<p>Okay, look. Almost half of your AP classes–Psych, CS, the Govs–are throwaway APs: they only test your ability to memorize material that is frankly, not very complex or difficult. Even if you study and cram and get nice shiny fives on all of them, what does that accomplish?</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what it doesn’t accomplish:
- It doesn’t make you a better student.
- It doesn’t show admissions officers that you have the qualities which are most vital to being a successful student at a top school. (I refer you to phuriku’s comments on horizontal v. vertical learning.)
- It doesn’t make you more interesting or compelling.
- It doesn’t make you sound more accomplished. (Accumulating high test scores is a very shallow form of accomplishment.)
- It doesn’t give admissions officers a good idea of what you will do at school besides study–how will you contribute to campus life?
- It doesn’t make you more likely to, or sound more likely to, become someone who will enhance the University by becoming rich or famous and/or doing Awesome Things.</p>
<p>In other words, it doesn’t help you become a better applicant, student, or person, not in any significant way. It just makes you look like someone who thinks AP exams are the apex of all human accomplishment. So why are you doing it?</p>
<p>Go outside. Build low-income housing, volunteer at soup kitchens, start a hacky sack club, design websites, write an article for the school paper, tutor neighborhood kids, work at McDonald’s, intern at a lab, put on a play, build a robot. Do something meaningful with your time and your life.</p>