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I remember a UNC admissions officer visited my school and told us this, "If your school offers 3 AP courses and you take all 3, you are in a good position because you are taking full advantage of what your school offers." And UNC especially loves this type of student.

He continued, "You would be better off than a student at a large public school that offers 10 APs and that student took 4 APs."

I was surprised, so small schools have somewhat of an advantage in admissions. I then asked him about taking over the amount of APs, I told him I took 7 APs when my schools only offers 3. He told me that I would look very promising to colleges since in almost every application they ask about how many APs the respective school offers and asks how many the student has taken and the strength of the student's curriculum compare to the rest of his peers.

I'm asking, how much value does taking over the amount of APs have for college admissions?

By Me1 (Me1) on Saturday, May 31, 2003 - 12:23 pm: Edit

I'm sure that would look great.

I have a ? about something else you said. I am in a public school that offers a lot of APs, but it is impossible to take every AP offered. A lot of them are only offered one period, and some are offered at conflicting times. For example, AP Government & honors Latin 3 (required before taking AP Latin) were offered during AP Chemistry's lab period (lab period is required for the course), so I was therefore unable to take those classes this year. To take AP Computer Science, you have to have taken intro. to computers, a non-honors course, which would have interfered w/other AP/honors classes I was taking. I cannot take AP Art b/c (besides that I'm not good @ art lol) it's a 4th year art class. If I had taken the 3 previous years of Art, I would not have been able to take other AP/honors classes. Also, next year if I take AP Gov. (since I was unable to this year) I will be unable to take college-credit Humanities from a nearby university & if I take AP Bio. I will be unable to take college-credit Physics. Since these courses have to be taken in 11th & 12th grades, it is really impossible to fit a schedule w/all of them. I am taking band last period, b/c there are no APs offered that period, so I do not want it to seem like I'm taking an elective over an AP course (my school would never offer an AP @ the same time as band cos band is a HUGE deal here & like half the school is in it). I will have taken probably 9 APs/college credits by the time I graduate, but due to the times classes are offered & number of periods in a day, it is impossible to take every AP course offered, so will I be penalized.

By ~the_Chosen~ (~the_Chosen~) on Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 01:00 am: Edit

I don't know about your situation. But as for AP Art and the prerequisites, my school "requires" that I take Physics before sticking my head into AP Physics.

So I received a recommendation from my teacher to skip physics and dive right into AP Physics. I received an A in that class and a 4 on the exam.

I guest you should try to "excel" as much as possible, I'm not sure if you can do that at your big school--other students will get jealous. Students at my school got jealous and tried to do what I did and they dropped out of AP Physics in the first two weeks because it's for science-minded students. And it's a distance learning course, so you receive no kind of direct instruction--it's all you. Even students that have taken physics drop out of that course. Worldwide, the course starts off with about 70 students and half of those students drop out when the next semester comes around.

You need to somehow prove to your school that you can handle it and they will let you excel.

By Piku714 (Piku714) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 12:10 am: Edit

I had a somewhat similar situation. My school has block scheduling with AP courses being offered as long 98 minute blocks during the first semester and as short 45 minute blocks during the second semester. That allows students to take only 2-3 AP courses per year. I took 2 official "AP" courses each junior and senior year. Some of my other classes were designated as "honors" due to time constraints even though there was AP preparation. I took a couple of APs and filled the rest of my schedule with honors courses. My lack of APs didn't hurt me (my school offers many more APs than I took) - I was accepted at Yale and MIT.

By Goneinfivemin (Goneinfivemin) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 12:32 pm: Edit

I'm in a strange...but slightly related situation. My school doesn't offer AP's. I had the opportunity to take a few independently online...but I decided not to, and here's why. If the college sees that I've taken 1 AP class (I HATE independent online classes so 1 is all i could handle per year), they would see that I have the opportunity to take a few APs. Therefore I am better off taking courses at the local state university instead. I get interaction w/ acutal ppl, and colleges don't have to know that I could have taken a couple of APs.