I’m going into my senior year and I have 5 AP classes under my belt. I took AP World History in my sophomore year, earning an A in the class and a 4 on the exam.
During my junior year I took 4 AP classes
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AP Environmental Science
AP English Lang & Comp
AP Capstone
AP US History
I haven’t gotten the results from those tests seeing as they’ll be released in about a week but I think I did pretty well on all of them.
In my senior year I plan to take 5 AP classes, save for my yearbook class.
So… Will colleges look at my course rigor and my exam scores?
Just how impressive does my schedule look like to colleges?
I ask this because I thought taking 3+ AP classes was average but when I asked around with my peers I found out that most of them only have taken 1 or 2 in the entirety of their high school career.
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AP test scores matter little to not at all in college admission decisions but taking a rigorous HS schedule will definitely help your chances. It will depend upon how many AP classes are offered at your HS and how many the top students take. If your school only offers 4 and you take all 4 then you are in a good position. If your school offers 20 and you only take 4 then it can hurt your chances.
No magic number when it comes to taking AP classes. Take enough to show a challenging curriculum but make sure you also do well in these classes i.e A’s…
also, some schools will give you credit on your AP courses if you score well on them, in some cases allowing you to shorten your undergrad time by as much as one year.
Many schools give credit for high enough AP scores, and @Gumbymom, I wouldn’t be so certain about that remark about AP scores not mattering. Somehow, that has become accepted wisdom on CC, but that is not actually something adcoms on CC say.
@PurpleTitan: I agree that the CC does perpetuate the idea that AP scores do not matter in admission decisions, but since some applicants to do not have access to AP classes/exams, that “wisdom” is that your admission should not dependent upon getting high scores. Doing well in the classes is far more important than getting 4 and 5’s but when it comes to elite schools, presenting an overall competitive application including good AP scores is desirable.
AP scores do not matter in applications as they are not reported until you are accepted. The number of AP’s as well as your grades in the class are important. Just remember it is better to get an A in an honors class than a C in an AP. Take the highest level class you are capable of completing successfully. And yes, factor in how many AP courses your school offers…
@KKroro: Some kids take tests before senior year so already have AP scores by application time.
@Gumbymom: “Doing well in the classes is far more important than getting 4 and 5’s but when it comes to elite schools, presenting an overall competitive application including good AP scores is desirable.”
I agree with the second part but would not be confident about your first assertion. Grading policy may differ a lot by school/class, while AP scores are a nation-wide standard.
And yes, adcoms certainly wouldn’t judge kids who do not have access to AP classes on their AP scores, but I would not say that AP scores do not matter if you do take the tests.
Intuitively, this makes sense. A kid who takes 10 AP classes and gets A’s in all of them but gets mostly 2’s and 3’s on AP tests just isn’t more impressive than a kid who takes 5-6 AP classes, maybe doesn’t get an A in every one, but scores 5’s on all of them.
Never say never. The answer is AP scores matter very much to some colleges (the more competitive) and probably not a bit to others. If your school doesn’t offer AP (many do not,) you can’t take them. But rigor still matters to any competitive college.
As for loading up on AP, there are adcoms on record who basically say, winning is not about who takes the most. It’s more about choosing wisely.
OP, is this about UCs and Cal States or others, as well?
AP scores can matter in some cases to fulfill base admission requirements in lieu of high school course work. For example, a college may require high school applicants to have some number of years of foreign language course work, but allow a high enough AP score in a foreign language test to fulfill that requirement.
Not all AP courses and tests are necessarily considered equal in rigor. For example, calculus BC > calculus AB > statistics in the view of many. Skipping physics or foreign language level 3 or 4 to add AP human geography may not look all that good either.
It depends very much on what colleges you apply to. The very selective colleges will expect that you take the most rigorous classes at your high school and make A’s in them. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think most colleges require you to submit AP scores until you are admitted (my daughter applied to several highly ranked schools and none of them had a place on the common app for AP test scores - if she was supposed to report her scores in her applications, she never saw any documentation of that and she was never asked to provide them - so I’m not familiar how AP test scores would factor into the admissions process). AP scores of 4’s-5’s will be used to give you credit for general ed classes or electives and/or be used to allow you to begin your subject classes at a more advanced level. Less selective colleges will admit students with less rigorous course curriculums and some will even give credit for AP scores of 3 (not many, but there are a few). So again, it all depends what you are aiming for.
That being said, your course schedule looks very rigorous with 10 AP classes (I’m assuming you made good grades in the 4 you took this year?). The only thing I notice is that you don’t have any AP classes in math or science except for APES. That might be problematic if you plan to major in a STEM or other field requiring some advanced capabilities in math or science.