Regardless whether a hs offers 30, the most important (for a tippy top) are still the cores: lab sci and math, history, English, and FL, (if it can be fit in.) It does depend on the major, but that’s the real arms race, owing to the competition. Kids aiming high, pushing themselves, should get those in before the fluffier.
Nope, not all hs offer AP or IB or more than a few AP, many don’t offer AP physics, eg. Those kids still get into TTs. They show strengths in other ways.
“How common is it to get into a highly selective college these days with at most a few (fewer than 5) AP, IB, AICE, college, etc.”
Well, not uncommon. We should know it’s quality over quantity. It’s been said time and time again. An issue is kids think it’s quantity and load up on the non-cores, often it doesn’t make sense. Eg, wanting STEM, loading in micro/macro, psych and ES, but missing AP chem and physics, for no good reason.
I’d like to see the mega quantities of APs go away. They aren’t college courses.
DE is fine. If it’s a non-starter, it’s when the kids do random courses in place of cores. Many, many math kids are using the DE opp to get ahead in math. Some kids with all the prep already in place use DE to test different interests in engineering. Nothing wrong with that.