Just realize that choosing not to take those harder APs will likely affect your chances at the most highly selective schools, as others potentially many others at your school will have at least one of them, AP Calc or AP Chem, potentially both on their transcript. At Duke, Cornell and the like it will matter. However, you could go for them and still not get in, so pick what is best for your sanity, just understand the ramifications of the choice. The vast majority of kids on Duke’s campus (and Cornell’s i am sure too) thrive on intellectual challenge and it invigorates them. For the ones who had hard courses available to them in HS, they took them. That may or may not sound like a group of peers that will “fit” you, but it is important to understand.
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