<p>Actually, that’s not true. Colleges, especially top ones, are picking their candidates based on extra-curricular achievements, essays, and recommendations. Because colleges have SAT/ACT and SAT Subject Tests, they have enough standardized tests information and they don’t really care for more. They want to see the other, more qualitative, aspects of your high school career, beyond grades and tests. </p>
<p>Colleges almost always try to consider APs in the context of your school. So. if your school offers no AP classes, you are not penalized for not taking any. If your school offers 5 AP classes, you should probably plan on doing almost all of them. But if your school offers 20, you’re probably best off taking 10-12 of them (i.e. ~1/2) and pursuing extra-curriculars than taking 20 and being a slave to your curriculum.</p>
<p>Basically, I think the following is the best advice: Would taking X number of AP classes/tests be so time consuming that you would not be able to pursue a strong quality of extra-curricular activities? If so, take less, because the extra-curriculars are more worthwhile.</p>
<p>@TheRealFake, isn’t State Scholar only given to seniors? If so, they’ve already been admitted to college and the State Scholar award is useless unless there is a scholarship attached.</p>