The Super Senior Schedule-Does it really help?

Applying to College
1

<p>I have heard mixed opinions on the issue an want to hear your opinions. I go to a very competitive public school and the standard for an above average senior is 4-6 A.P.'s. Now for the kids in the upper tier like me (95 GPA or better), everyone seems to be taking 7-8 A.P.'s. </p>

<p>Should I take this courseload? Does it substantially help for top 30 schools? If not which of the following should I drop?</p>

<p>A.P. Comparative Gov
A.P. U.S. Gov
A.P. Macro
A.P. Micro
A.P. Physics C
A.P. Calc AB
A.P. Comp Sci
A.P. Lit
College Spanish</p>

2

<p>Pick one ap gov course, then drop ap macro and ap micro. You’re covered for the most important APs (Lit, calc, physics). Have you already taken AP chem and/or AP bio?</p>

3

<p>No, my school doesn’t offer A.P. chem and bio till senior year. But I have taken chem and bio honors.</p>

<p>My question though is taking a super senior schedule really beneficial for the college admissions process?</p>

4

<p>If class rank is based on weighted GPA, then you’ll need to load up as many APs as the other seniors to keep near the very top. It of course depends on where you apply to, but dropping from, say, #2 to #7 in your mid-year report could damage your acceptance odds.</p>

5

<p>Load up on APs. Colleges will see your senior schedule when you first submit the application, so it will look better. They won’t see your grades till the MYR, and as long as you aren’t doing significantly worse, it probably will not hurt your application.</p>

6

<p>I don’t necessarily think you need to overkill with that heavy of a courseload to get into a top 30 school, or even a HYPS school. I think first of all you want to challenge yourself reasonably. I took 4 APs this year (AP Euro, AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Chem) and honestly, it was a little too much. I had taken 3 the year before (AP Language, AP Spanish, AP US History) and that was do-able. But the problem with my schedule this year was that I spread myself out too thin. While I was completely capable of getting A’s in Lit, Euro, and Spanish, Chem was particularly hard, and the extra effort having to put into it made me spread myself too thin. As a result, my grades this last semester were a mix of A-'s and B+'s; not bad, but I would rather have taken an easier science and gotten all A’s.</p>

<p>So essentially what I’m saying is try to balance rigor with ability. If you’re fully capable of maintaining your high GPA with that many AP classes, I guess you’ve got nothing to lose. But I’m not sure your application will gain much, either. I think even just 4 APs would get you into a Top 30 school.</p>

<p>It also depends on what you plan on doing. If you already know what you wanna do (ie, engineering?), try to take the APs related to that goal; it will make your application look more focused and edgier, because of this added weight to your goal. Also, like ivybound012, I think it’s a good idea to only take one AP Econ and one AP Gov. If you take both it really looks like you’re taking the classes for the sake of more AP’s, not because you may truly be passionate about the subject (which is what admissions officers would rather see).</p>

<p>Just remember, nothing is really a guarantee. Two people in the top 1% of my class at a competitve public high school both applied to Stanford SCEA. The one who got rejected was taking 7 AP’s; the one who got in, only 3. Nothing is predictable.</p>

7

<p>Will AB over BC hurt chances?</p>