<p>So, my school is dumb and has a three AP limit. I have been trying my darndest to break that rule, and it’s coming along, but slowly. When creating my schedule for next year, I had to adhere to my school’s policy. Here is what I have:</p>
<p>Social Justice/Bioethics (required religion course)
Spanish V H1 (H1 is the highest level offered)
AP English Literature
AP Statistics (I took AP Calc AB this year, and AP stats is the only math class left)
AP Biology (took AP Physics B this year)
Psychology H1</p>
<p>So, now my question. If I can surpass the three AP limit (new Head of Academic Affairs next year so fingers crossed!), then I will be taking AP Spanish. The AP teacher gave me all the materials and is treating me as though I am going to be in AP next year. However, if this limit break falls through, I will have a decision to make.</p>
<p>This year I took the AP English Language exam w/o taking the course, and I obviously don’t know what I got. If I got a 4/5 (which is definitely possible), should I bypass AP Lit and do AP Spanish? The problem with this is the AP English Lit teacher and I are close and he would be offended if I dropped the class. DILEMMA. ADVICE?</p>
<p>check what the colleges you’re applying to have to say about AP Scores. Sometimes their policies are really strict and say AP Spanish language doesn’t count but AP Lit counts, only 5’s count, you only get credit for AP Eng Lang OR Lit or whatever. So take whichever AP would be more beneficial to you in the long run or take whichever class you would enjoy more. Even if it doesn’t count, you might not need to take Spanish in college again if your college major doesn’t require it of you so both classes’ exams would be useless anyway.</p>
<p>Wow, that is a really sticky situation. I honestly don’t know what I would do in that situation, so I really feel for you. I hope that the 3AP limit is removed. But to be honest with you, I would really want to take English Lit but I would think that taking AP Spanish would look better for colleges.</p>
<p>Well, if you " dream of Ivy" then at the very least you should take some sort of core English language class in your Sr year, regardless of how you do on the aP test. Taking 4 years of English is more important to elite College admissions officers than taking 4 years of a Foreign language[ though doing both, if you can handle all those AP classes with ease is the best option]
As an example, take a look at what Stanford recommends .it’s located under C5
[Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2008-2009](<a href=“Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications”>Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications)</p>
<p>If you have to stick with the 3 AP limit, and are relatively good in English already (i.e. mid 600’s or higher on SAT), you can easily take the AP English Lit exam without taking the class. (at our h.s., they pay for the exams for the classes you take; we had to pay for the extra exam). </p>
<p>D2 took honors English this past year, and AP results are yet to be seen, but I can’t imagine that she’ll get less than a 4 on the exam. She kept track of the books that her AP Lit friends were taking, and had the details of 2 or 3 of a couple of “major works” that she could use as examples in her essay. She didn’t take AP English Lang class her jr. year and got a ‘5’ on the exam, with a self-admitted 30 minutes of study immediately (like, sitting in the hallway outside the door) before taking the exam.</p>
<p>You’ll get much more out of the AP Spanish class, especially if it’s a good teacher.</p>
<p>Alright, I just wanted to say thanks! And also, the three AP limit has been broken, but thank God because I got a 5 on the AP English Language exam so that would’ve been a tough choice.
To menloparkmom, I was always going to take an English course, it just would have been H1 level. Sorry, I should have specified.
To astrophysicsmom, congrats to your daughter! I did a similar thing this year, no course and no studying lol, but a 5 nonetheless. I would’ve done the same next year.</p>
<p>If you set college credit aside and think life, which will ultimately be of more benefit? A rigorous year of Spanish with 99% of the material forgotten by the time you’re 25, or AP Lit and a wonderful chance to broaden your English. Unless you’re going into cultural studies or Spanish itself, take AP Lit regardless.</p>
<p>dreams,
Congratulations on breaking the AP log jam. Remember that 4 AP’s is going to require a lot of work and time, as is the job of applying to colleges during your first semester. A word of advise- if at all possible, get as much of the application busy work[filing out basic info- name, stats, EC’s, grades, AP scores etc,] on the online college applications done before school starts, or as soon as possible. All of that data entry can take a ridiculous amount of time, especially if you are applying to colleges that don’t take the common app, but it must be done correctly, and the last thing you are going to want to do in the middle of Oct with homework, EC’s, etc is do a bunch of mindless secretarial busywork.
Plot out on a spreadsheet the colleges you are applying to on the vertical axis, then fill in the # of supplemental essays each college requires, due dates, and boxes for the different forms that the college require- # of teacher recs, due dates, etc. In other words, plot out EVERYTHING that the colleges need to have, and when they need to have it, in order for your applications to be complete, and ready for review. There WILL be blips in the road, forms or recs that get lost or aren’t sent in, and you will be the one responsible for getting it fixed. [ I admit to helping my son by doing some of the basic secretarial, mind numbing tasks, so you may want to ask a parent if that can help too]</p>