895
13 APs: 5409
14 APs: 3100
15 APs: 1793
16 APs: 969
17 APs: 473
18 APs: 269
19 APs: 137
20 APs: 75
21 APs: 32
22 APs: 14
23 APs: 11
24 APs: 6
Of about 3.6 million H.S. graduates.
School systems vary. In mine, dual-enrollment are not weighted as AP classes are. There are online AP courses in my state, so kids have been known to sneak in as many as 10 IB/AP courses IN ONE YEAR for the valedictorian arms race.
So glad we dont have val/sal or ranking.
Imo, it depends on your college targets. You want not too few, not too many, just right for you. (Then plan college targets wisely.)
The higher the college tier, the more it matters to not just take rigor in your interest area. Of course the interest area matters, but also other academic cores/choices.
Frankly, too many AP can be questioned. It’s this hierarchical thinking, “If Ijust have the most AP.” Not. And face it, after those AP in the cores, so many others can be seen as fluff, easy, just to rack up the count.
Yeah, it’s complicated.
Yes, judging from the responses here it doesn’t appear to be rare. But I’d say in the wider real world it is quite rare. Not like 5-10 in the country rare. But we know there are 35,000-ish National AP scholars per year, which requires at least 8 AP exams. While there may be more that took 8 but didn’t meet the score requirement, I’d say there are many more that took 8-11. Just a wild guess, I’d say 10-15,000 or so, less than a half of a percent of HS graduates.
When you’re into the top fraction of a percent, you are looking at very talented, accelerated students who need the rigor of AP courses to challenge them. Then it’s up to individual school availability and policy.
My older D took 4, which was slightly above average for her high quality HS. My younger will have 4 by Sophomore year, and has 99-100 averages in what she’s taken so far, so another 4 each year after that isn’t really a stretch. This year’s Val took 17, because apparently on-line easier APs was a hobby of his.
If a student needs the challenge and enjoys/performs well, that’s fine. But over 8-10 probably doesn’t make a difference in college admissions.
Both my kids had 12 AP courses. I never pushed it and questioned if they were certain they wanted to tackle it. For them it was a desire to be around other students that were highly motivated and to avoid boring classes. They did attend a mega- high school that offered many AP courses.
Sooooo glad my kids are done. Our school district allows 1 AP frosh and 1-2 AP soph options. Mostly juniors and seniors take APs. Kid #1 did 8 (1 self study, not available at school, in her major) and kid #2 did 3 APs and 4 IBs. My kids had plenty of work. Those numbers are a lot at our school, which regularly sends kids to top 20 schools and similar. Both my kids are/will be at academically rigorous colleges. The AP and IB courses have prepared them well, and I doubt talking more would have made them better prepared.
It’s sad and crazy that these kids feel pressured into doing so many. Parents who are considering moving into school districts where this number of APs is the norm might want to think about how much stress such a courseload puts on kids. High school is stressful enough.
It also depends on how a school structures their day, the number of class periods and/or block scheduling. D’s HS had a max of six class periods a day + lunch and theology. The public HS had 10 periods plus lunch. D’s school had hour long class periods. The public school, 37 minutes.
The depth of D’s classes when much beyond that of the public school even though the max of AP courses at her school was 8 while most of the public school students had 12-15 AP courses.
: But we know there are 35,000-ish National AP scholars per year,
: which requires at least 8 AP exams. While there may be more
: that took 8 but didn’t meet the score requirement, I’d say there
: are many more that took 8-11. Just a wild guess, I’d say 10-15,000
: or so, less than a half of a percent of HS graduates.
In 2018, 54,063 students had taken 8 AP exams, 35,453 students had taken 9 AP Exams, 23,049 had 10 exams, and 14,802 had 11 exams. So there’s a LOT of students that have taken 8 or more exams and aren’t National AP Scholars – a lot more than I would have expected.
@mdpmdp what gets lost in stats like that are kids that do dual enrollment instead of AP. My son did 8 true AP classes but then 7 dual enrollment classes which were weighted the same as AP for GPA calculation. Also I wonder if those numbers were actual class enrollment or AP tests taken.
AP tests taken, so the number who took 12+ classes is likely lower (and unknowable). Also the numbers counts each Physics C and Econ exam separately, although many, if not most, high schools cover both parts in class.
My D’s school only allowed one AP freshman and sophomore years, but after that students can take as many as they can handle, though they only “recommend” a max of 3 per year. They offer almost all of the AP courses though. My D took 1 each freshman and sophomore years, 7 junior year, and 6 senior year, for a total of 15. This was manageable for her. She also took 3 DE. But just like with college courseload (she overloads every semester), it depends on the student and isn’t a competition.
: @mdpmdp what gets lost in stats like that are kids that do dual
: enrollment instead of AP. My son did 8 true AP classes but then
: 7 dual enrollment classes which were weighted the same as AP
: for GPA calculation.
Right. My son will probably end up with “only” 9 or 10 AP classes, but with 6 or 7 post-AP math and CS classes. AP’s aren’t anywhere near be-all and end-all.
Aside: I went to arguably the best public high school in a medium-small state in the 1990s. They offered 3 AP courses (well, four, but you could either take Calc AB or BC, not both). Maybe 10 percent of the kids took all three. The world’s changed a bit.
In a couple of schools near us ( public) there are a lot of unhappy kids . How do I know this? Well, there are frequent successful suicides each year which are reported in the local paper. These schools strangely enough have a lot of kids running down the AP rabbit hole. Don’t know if there is a correlation but it seems like schools where there are tons of kids following the AP or bust path, is making kids very, very unhappy. Seems nothing is ever enough at these schools.
I’m certainly glad there were no AP’s when I attended high school. For my own kids who are very high achieving, we emphasize balance. Yes, take some AP’s in conjunction with interest. Do not make yourself crazy taking more than you can handle so you have a better college app. It doesn’t make sense if a kid takes a heavy load of courses and can’t have a social life or develop normally. Balance is the key to everything.
I only raise this issue as I don’t remember kids being as stressed as in recent years. It seems like some kids think there is a magic formula for a perfect life. IMHO, every path is perfect.
A lot of things these days causing the stress. Academic pressure certainly part of it.
My older D just graduated with 8, accepted into a top 20 uni. Didn’t feel much pressure to take APs though. Took 0 in 9th, 1 in 10th, 3 in 11th & 4 in 12th.
My Incoming 9th grader feels much more pressure 4 years later… her 8th grade teacher signed her up for AP Environmental science along with Bio honors and she decided against taking the AP in 9th grade. The HS GC thought it was too much pressure! I’m sure she will take at least 2 in 10th though, maybe 3. Because all of her peers will be :neutral: It gets harder and harder for kids. The pressure is ridiculous.
AND, our school doesn’t limit them at all. My rising 9th grader could have signed up for as many as she wanted.
My DD20 has taken the following
9th - AP Human Geo (test only self study)
10th - AP Chem, AP World History (school district only allows 2 before Jr year)
11th - AP Latin, AP Psych, AP Govt, AP Environmental Science, AP Language, AP Physics I (DE UT Austin), AP Calc AB
Scheduled to take next year:
12th - AP Physics C, AP Bio, AP Stats, AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Art History, AP Euro History
This is pretty common at her school… her younger brother will probably take most if not all of these classes… its just what academically inclined students at their school do.
Wow- I’m glad I asked the question because it is so interesting to see the range of experiences and options out there. I’m also really glad I didn’t have this on my radar before now because it would have been one more factor to focus on. He is our oldest, so there has just been a few things we didn’t know were feasible. I don’t think his high school encourages Fresh/ soph to take APs and it would take an exception to the standard curriculum. But, it isn’t impossible. I know there is one sophomore in his Calc BC class. He also wasn’t finding much joy in his English classes, so we didn’t push him to take APs in that area. Finally, he has taken Mandarin since 6th grade, but his high school doesn’t offer that for APs, and he hasn’t had time to do it by self study. Anyway- all things considered, I am happy enough with his schedule and based on the amount of time he spends on studying/ homework, I think adding more in would have been an unhappy struggle. Thanks to everyone for sharing your perspectives…really helpful.
Our school district offers 27 AP courses. Freshman can take 2- AP Bio and AP Human Geo.
My S21’s course schedule was/is:
9th grade: AP Human Geo
10th grade: AP World History
AP Psych starting this week in summer school
In 11th he’ll be taking:
AP Environmental Science
AP Lang
He opted for Dual Credit History instead of APUSH
Summer after 11th he’ll probably take AP Econ
12th grade intended schedule:
AP Lit
AP Calc AB
AP Physics
AP Euro History
So all in all he’ll graduate with around 10 AP classes, I’m fine with that. I don’t think it’s too many or too less.
All his other core classes have been PreAP (our district doesn’t have “honors” classes…only regular-PreAp-AP).
Now my incoming 9th grade twins are a little more ambitious then their big brother and will both taking AP Bio & AP Human Geo as Freshman. If they stay on that track I see them both graduating with 12+ APs.