<p>I know it all depends on how well I do on the course, but let’s say I do do well, are 9 AP classes good?
Sophomore year: AP World History (I got a 2…no one in my grade got a 5, 20 people got 4s, and the rest got either a 3, 2, or 1…we had a very bad teacher)</p>
<p>Junior Year: AP English, AP Spanish, AP US History, AP Cambridge</p>
<p>Senior Year: AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lit, AP Gov/Econ, AP Calc AB</p>
<p>My school is one of the top schools in America, and it’s the number one high school in the state.
I’m interested in Northwestern, USC, Boston University, Pepperdine University, and a couple of others.</p>
<p>Also, I’m aware AP classes are only a tiny portion of my college application, but I just want to gauge my chances. Thank you!</p>
<p>Oh, is my hair blond enough??? Are my breasts big enough?? Seriously, that is how silly your question is. Got it? You know the answer…and if you don’t , look it up on their common data set.</p>
<p>Schools guage how many ap classes you take based on your school offering. They just want you GC to check off the most rigorous box. There may be another kid whose school only offers 3 ap classes, and they may get in instead of you due to other factors. It is not the number but the course load for your school.</p>
<p>Wow. How rude can people get…this is definitely a legitimate question. </p>
<p>If you’re coming from a top high school, which probably offers a significant number of AP classes, then these schools, which are top schools, will expect you to have taken a majority of them. </p>
<p>I would think 9 is good enough for any school, depending on which classes and how well you do in them. </p>
<p>By the way, AP scores don’t have much of an impact on actual admissions (if any impact at all) because they’re used primarily for placement and credit purposes. </p>
<p>All that matters is that you took the most difficult schedule available to you. Like if my school had 2 AP classes and I took both of them and the rest of my classes were honors, that looks better than the person who took 3 AP classes when they had 100 offered to them.</p>
<p>I wasntg rude, and I said the same thin gtownhopeful just did. I don’t know why all youj kids need us to sugarcoat things? I never did with my kid…she got into a tippy top school and is now in medschool. I think “us” parents know a bit more than your _eers that haven’t even applied to schools themselves. Do you want the truth, or are you a special snowflake that needs their ego stroked?</p>
<p>Sorry for typos, us old people can’t see well.</p>
<p>When I visited USC, they told me that accepted students had taken, on average, 7-8 AP exams, so you’re probably on the right track. I would assume that Northwestern expects similar course rigor. Nevertheless, since you are attending one of the top schools in the country, it wouldn’t hurt to take a couple more AP classes. As others have said, colleges view applicants in the context of their schools, so you are expected to take more than the average kid. BTW, this course rigor is almost definitely enough for BU and Pepperdine.</p>
<p>@GA2012MOM: I’m sorry if this offends you, but I believe @crystal19 was right in her assessment of your post. Phrases like “Are my breasts big enough??” are unnecessarily sarcastic. Instead of insulting the OP for his question, it would have been much kinder to answer it outright. Furthermore, the OP’s question was perfectly legitimate. As a relatively new CC member, @chillspot615 has likely not heard that colleges evaluate applicants in the context of their schools. Are you having a bad day or something?</p>
<p>Also, can you please show me where this information can be found on the Common Data set? I spent a while looking for it, but I could not find it.</p>
<p>@DiscipulusBonus I think she felt it was fine because this question is all over the place and the general consensus is always the same. </p>
<p>Nine is enough that they won’t reject you for lack of course rigor, but that certainly isn’t the only thing they consider.</p>
<p>I have no idea if this is the case for Northwestern, but the recruiter from Stanford who spoke at an event I attended said that they prefer for students to take a diverse range of challenging classes and not just select AP classes because they think the AP title seems more impressive. She said it was good to take a few AP classes, especially in your academic core subjects, if they were the best of what your school offered in those disciplines, but that your transcript stands out more at top colleges if you haven’t just taken all the same AP classes as the majority of other applicants. On the academic preparation page there is a statement that is basically what she paraphrased when she talked to us. I wish I had read that info before killing myself with APs junior year actually, haha. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>Anyway, yeah it looks like you’ve taken a good range of AP classes. I would look on the sites for Northwesten and other schools you’re interested in and see if they state anything about AP classes. I think it’s also helpful to look up the college’s AP credit chart to give you an idea as to how much value they give to the AP classes. Good luck!</p>
<p>Amazing the sarcasm some people respond with. Kind of hard to gauge – Sounds good but there may be thousands of others just like you apply to Northwestern. Need something that maybe sets you apart from the pack…Best of luck but don’t put all your eggs in one basket and LOVE your safeties… My Child had 8 AP course (chem, bio, comp sci etc), got all fives on AP exams and didn’t get into his top 2 choices. Not so bad though as got 25K a year merit to # 3 school so we are thrilled…!!! Don’t let the naysayers get you down :)</p>
<p>You can get a lot of data from the College Board website on this. I haven’t looked at it really recently, so I may be off a small bit, but fewer than 3.5% of students take more than 6 APs. That’s roughly 240,000 kids, and most of them are in high participation states like MD, CT, etc.</p>
<p>Then, there are the IB kids - a much smaller subset. About half of all kids fail each test. </p>
<p>Sometimes, when you read the stats in CC, you get overwhelmed. If you’re taking 8 or 9 APs, you’re probably in the top 1%, but so are 70, 000 other students. It’s all overwhelming.</p>