Do I have a chance of getting into Northwestern or Yale? Also seeking other college suggestions

If you ramp up rigor in 11th grade, and apply to colleges in the fall of that year, they will see a transcript that looks like this:

9th grade: Regular high school classes
10th grade: Regular high school classes
11th grade (IN PROGRESS): Big increase in number of classes and rigor, including a large number of AP classes, but no grades yet, and no AP exam scores

Until they actually see your grades for that final year of HS, colleges would have a reason to be concerned that you might not be able to handle the big jump in rigor. Just being enrolled in a bunch of APs doesn’t necessarily reassure colleges that you can handle these classes.

I think it would be much more reassuring for colleges to see a transcript like this:

9th grade: Regular high school classes
10th grade: Regular high school classes
11th grade: Increase in rigor with AP classes; good grades and good AP exam scores showing that you can handle this increase in rigor
12th grade (IN PROGRESS): Same or increase in rigor compared to 11th grade

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