<p>So I want to get to top-tier colleges(preferably UPenn) and so I am trying as hard as I can. But as the saying goes “work smarter not harder” and so I wonder should I spent more time doing community services and internship or should I take a lot of AP classes on top of my Pre-IB(and soon to be IB) schedule ? I already planned to take 5 AP classes with my sophmore schedule but I am scare Junior and Senior year, I will not be able to handle both AP and IB classes. </p>
<p>Do what you can handle and as much of it as you want to the extent that you think is appropriate.</p>
<p>It largely depends on the rigor of your AP classes. For us, our AP Euro class in sophomore year was alone easily more rigorous than the four AP classes I took in junior year. Take as many as you can handle while spending the rest of your effort on what you want to do. Find the proper balance. You don’t HAVE to do community service or internships, but you should do what you think will enrich your high school experience.</p>
<p>just a small tip for balancing academics with community service, maybe you could volunteer a lot but only in the summer? volunteer, work, intern and all that.</p>
<p>the advantage of this is that you can rack up a lot of hours by working even just a few hours a day for the ~10 weeks of summer, and you’ll be able to write on college apps that you held down a consistent position. plus, your supervisors would get to know you well enough to write really thorough letters of rec. a lot of college apps have you list ec’s by just saying what you did, how many hours a week, and how many weeks a year, so it looks better if you did a ton of hours at a couple of things every summer than a scattered bunch of little volunteer opps on weekends throughout the school year. also, it’s easier to keep track of something you do consistently than all those odds and ends.</p>
<p>this also means you can focus on your intense schedule during the school year without stressing over ec’s. if you can manage to be an active member of a few clubs throughout high school, and maybe be an officer, that should put you on a good track, as long as you don’t stretch yourself too thin! if you have to let something go, probably make it the ec’s.</p>