Would this courseload allow me to gain a reasonable amount of college credit for my dream schools? Will I have an easy time getting into their political science program?

That is a lot of AP classes. I think that having a moderate number of APs and very good grades will get you into many of the schools on your list.

One daughter did get accepted to Northeastern with fewer APs that you are planning to take (roughly half), but with very good grades. It would have been full pay for us which was not affordable. Some of the APs that she did take were a lot of work. Taking more might have made it tougher to get nearly all A’s.

Our other daughter self-studied for AP Spanish. It was quite difficult finding anywhere that would let her take the AP exam. Eventually we were able to find somewhere and she did well on it.

I am not sure whether “Boston” means Boston University or Boston College, although I doubt that the answer will matter in terms of whether you are taking too many or the right number of AP classes.

Either you are out of state for UMD, or you are out of state for UCLA and UCB, or you are out of state for all of the above. Whether you are in-state or out of state will impact your chances at these schools and the cost of attendance.

If you are planning on studying political science, then you are probably going to need some form of graduate school. Either law school or a master’s program (or an MD, although that seems less likely after a poli sci degree) would cost money. Therefore you should be budgeting for more than four years of university. I agree with the comment that you should not take on any debt at all to get a bachelor’s degree in political science.

I think that you should take fewer APs, and focus on the classes that you are most interested in. Be aware that some of the APs that you have listed involved a great deal of reading. It would be tough to take two of these at the same time.

1 Like