<p>Well i’m an upcoming sophomore and I’ve been wondering how to beef up my academics for college. I am pretty diverse as far as extra-curriculars (debate, XC, Weightroom, Track, Fencing, Soccer, Peer Leadership, Class President etc…) and I have to say that i’m starting to refine my list of extra currciulars (grew to 13 in 8th grade excluding sports) down to really the stuff that I enjoy doing including deciding not to run for re-election (the pressure of another popularity contest just wasn’t flavorful for me at the time). I’ve been trying to increase my academics to improve my resume but also to kind of show that there is more to me than just some social kid so here is how I have been doing (you can skip it and keep reading down):</p>
<p>Freshman Year:</p>
<p>English I (H)
Algebra II (H)
Geometry (CP)
Biology (H)
World History (H)
Spanish II (CP)
AP Calculus BC - 5</p>
<p>(Summer)</p>
<p>United States History 1 (CP)
Chemistry (H)</p>
<p>Sophomore Year:</p>
<p>AP US History
AP Statistics
AP Government and Politics
AP Biology
English II (H)
Spanish III (CP)
Begin Majoring in Mathematics at a local University</p>
<p>Comfortable AP Tests to Take:</p>
<p>Computer Science A
Macroeconomics, Microeconomics
Chemistry
Physics C (this is and Chem are like bread and butter b/c i already did tutoring in both)
Human Geography</p>
<p>Basically, at the rate at which I am going I am wondering whether I should push myself to take summer courses and try to finish every AP Course. There are a total of 31 Courses out of which I am confident that I could take a course and get a 4 or a 5 easily for 25. That leaves 6 courses that really have a serious learning curve to them. What’s your take? Should I push it and go for it or keep it down to what I have? Taking any suggestions or ideas or criticisms or limmericks, haikus, poetry… you get the drift</p>
<p>Basically I’m feeling that I can push for roughly 8 - 10 tests per year which all in all adds up to the number of tests needed to finish every AP Test by senior year</p>
<p>Oh my…poor kid. Develop an ec instead…honestly most “smart” kids could self study all these if they wanted to…why don’t they? Oh right they have lives. Will this give you a leg up in admissions? I doubt it. Instead you’ll look like a huge ivy horror.</p>
<p>Okay let me rephrase. Doing every AP would be stellar, totally legit to do if you manage 4 up on all. BUT! don’t think this alone will be your “hook.” you will still need to develop an ec and all that. Peace.</p>
<p>You really can’t take every single AP test offered.</p>
<p>Why? Only around 20 of the tests are in academic subjects. The rest are either art portfolios or languages, and it is impossible to learn 10 languages to a competent level over the course of high school.</p>
<p>Doing ~20 APs on the other hand is entirely reasonable, and actually pretty fun.</p>
<p>I only take ap classes that seem interesting! Lol…id never be able to fit them into my schedule b/t required classes and the prerequistes…also sum classes id fail…like the AP Studio Arts…</p>
<p>After I thought about it, getting 5s on all 31 exams would be a really cool feat. Sure, it sounds dweebish, but wouldn’t that be a nice story to have? That’s much more interesting than what most high schoolers have to say for themselves.</p>
<p>Winning a major math/science/English/history/language/music competition would be much cooler, IMO. Stuff like International Math/Physics/Chemistry/Biology Olympiad, Intel ISEF, etc.</p>
<p>Most colleges have a cap on how many AP courses they’re willing to recognize credit for so taking that many tests could eventually just be wasting time and money (AP tests cost $86 each). Check out the colleges you want to apply to and their policies on AP’s before you take that many.</p>