This may seem like a dumb question, when a parent says my kids has 9 APs or 11APs - does this just count APs that have been taken? For parents of seniors who are applying, are they including any current APs in that count?
For context, my child had 1 AP as a sophmore and 1 AP (currently) as a junior. However, his senior year will be all APs for his core classes (Math, English, foreign language, History, and Science).
I guess I’m trying to understand how rigorous his coursework is. (I understand it is considered within school context…but I can’t imagine that is always known by colleges? This is just a random normal public school)
Also, when he submits next year he will not even have semester grades for these senior year classes, let alone test scores. I assume that colleges still consider what classes are being taken senior year?
Honestly, when he was in an AP as a sophmore I was shocked. I had assumed that APs were just for Senior year as they had been back in my day. I had no idea that some schools/students take multiple APs every year!
I say my daughter has “10 APs” and what she has is 1 in 9th, and 3 each in the other years so she really has 7 scores to report but 10 courses.
When your child applies they will send the transcript with grades through end of 11th grade but current 12th grade courses in progress will be part of the application so the colleges will see your student challenging himself senior year and most schools say this is important.
Your school counselor will send a school report which details what is typical for your child’s school and that is what your child will be judged by. So if kids at your child’s school don’t start APs in 9th grade that won’t be held against your student. Every admissions session we have been to says they judge students in the context of what is offered at their school.
Some schools require a midyear report and want to see the grades of these in progress senior year courses but none of the ten schools my daughter has applied to require this.
Colleges will get your school profile which should list the AP courses offered at your child’s school and the school policy. The guidance counselor will also be asked to check a box for your child’s rigor in comparison to their peers.
At my D’s HS, the AP policy was 0 allowed for freshman, 1 for sophomores, and 3 junior and senior year. You needed special permission to take any more and the max total for all 4 years was 8. (And yes, typically parents include what their kids are taking senior year in their count).
The common app will ask about what courses your child’s registered for senior year. Many regular decision schools will also ask for midterm grades senior year.
I’m curious, does your school offer DE? Our school offers over 30 AP courses and doesn’t limit how many a student can take. They have only a couple of DE courses and there is a big push to add more. Right now, the uber competitive students are adding CC summer and evening courses on top of their already rigorous HS schedule. It is something they do on their own and is not promoted through the school.
Personally, I think it is too much. The school can’t stop what students do in their free time (ie. taking CC courses). I think, if they add more DE, students and parents will feel that they need to stack up the APs, as well as DEs. There is going to be a breaking point.
OP, to answer your question, I believe the majority of people on this site are quoting the total number of AP courses completed in grades 9-12.
There were a smattering of DE courses when my D was in HS (she graduated in ‘18). She took 2. My understanding is that the school now offers many more DE offerings than they used to.
Thankfully the school culture was not to take classes over the summer. Frankly there was enough school assigned summer work and service hours that it would have made it difficult.
Thanks for this question, OP! I’ve been wondering about the AP counts as well.
And FWIW, my D26 will have a total of 9 APs (sort of, I’m not sure how one counts the calc-based physics AP since there are two exams and she takes each section one semester each). She wasn’t allowed to take any her freshman or sophomore year. She took 4 her junior year and she’s taking 5 this year. Her school does list the number of available APs and limitations on what can be taken in the school profile.
School profile will help with context. For example, our school differs from many in not offering both honors and AP in the same subject, so it gives the average “AP and honors” courses taken per student. Unlike some others here, it does not specifically mention the school policy of not allowing either AP or honors in freshman year - though this can be inferred between the average # of these and the max weighted GPA.
The school does restrict APs to zero in 9th grade and just APUSH in tenth. In 11th, the only restrictions would be prerequisites. So for science, you have to have taken the regular or honors version of the class before the AP option - except for Physics although that requires Algebra 2 prerequisite. (And Biology is a 10th grade class, Earth Science is 9th - and given the random credits needed for gym, health, and tech, I doubt many kids double up on a science freshman or sophmore years).
They do offer DE in terms of classes taught within the HS by HS teachers who have been approved to be adjunct at a local college. I don’t think my children will be taking any - their electives are filled with music/band.
Personally, I can’t imagine being a teen and taking college level courses at night or during the summer to be or stay competitive. It’s like an arms race. Fortunately, I dont think it is that competitive in my community. (And I can tell you my kids would never consider doing that even if it were that way here)
How do you find the max weighted GPA? I don’t see on our school sheet. It is hard to figure out given the lack of limits on honors, APs, and DEs. I mean, I guess I dont need to get that far in the weeds regardless, lol, but it does make me curious!
That’s 2 so far through Junior year and 7 by the time you graduate.
Your school will give a profile. If they offer 20, some schools may hold against. Some not because they are stat based (GPA, test), etc.. It doesn’t matter. It sounds like he did what they could - 1 in 10th and the one in 11th because they met pre reqs. If they only met pre reqs for one and could have five, that will hit rigor but it doesn’t matter.
Your student did what is best for them.
They’ll have a college list built for them.
btw - that sounds like a lot of APs (maybe too many) next year. Don’t forget, they have to do college apps.
Good luck.
PS - the school may (or may not) have a weighted GPA. There won’t be a max. But note many colleges will weight differently - and they will do so themselves.
The Florida schools as an example, add .5 for Honors and 1 for AP. That seems to be most common that I see. But other states weight on a 6 and 7 point scale.
You can see if the school weights.
Your student has the profile they do - hopefully with a test and ECs. I wouldn’t dig too deep other than to ensure they are applying to the right mix of schools for them based on stats.
If you do a chance me or match me, you’d learn more.
So different schools report different things. Ours reports median uw GPA, # of students with 4.0 uw GPA, and then the highest weighted GPA (4.5, which is always the highest so I read it as same as max. And it’s almost always just one student.)
Also, the school fills in a report for the common app where they note the rigor of the student in the context of the school. If you’re aiming at top schools you want max rigor but I don’t personally think it matters too much for most schools.
Not that you asked but I think that going from one AP in 11th to 5 in 12th sounds like a lot. Lots of kids at my daughters school graduate with 8-10 but rarely is 5 taken in one year and often it is attempted by the kid who is a B+/A- student who feels left behind and that kid usually ends up with a lower GPA and it wasn’t worth it at all. Of course rigor varies at all schools even within AP.
I also think ultimately it doesn’t matter for most kids at most schools and your student should take what is the right mix for his aptitude/interest/time commitments and it will all shake out. I know it is hard not to compare or get swept up in the race but really most schools are not going to care whether your student takes 3 or 5 APs next year.
Appreciate that thought. The issue is that he is already in Honors classes and next year’s APs are the next in line for his track - eg. AP Spanish, AP Precalc (he’s not on track for Calc), AP Physics (that’s the honors class), etc. It is possible he would do something else besides AP Lit (is currently in AP Lang).
Two of my kids took honors biology and honors physics sophomore year, the HS started recommending those in honors pre calculus sophomore year take physics. My older 3 never even took physics, including my daughter who was an exercise science major in undergrad. I suspect a counselor brought up this suggestion (lots of turnover in that department, not the greatest, little guidance).
I think what parents and kids do with AP is crazy. I believe AP in senior year and applying to college is nuts. Nobody in college except super humans take 7 classes per semester and 7 exams (unless some are so called easy classes like dance or how to study in college…) As a result, many kids just do not take AP exams. There are many colleges that do not give credit for AP Statistics, AP research or AP seminar. Many schools force to retake some classes no matter what. (We had a ridiculous situation when DD had to take same Chem 3 times! She took AP Chem in Covid remote - teacher had no idea what would be on exam, and kids got 3. So DD took it again as DE in local CC. And her college forced everyone to take it again. She is Chem major now .) For public colleges DE taken not in school are great. Usually no problem for transfer especially between local CC and flagship. That is way to save money and reduce load in college! It helped tremendously all my kids. Plus DE saves sanity to kids. DE is considered as double period. In our system kids could start it only in Junior year and limit to 2 per semester. So I literally pulled out my youngest from HS classes. Kid had 8 DE plus useless AP stats (needed math every year) without exam + that AP chem in 10th retaken in CC+ 1 more art DE (exception in Covid) in 10th. I guess that made in look like 11 college classes on her transcript. I believe she took also some intro AP CS that nobody counts, and we again skipped exam - no point to bother. So 12 college classes :). No problem with rigor applying to colleges and almost perfect GPA. She was least stressed kid among her friends.
But think about it. 7 exams in short period. Will it be counted by college depends from only AP exam. Some kids are taking 2 exams per day. What are we doing to our kids? No wonder many are on depression medication by college years.
I agree - I was just commenting about how differently schools handle APs. But I hear you and its another thing to consider with regards to his schedule next year!
.) For public colleges DE taken not in school are great. Usually no problem for transfer especially between local CC and flagship. That is way to save money and reduce load in college! It helped tremendously all my kids. Plus DE saves sanity to kids. DE is considered as double period. In our system kids could start it only in Junior year and limit to 2 per semester. So I literally pulled out my youngest from HS classes. Kid had 8 DE plus useless AP stats (needed math every year) without exam + that AP chem in 10th retaken in CC+ 1 more art DE (exception in Covid) in 10th. I guess that made in look like 11 college classes on her transcript. I believe she took also some intro AP CS that nobody counts, and we again skipped exam - no point to bother. So 12 college classes :). No problem with rigor applying to colleges and almost perfect GPA. She was least stressed kid among her friends.