How many APs should you take and how much will having 10 APs rather than 7 benefit you?Answered
My school doesn't offer some of the easier APs such as AP Micro and there's a lot of competition for AP Environmental Science and AP Psych, so I'm thinking about self-studying some APs. I'm a rising sophomore and I only have one AP for the upcoming year. Are there any recommendations/tips for self-studying APs? Also, how many APs should you take in high school to get into a prestigious college (aiming for UCs/Ivies)? Last question: is self-studying an AP worth the time (like will it make a big impact)? My WGPA is 4.29 freshman year, and hopefully I can keep the straight As, so do I need it? Thank you!
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3 answers
Congrats on being a great student. And congrats to all you CV freshman, sophomore and junior who are trying your best with the same goal in mind.
Context is everything so I think it's important to note that # of APs like GPA or ECs has to do a lot with who you represent in terms of a demographic (BIPOC vs over-represented minority/White), what zip code your school is in and how much resource it has to buy APs curricula and other EC opportunities, whether you are an ALCD or not, and your overall academic narrative rating which is a combination of Grades, Course Rigor, Test Scores, and IV/IC, (intellectual vitality/curiosity).
It's the sum of your academic narrative in the context of your background/demographic/school you attend (public/charter/private day/boarding) , which informs the application reader. There is no AP or IB cutoff just as there is no GPA or Test Score cutoff. But there are bands of where admits gravitate toward so you need to pay attention to those.
The acid test for you is to interview seniors that just graduated and rising seniors and ask them what their AP # number was. I'm sure it's not that difficult to figure out who the top students are in your school so you should ask them. You might learn something about your school that is useful. Also, if your school uses Naviance, that is another way to gain some forensic knowledge about matriculation rates for your HS graduating classes over the past 5 or 6 years. There should be scatter plots of GPA vs Test Scores for each of the colleges plus the statistical data of how many people applied say to UC Berkeley, how many got in and how many matriculated. Sometimes the data is brutal. At my first HS, I looked up Naviance for Ivys and was shocked that only 1.3% of seniors matriculated into Ivies from my HS over the past 6 years. And no one from my old HS was ever admitted by Princeton or Brown in the past 6 years, not 1.
So if the acid test comes back with a range of 5-10 for Ivys/UC schools then you know you are doing quite well already. But like my previous Naviance example, it might be futile to apply to certain Ivys if they have no interest in picking anyone from your school.
My best guesstimate of how many APs to have is between 9 and 11 to be safe. Why? I think that the competition to get into Ivys is very hard given only 5% on average succeed and it's probably about 10% for UCLA and Berkeley.
One huge area that most HS applicants are neglectful of is IV/IC. Stanford, Harvard and most Elite College have some IV/IC scoring mechanism. So if you have 10 APs but Zero IV/IC you are not going to get into these schools.
IV/IC are the non-school activities like attending online college courses, getting supervised research opportunities, getting published for your articles and papers, doing professional internships, winning competitions or inventions or holding # of patents, or showing evidence that you are a life long learner, versus someone that is checking off the assumed boxes you need to check off in order to meet or exceed the threshold barrier for entry.
IV/IC trumps the amount of APs you have. APs only inform AO whether you have the aptitude to learn college level material and get predictive grades for college courses and the AP scores examine to what level you have mastered and retained that material.
IV/IC reveals what kind of student you are and whether you have the self motivation to acquire knowledge and challenge your limits outside of the school environment and take risks.
Good luck.
Colleges will look at the number of APs you took in comparison to how many your school offers, so they aren't looking for a set number per se and will know if you're doing the best you can at your particular school. However, self-studying shows initiative. I found self-studying micro pretty easy, especially if you have some econ background. AP daily videos and a review book (depending on the course) are really all you need to be successful. It's important to do a lot of practice (which you can get online or in review books). I wouldn't do it if you're just taking APs for the sake of APs, but if you're looking for credit, it's related to your field of study, or you're interested in the subject go for it!
I think you definitely threw out a lot of information with your questions. I'll do my best to unpack it.
Starting off with self-studying APs: I'm not too familiar with those, but if you want to self-study, read through the APES Barron's book and do the practice FRQs and MCQs and you should be fine on that test. However, seeing that you want to aim for a prestigious school, this is risky because some schools only accept 5's on the APES test and others don't accept it at all. It would be better to just take the class instead, but if you really want to self-study I think that is your best option.
In general for self-studying for APs, I would suggest getting really familiar with the question types. AP is AP, not necessarily what is the most important to the curriculum and they may go about things differently than a traditional classroom would, so be sure to do as many practice problems as you can to familiarize yourself with their test style. Also, leave plenty of time in advance to study for APs. My rule of thumb is to spend spring break studying hard and just ramp it up from there. But, since you're self studying, you might have to start even earlier (cranking it up a notch in winter break).
In terms of how many APs you should take to get into a prestigious college, the honest answer is that it depends. I've seen many admissions officers weigh in on this subject. If your school has a ton of AP classes (Which your school seems to have), then it would benefit you to take as many of them as possible. So, if you can take the 10 over the 7 and still have the time to include extracurriculars and good sleep, it would greatly improve the strength of your profile.
On your weighted GPA, that's really good for freshman year. Because you have already set the bar so high, improving next year will be a great challenge. That's why I think you should take enough APs to get your maximum WGPA to around 4.4 or more. This shows to colleges that you're progressively challenging yourself more as you advance through high school. So, if I were you, if I haven't signed up for APES and AP Psych already (and you can email the counselor to change your schedule), switch to those ASAP. Just keep in mind to also maintain a good balance between your school life, your extracurriculars, and your home life, and you should be on the right track. Good luck!
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If my school has 25, would 7 be fine for schools like BostonU, RPI, and NYU because like not everyone including me started caring about AP classes until its almost too late? I have only taken 1 AP and 1 DE class with 4.3 wgpa. And next year, I will have 6 AP classes which I can handle.