How many AP classes should I take in a single year?

Answered

The most important things about enrolling in APs are the following.

1. Have a previous track record of getting A's in regular, honors and accelerated course work.

2. Prior to taking APs, can you affirm that you have successfully challenged yourself with the most rigorous coursework in your grade offered to you.

3. Make sure you have the bandwidth to spend extra hours each day to complete the homework, papers and labs which all emulate college course work.

If you are such a student, then you should be able to handle AP workloads and get good grades and AP Test Scores.

If you are not such a student, then I would only try taking 1 or 2 and seeing how well you do in them.

There is an ongoing debate on whether a non-perfect A student should load their schedules up with APs in order to keep up with the best students in the school. I personally lean towards signing up for as many APs as you can as long as you can handle the work load and get As in them. Personally I see no point of taking 4-5 APs if you are not confident about getting As in the class or scoring 4s and 5s on the AP exam.

The flip side of the debate is that everyone should always challenge themselves with the most rigorous coursework and if the get Bs in the APs, no big deal because it proves you tried to challenge yourself.

In this hyper-competitive environment, I think you have thread the needle carefully and not take too many APs to jeopardize your UWGPA, but not to little so it doesn't look like you were gaming the system to keep a perfect 4.0 GPA. So while I know there are students that have amassed 15+ APs and on the opposite side of the coin, there are students that have ZERO APs, these are not sweet spots for admissions officers. If someone had say 15-18 APs, then something had to give like the quality of their ECs, their community service, their leadership, their athletics, "spike" or "wow" factor.

I had 11 APs, got all As and mostly 4s/5s on the exams. I also had 30 college credits, all As as well. I think depending on how many your school offers, you might be fine with zero if your schools offers zero, but make sure you show evidence of intellectual vitality outside of the classroom. And if your school offers 20, you do not have to take 15-18 of them. I think the sweet spot for most successful admits that get into TOP25 schools is between 7 and 11 total!

The last big point is that during senior year, you want to make sure your mid year report card looks very good. So you don't want to take 5 APS and struggle while you are writing your college essays, filling out your college applications, doing Senior things, honing your ECs and community service, leadership, or re-taking your SAT or ACT test to improve the test score. Senior year is a very busy time.

Hope that helps frame the problem for you enough to make your own informed decision.