<p>^If you want to be practical about it, Columbia doesn’t even let you use more than 5-6 APs for credit, so they’re really isn’t much value in taking 20 AP courses compared to, say, 6. Not all APs are equal in terms of difficulty, either. Taking 10 APs in things like Human Geography won’t make as much of an impact as, for example, a couple of 5s in Chem and Bio, plus 100 hours of lab research and being president of your school’s medicine society. Admissions officers are people too, and how you tell/spin your story can prove to be just as important as the raw statistics.</p>
<p>In general, quality over quantity (although if you have both, even better). I took 2 APs, and two others from my school that got into Columbia took 2 and 4 each.</p>