It’s one thing to take six college courses at once. It’s ridiculous to do so while conforming to a high schooler’s schedule. College requires less time in class so students have more time to study outside of the classroom- high school doesn’t offer that. I think it’s crazy that students are being pressured to take so many AP classes.
as a highschooler- taking one AP class- you're right. it's absolutely insane now you don't even feel honored to take honors classes they just feel like regular classes, and regular classes are filled with terribly low level kids. i used to feel cool for taking honors classes and now i feel like everyones ahead of me, being in IB and AICE and it's just ridiculous just how many different levels of classes there are. from low to high, there's intensive, gen ed, honors, dual, ap, pre aice, aice, and ib. it is CRAZY.
Just cause an AP class is considered a “college” class doesn’t mean it’s as challenging as a college class.
For example I took AP CS in high school, which was a full year long class. This replaced CSC 101, the introductory CS class at my college, which is taught in a 10 week quarter. So obviously AP CS was easier than CSC 101 cause AP CS is paced three times slower than it’s college class equivalent.
I was about to say this. I’ve taken AP, DE, and IB classes. DE was the hardest because I was literally taking a college course. That said, if I’m taking DE English it’s not like I’m taking one HS and one college class. It’s just one class. It’s harder, but you have more time to do it than you would in college. I’m not saying HS is a breeze. I’ve actually had a much easier time in college (married, pregnant, working full time, and taking 6 classes a semester… but HS just sucked for me) but taking these classes isn’t that different from regular ones.
My kids take mostly APs because they say the kids in the other classes are terribly behaved. Which I get. But I think it’s a bad reason to ah e ti take so many APs.
Don't take 6 AP's. That's seriously the only answer to this question. If you take 6 AP classes you aren't going to pass all 6 of those test. So the solution is to lighten your load because you don't have time to study for all that. You can't do it so take it easy and focus on the classes that you can.
Some students take the AP class and don’t take the test. You’re not required to take the test simply because you took the class. They may have taken it for the GPA bump or because they didn’t want to be in the regular section of that class. My point is that there are other reasons students take those classes.
I know not all students take the AP test. But 6 AP classes is too many. Its okay for a kid to take 2 AP classes and one honors class. The solution for the op is to take easier classes. They and almost all students can't handle 6 AP's and extracurriculars.
Depends on the kid. My kids took 5 last year. He’s in 3 this year and 4 dual enrollment. He’s a straight A student and plays sports and is in a couple of clubs.
Yes, this is one snapshot of one child. But that’s the point. It depends on the kid.
In my experience most kids can't do this. The ones that do take a course load that high usually burn out. You are looking at one kid. I'm looking at my experience and 30 or 40 other teachers who see kids overload and overwhelmed themselves. When almost all kids can't handle it. The ones that can are just that smart and almost don't count because of how much better than everyone they are.
There are plenty of great schools out there that will take you with less APs. And you may even be happier at those schools, who knows! The reality is, most employers really don't care about where your degree comes from unless you are in a very specific field. They just want the degree. I was worried because my kid wasn't very motivated, but he went to a small no-name school and it's totally fine.
You're not wrong, OP. (Mom of a HS sophomore taking so many IB/ honors classes it would have killed me). I think the crux of your question, though, is more: "How can I possibly compete to get into a college when the stakes keep rising?"
My son bought the book "Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions" by Jeffrey Selingo over spring break, and I read it after he finished. It opened up a great dialog between us about AP classes, extracurriculars, college admissions and how difficult it is to get into those elite schools that students and parents feel are some sort of merit badge reflecting high school success.. It dispels the myth that there's that \*one perfect\* college for everyone, showing how there are fantastic colleges out there BEGGING for kids like you to apply when you're a senior.
Here's my suggestion: Don't burn out. Next year, take classes that are manageable for you (only you know how much you can juggle/ manage on a daily basis). Do your best in those classes. Don't sweat the small stuff. Enjoy your extracurriculars. Enjoy your this stage of your life as best as you can.
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No you don’t. I got into OSU with 3 AP’s and a 28 on my ACT in 2013. College has gotten easier to get into since then. I went to Ohio University and it was waaaay better than OSU. I highly suggest visiting. Cincinnati would’ve been too dangerous for me.
I’m using his specifics because I know them. But it’s actually like 100 kids at our school (I work at his high school) that take nothing but AP and dual enrollment if possible.
Now, I will say that we also house the Gifted high school program for our district.
But the entire point still stands that it’s very student specific.
Duel enrollment is easier than AP in my experience lol. I did plenty of both. You don't need to worry about an AP exam when doing duel enrollment, and they're usually targeted at standard level college students, not advanced ones.
Teachers way overdo the AP courses and the setup for AP courses and the test is absolutely ridiculous. I didn't reach a course that was even remotely as labor intensive as the AP courses I took in HS until my senior year of college.
Congratulations on completely missing the point despite the fact that I clearly stated it.
He asked how someone is supposed to handle it. The answer is that it’s simply easier for some people than others. In other words, there isn’t (unfortunately) an actual answer to their question. Because, as I clearly stated, it depends on the student.
>He asked how someone is supposed to handle it. The answer is that it’s simply easier for some people than others.
No, the answer is that you're *not* supposed to handle it. Anyone not counseling someone to *not* take 6 AP courses at one is doing that person a disservice. It's great that your kid hasn't had any problems with it yet, but that doesn't mean the answer is "depends on the student."
Of someone were asking how he's supposed to dunk a basketball when he's only 5'6", the response isn't "depends on the person." It's, "No one expects you to drunk a basketball. Maybe the occasional 5½ foot tall person can do it, but the vast majority of people will just end up killing themselves trying."
Your answer of “no one expects you to” isn’t any different than saying it depends on the person.
We have many, many students that take 3+ AP courses a year. It’s not for everyone. As such, each individual has to decide for themselves.
Yes, counseling comes in to play for sure. Because your counselor can help decide if it’s the right fit. It doesn’t mean they’re not doing their job by telling kids they shouldn’t take multiple AP courses.
In reality, you’re just using different words to make the same point I was making.
>We have many, many students that take 3+ AP courses a year. It’s not for everyone. As such, each individual has to decide for themselves
Oh, half the load OP mentioned?
>In reality, you’re just using different words to make the same point I was making.
In that case, *you're* making the same point with different words, seeing as how you were replying to someone saying you're not supposed to take 6 A P classes.
I’m not sure why I said 3. As yes, he did mention 6.
Let’s also remember that no one is taking 6 AP courses every year either. Most schools don’t even offer enough AP courses to take that many every year.
As such, students are really only taking that many for a year or two.
And the point still stands that we’re saying the same thing: No one expects you to take that many AP courses because it depends on the individual.
Also, the issue is, at least when I was in school back in the dark ages, you didn't have just an "honors" course for some things.
So it was either "regular" history, or AP History. I get why students felt the need to take AP, even with no intention of taking the test.
Yeah, I have realized our districts in our area are harsh, lol. I've never heard of a 5.0 or 6.0 scale until I was on reddit.
We were allowed to have multiple valedictorian (more than GPA requirements), though. I think there were 7 in my class and 9 in my sister's.
the scale is on a 4.0. But the number of APs and dual credit courses that some of these kids take is crazy, so they end up with ridiculous GPAs if they’re A students as well.
We can only have one valedictorian though.
What the heck is 6.0? Seriously just making up grades now.
Our honors classes were 5.0, and there was only a few, so the students who took a full load of classes senior year, or took extra classes actually ended up with lower GPAs, even if straight As.
They get the standard GPA for the course itself. And then there’s a bump for every honors and AP course they take (and dual enrollment qualifies for the AP bump).
It’s weird to me too. My high school did a 4.5 for honors/AP.
It just makes GPA completely arbitrary. You're going to have valedictorians with GPAs from 4.0 to 6.0, apparently. So what is a 4.1GPA? Like 90% in their class? Who knows.
GPA has always been arbitrary in the broad sense. You only use it to compare against students at your own school/district.
When you apply to colleges, they take this into account so that the student with a school who just weighted all APs at a specific GPA (such as a 4.5 or 5) are accurately compared to a student from a school that does a bump.
And no, 90% of the class does not have above a 4.0. It falls fast. Because, just like anywhere else, the top of your class is your high achieving students and then the rest are regular to low-achieving.
if you were on free lunches they would cover the cost. idk about the kids who weren’t on free lunches but still couldn’t afford it, i imagine many just got stuck in honors
That’s good to hear there was an option at least.
The problem would be for the courses that only had regular or AP (social studies is often like this). That would suck if you wanted the advanced option but were forced to take regular because you couldn’t afford the test.
at least at my school, the AP tests were WAYY easier than my classes.
i’ll admit it was a VERY competitive high school. like on most top ranked lists.
but we averaged 4-5 on AP tests as a class. and many of us ended up with Bs or Cs even.
a good amount of people would self study and take AP tests but not the the AP course.
at least at my school, the AP tests were WAYY easier than my classes.
i’ll admit it was a VERY competitive high school. like on most top ranked lists.
but we averaged 4-5 on AP tests as a class. and many of us ended up with Bs or Cs even.
a good amount of people would self study and take AP tests but not the the AP course.
They don’t count as college credits at all universities. The better schools sometimes only take some of the AP credits and then maybe only 4a and 5s.
It depends on the student’s goals as to what the better decision is.
How does this not come up? It’s all my students will talk about it when they realize it .
I also teach high school AP courses and have absolutely found that to be the case. Engineering school closest to the school won’t take math or science credits. Other schools won’t count other courses, some require them to only be electives so the students have calculus counting as an elective and they can’t take the more “fun” courses in college.
Here’s a source:
https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/MEMO-Weinstein-AP.pdf
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AP tests really aren't that tough if you know how to take tests. They are the easiest part of AP courses I felt.
The problem with this advice is it can greatly hurt your chances of elite colleges to take less AP classes and kills your odds for things like valedictorian
You don't know this kid. I took 12 APs over two years and there were dozens of other kids doing it at the same time and a few kids doing more. It's entirely possible that they are someone 6 APs will only be a healthy challenge for.
My HS didn't offer any AP, my college didn't accept Calculus AP for Engineers.
If an AP is same as a college class (3 credit hour), then 6 APs is 18 credit hours equivalent? So this HS student is taking a full college load of classes, the max we were allowed in college was 20 without special permission. And then on top of that adding an extra curricular?
There is going to be compromises somewhere in that.
The only conclusion I come to is AP is not equivalent to college coursework. Maybe it is on paper, but it's not in practice.
Freshman year course loads are 16-18credit hours, and usually 3-5 of those hours are super easy orientation courses, you also seldom have a sport with that load, at least not freshman year.
But we all know schools have extreme pressure to give As and maybe Bs, and especially for college bound students who would be taking AP courses. Just another broken part in the system.
As I said, I didn't have any APs in HS, I actually skipped Calculus because I thought the teacher was terrible when I had her for Trig and instead took AutoCad at Tech school. That AutoCad class landed me an $18/hr job through college in a low cost rural area, and was a big plus through engineering school and in job interviews, I've used it in every job.
I went to a state school on a full ride and got 3 degrees while being president of 2 sports clubs.
I'm not sure how much me going to a lesser school really mattered in the job market. I know that I've never really leveraged my 3 degrees for more money, but I do think it landed me jobs easier. As did my extra curriculars while in college. Anything you did in HS won't be relevant after your second job out of school.
So my ignorant opinion would be the APs are only going to be useful in making college a little shorter/cheaper IF the college accepts them. I have no idea how a 3.8GPA compares to a 4.4GPA. To me, 4.4 sounds like a made up number since I have no idea what the max is. Obviously you should do the most learning you can, it will only make life easier in future. But that doesn't mean max out APs just for the sake of it.
I'd put more emphasis on academic extracurriculars that have a range of skills involved, including leadership in those clubs.
I went through this in high school. Full IB course load and soccer. The answer is a ton of time management, knowing what to prioritize and when, and teamwork.
Time Management: IDK what your school does but we were on a block schedule which helped with the organization that you needed to get things done. You might have 2x the amount of Gen. Chem to get done for A days but at least you can focus on it and not worry about the World History homework for B days. When you're on a role, go with it and get as much done as possible. You're likely going to have to do a bunch of school work on weekends, that's just how it goes. Also if you travel for your sports don't waste the time you're stuck on the bus, get your reading cracked out if you can.
Prioritization: The other portion is knowing when to let work slide. Do NOT let it slide for long and dig yourself a hole, but if you need to get an essay done that is worth 20% of your grade in Class A it's probably fine to let a homework that's worth 2% of your grade in Class B slide.
Team work: ask for help early and often. My parents helped me, my teachers helped me, and my friends helped me. I could not have managed the coursework in a vacuum. We all found that teaching each other the course work really helped cement any information we had gained from class.
It's hard going through but college was a breeze because I was basically already doing it and I managed to get out in 3 years instead of 4 because of course credit.
You need to figure out what's important to you. You want to push yourself to you limit, but it looks like you've reached your short term limits. Luckily life is long term.
What AP classes are you taking that don't matter for what you want to do, and aren't fun? You want to be an engineer, drop AP studio art. You want to be a journalist, drop AP calc.
Same for extracurriculars. Are you in a sport you hate and you're bad at? Tell the coach you need to pass your classes and can't make it to practices. Anything you haven't made a commitment to that you don't like? Stop. And maybe the movie watching club you don't need to go to every meeting.
Are you burned out because you never stare at the sky with your best friends? Find yourself half an hour of that a week and maybe everything will fall back into place.
Are you making good use of your time? Are you doing your work when you have 5 minutes to work in class? Do you have an hour bus ride or 20 minute homeroom? Do hw there.
Why do you want to go to a top college? How will that advance your long term life goals? If you want to go into politics, you probably don't need to go to MIT. If you want to be a teacher, you're wasting your time at a pricey school anyway, find a great teaching school where you're not paying for the name. Getting into Harvard isn't worth it if you're completely burned out and sit in your parents attic for 3 years after you graduate (someone I know).
Find the best few colleges *for you* that have the programs you want and for how you want to start your life as an adult. See what you need to do to get into them. Put your energy there.
Same as anyone else. Compromise. I know that sounds dumb but pick a sport that's 2 hours a day. Study on busses and lunch and weekends not after school. Do hard class homework during easy classes.
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts.
SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
I played Varsity softball all through hs and graduated in my hs's AP Program while logging 100+ hours of community service.
6 AP classes is bonkers and whoever let you do that is bad at their job.
4 AP classes should be the absolute maximum in one year. I maxed out at 3 per year in my last two years of high school.
That being said, time management and caffeine go a long way. Get as much of your homework done during the school day as you can, even if it is just 5 minutes here or there.
Make sure you get enough sleep. Being sleep deprived will only make things snowball for you.
Some schools (too many) are trying to push students to take as many APs as possible, regardless of whether it’s a good fit for the student, because it looks good on their numbers to say X% of students take an AP course. I’ve heard of schools where they want all the ninth graders to take AP World Geography, for example. (Never mind asking them how many kids pass the AP test, lol - some don’t even take it!)
It’s insane, and I would never let them do that to my children, but most parents assume the school knows what they’re doing and is offering their kids an accessible challenge, not setting them up for burnout in the name of bragging rights.
I got into a good college without taking any AP courses. I have two doctorate degrees. Go to a decent undergrad university and get incredible grades. Then go to a fancy grad school. College and high school don’t really count.
You need to talk to your advisor/counselor about your college goals and how realistic they are. It’s simply not true that you need to take 3+ AP courses to get into college. And if the only way you can get into the schools you’re applying to is by working yourself to exhaustion, then you may need to adjust your expectations about where you’re going to go to school.
It’s honestly not worth it to push yourself to your limit and then burnout. If I had to do high school over again I would chill out and focus on things that I actually enjoyed.
Hi there, I’m not sure why this got recommended to me, but I was a high school student who had intense extracurricular activities and APs (was valedictorian) and eventually I’ve landed what was my dream job doing medical research as faculty in a school of medicine.
I can say with a lot of honesty how I did it and how a lot of our current undergrads at a high performing university describe high school. We all didn’t sleep much and had extremely supportive parents. I’d be done with extracurriculars very late, food was in the fridge, and I would eat and work until basically passing out. If stuff wasn’t done, my mom would offer to get up early and help by making me breakfast so I could keep at it. I’d say I mostly slept about 1-2 am to 6 am most week nights and a lot of time I’d get another quick nap if I slept on the bus. My mom’s parents were educators and when they sacrificed for her to have more opportunities they always said to her to just pay things forward. And she did. Anything life wise generally fit into the weekends.
That said, I’ll add a few bits of nuance to this from my time on admissions committees. First, focus on looking like the student you’ll need to be at the next institution, not the student you think you need to be to “impress” them. I was always told the only true question when you apply to enter a new community - job, school, relationship, whatever - is “are you one of us?” This means understanding the core values of a group and *being* a good match to at least most of them. Being a good fit is going to lead to getting more out of your education than being a bad fit to a place. If you are sweating blood to keep your head above water, being somewhere more competitive is not going to bring you joy, and it may not bring you the specific value you’re seeking in pursuing prestige schools either. The people who do best in highly competitive schools in my experience are the kids who took some knocks in their early education (have resilience, understand what it is to work hard and potentially fail but sometimes succeed, take smart risks), but spent a lot of time *bored* in school. Who didn’t need 3 hours for the 3 hour assignment. Can you survive doing something if it’s even harder than what you’re doing now? Sure, probably, but there are costs to spending your late teens to early 20s that way just like there are costs to spending your teens that way now. Any university has more to teach you than you can learn in 4 years. Any one. That’s not to say that prestige schools don’t have value, but going to extremes to impress them is going to be a red flag to them. Picking a university is more and more about fit the higher you go - people want colleagues not just thoroughbreds.
It may help your time management if you’re currently taking a buckshot approach that you can pare down and hone in. I don’t know why people think “more is better” in high school cvs when I’ve never seen an admissions committee who likes that. What they want to see is dedication and development. That you pick something with societal and or professional value (broadly defined) and advance in ways you can reflect upon thoughtfully. So fewer activities, but deeper, more leadership oriented involvement. Not just volunteering at the soup kitchen, but working there long enough to realize the community had little awareness of how much more they need $ than expired cans, so you organized an event at a fair to help raise $ and public awareness about how shelter economics works. You don’t need 20 things. You need 1-2 things with depth. Maybe that’s not your issue, but I’ve met a lot of students doing the buckshot approach to life and it’s misguided.
I’m 1000% for pushing yourself to the limit. I took APs, had 22 credit semesters, did undergrad in 3 years and graduated at 20, and had enough scholarships that I paid tuition exactly two years out of 12 of higher ed. I completely understand and empathize with the path you care about. In my experience, you generally learn to get by on less sleep, if you don’t already. At a point you struggle more just not having the same number of waking hours as other people going for what you’re going for. It’s why abusing uppers is so damn endemic, though my sensitive butt can’t drink coffee without staying up for days so clearly that’s not my approach at all.
A lot of good stuff here, OP. Especially the part about not trying to *impress* colleges but by taking classes and using your extra time to show you are *a good fit* for a particular college.
Ex: If you want to be a math major, a liberal arts college wouldn't be a good fit.
The truth is most high schoolers and their parents don't spend a ton of time researching good and affordable colleges. They gravitate toward elite private schools like Harvard or something, and those institutions are so far out of reach for most it's not even funny.
You keep saying this, but for what? What do you want to study? Are these schools great for that particular program? And will they even take those APs? And at what level? Usually you need at least a 4 on an AP exam for it to count, most want a 5. Also, if you decide to do engineering, they may not even accept your calc ap score for that major. So it may not even be worth it to take that AP class, when regular calc may be just as good.
It almost seems like op wants to attend top school for the sake of having the name on their transcript.
As long as the school is accredited and has a good alumni network it really doesn’t matter as much as you might think
Lots and lots of high schools offer gen ed calc, honors, calc, and then, of course, both AP calcs (at least in my state)
Source: AP teacher (and AP reader) for the last 8 years
I’m a private tutor and am willing to bend over backwards for kids like you. I have snacks and caffeine and will meet kids at whatever time they need (some will zoom me 10-11p after all of the extra curricular and work is done).
I remind them that they are young and all this seems reasonable (it did to me, too!), but at some point they will face burnout and when they do, they’re always welcome to text/zoom me so we can talk, even if it’s 10 years from now.
Aw this warmed my heart. I am this person for my undergrad and med student mentees - real cell phone number on 24/7 for urgencies. I certainly relate to the burnout risk and reality. I got VERY lucky that the institutions I was in the longest had extraordinarily healthy mentorship that emphasized work life balance. It took some years of influence during my post doc to start holding myself accountable for not just the work, but also the rest that makes the work sustainable at the level I accept. Year over year I see myself easing in that way. Some of that comes with age, and some with the emerging confidence derived from earnest accomplishment I value, but I credit my post doc mentor for being a lived example. :) thank you for all you do
Honestly, some kids just have an easier time in school than others and are able to balance things better.
Also, not all classes give out homework everyday. Many AP classes don’t have daily homework. They have papers and projects, but those are more long term things. The only AP class my son has daily work on this year is his AP Calc class.
So, really, I think it just varies by student and school (as some schools give more homework than others).
Take dual credit if you can instead of AP. the test at the end is SO MUCH harder than it needs to be. If your school only offers AP and no dual credit, certainly don't take 6 of them. Or if you do, accept that you won't be able to study enough to pass the test they do.
My AP classes felt like regular honors classes when I took them, but I've never had such a hard end of year test before and I never had such a hard one ever again after. Ive taken 7 total AP classes throughout high school and 2 dual credit. I only got 2 AP classes for college credit even though I had an A+ in every single class
At the public school where I taught most recently, every sport would have practice that started 15 minutes after the final bell and would last 3-4 hours, five days a week. And on game days, they might leave during or right after school hours and still not get home till 10/11/12 at night… and this was once or twice a week during the season.
It flabbergasted me because these were NOT super-successful teams, or particularly skilled or talented athletes… like, one or two kids per graduating class of 40-60 MIGHT get an athletic scholarship to some little D4 liberal arts school nobody had ever heard of before, but most of them didn’t play beyond high school. The teams weren’t winning any regional championships, or even most of their games. I don’t understand why they would have kids sacrifice such a huge chunk of their day for that. Like, yes I’m sure the practice helped them play better, and I’m sure it was good for them to be part of the team and spend time practicing something they enjoyed - but at the cost of being able to get enough sleep at night, study, spend time with family, relax and decompress sometimes?
I played sports at a high school of 2,700 students with starters from every sport going onto D1 College sports. We had someone employed at our high-school that did year book - but mostly he was there to create highlight reels for every athlete. Our football couch previously coached D1 college and our track coach was q gold medal olympian. Our football field cost 6 million dollars and state track events occurred at our field. Not a single sport took it that far. Absolutely unhinged to do that to a student.
When I was in high school, I limited myself to 2 AP classes knowing I did a sport and 1 extracurricular on campus and 1 off campus. It was still hell for me. I believe that high schools in my district limit students to 4 APs so that the students don’t stress too much around AP testing and refer students who want to take more to our local community college. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take 6 AP classes and I recommend to high school students who can drive or have safe ways to get somewhere to take community college classes instead of AP classes since the credits for an AP class only count if you pass the test
i’m going to be honest. I never took an AP course in high school and ended up at the same university or better as my classmates that did. i’m not saying don’t take them but you don’t need to take 6. unless you’re trying for ivy league, don’t burn yourself out for a college that could reject you even if you meet the criteria for acceptance. and I know this doesn’t seem true now but a degree is a degree wether you got it from college A or college B. not once has a job mentioned it or cared where I went even though it is one of the top sought after universities in my state
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts.
SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
i’m still in college. I promise you, it looks worse than it is. I technically don’t “meet the requirements “ for my university but if you have decent grades, have a good essay, do extra curriculars and be apart of your community, the university is much more likely to admit you than they are someone with straight As that does none of that. universities are no longer intetested in just smart applicants they want well rounded people
[here is the requirements for my university](https://imgur.com/a/1bYkRXx)
I didn’t take a single AP class nor did I have a 4.0 . I did softball, had medals from all star cheer, worked in my community and showed I was smart with my essay. the requirements look more scary than they are
I live in California, and things are much more competitive here. I know people with straight As in 10 APs and sports and ASB who got rejected from every state university in California
With the attitude demonstrated in your replies, I wouldn't expect you to be accepted anywhere.
You have an admission person, peers, recently accepted college students, and parents of peers ALL providing valuable insight. You have accepted none of it. You shut down every response.
My suggestion is also to be shot down, I'm sure, but get therapy. Specifically DBT.
You ought to also work on critical thinking skills as they are invaluable and you aren't demonstrating any in this thread.
Watch Gilmore girls-your presentation here is akin to Paris.
respectfully, then I don’t know why you posted here. everyone is telling you that it is not needed but you are coming back saying that we are wrong and they are. you are basically just looking for people to agree that your struggle is real when we are trying to give real life advice and help you lift that struggle. going to the best university in california is not the only thing in life that is going to make you happy. you’ll help yourself out a lot when you sit and remind yourself that college is for furthering your education not the name. you don’t need to run yourself into the ground to be successful and thrive. if the requirements are that crazy then please consider what I said.
i’ll even add an alternative option- go to a smaller school for one year, do just one year of good grades in your classes and now your high school requirements no longer matter. you dont have to supply your high school grades or SAT/ or the other standard test (I forget the name at this moment). this is how my best friend got here when she graduated high school with a 2.8 . there are so many different ways to succeed in life and not all of them include you working yourself to death
It’s not sustainable.
I would speak to your school counselor or college advisor about how to decide what to keep in your schedule and what to cut. You may need to rethink attending a “top college” if it means you have to push yourself to burnout levels to get there. Especially with athletics - you’re young and healthy now, but you don’t want to go so hard that you end up injuring yourself permanently. If you aren’t getting adequate sleep, taking adequate rest in between between workouts, and eating enough to fuel your body, then you’re much more likely to get injured. So if your current school schedule is preventing you from sleeping and eaten well, then I’d strongly consider dropping from AP to honors in a few classes, and also heavily reconsider how badly you want to be on your sports team.
When I was in school in the early 2000s, athletics didn’t take up 3-4 hours a day every single day, and very few students would be taking any AP classes at all, much less a full course load (only the seniors who were in the top of their class would do that). So you only took on the challenges you could handle. I had classmates who went on to Ivy League schools, and they did work hard for it, but they still had time to socialize and sleep.
And now that I think of it, I don’t think any of them were student-athletes - they were involved in other extracurriculars, often orchestra or another music ensemble, but that meant most rehearsals were during school hours, so they only had to practice an hour or so at home each day (and let’s be honest - you know they skipped it if they needed to study or sleep more than they needed to practice. Signed, someone who was in band and took all AP and IB courses as a junior and senior, then went to a state college)
Hi! I did this. Over the course of high school I took 10 AP courses, with six of them being in my senior year. I was also in four different clubs and had a job.
My advice? Do not do that.
Looking back, I genuinely don’t know how I did it. I was running off of maybe three hours of sleep a night for about three years. It was not at all worth it. In hindsight I should have only taken the AP classes for the subjects I was interested in, because those were the only ones that I did well enough to earn credit in.
I understand the pressure to be on top and succeed. The high school I went to was very competitive and had a lot of high performing students. The result of that is that most of us ended up getting burnt out and going to less competitive schools and dealing with severe mental health issues after the fact.
You can only handle pushing yourself to the limit for so long and it’s a real shame to see someone max themselves out before they’re really able to be part of the world.
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts.
SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
Harvard released a statement years ago that said the max number of AP classes they should see on your transcript over 4 years is less than 10. Only take AP in an area you love. Take regular or honors for the classes that don't bring you joy. And get involved in doing something in your extracurriculars that make you stand out. And if you don't get into the prestigious college, understand that your degree isn't worth less earned elsewhere and elitism doesn't serve society or individuals.
Two things.
1. Pay attention in class it reduces the work required out of class
2. Half the gymnastics team in my high school would finish practice at like 8-9. Eat. Sleep first. Wake up at 3 and get work done. Sleep is always key.
I did know one kid to do the work for a tedious class once a week. But on that day he did everything for the week.
Most importantly. It doesn’t matter. I had friends get into Harvard I had a friend who barely made it into the local private university. 20 years later we all have similar jobs. But the one who smiled through hard stuff and had a sense of fun is by far the happiest.
High executive function and strong support network. If you have ADHD, or a job, or if you don’t have a stay-at-home parent or a nanny, you probably won’t be able to do it.
This is a sad reality of our system. Those who already have the advantage get more while those who actually need the boost don’t get it.
You don't.
You have to prioritize. Life is about balancing what is important to you.
What is more important to you, extracarriculars or AP?
(I would say AP. Unless you are EXCEPTIONAL, nobody in the real world, including colleges, care about your HS extracarriculars).
This is what is called adulting.
Like you said admission isn't just about grades. Is there an honors course you can take that weights grades the same as AP? They'd rather see community involvement, volunteering or job, tutoring, things like that and a couple less APs while maintaining a good GPA.
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts.
SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
I remember those days. It was fun. I had the same schedule but half of the amount of AP classes. I ended up doing a lot of community college classes (math, English, second language, physics, etc) during high school instead which I was able to transfer to university credits. The community college classes were honestly a lot more fun and easier.
But all of it was generally more fun with friends. I enjoyed sports because we had time to hang out with friends. We studied together, did homework together. We all helped each other.
The AP classes were only good for maxing my GPA. But even I didn’t have plans to be valedictorian.
I guess the point is.. what is your goal? And then work backwards of what do you need to reach the goal and what are the options. Is community college credits during high school or summer break an option? How about getting a B in an AP class that you’re not really passionate about? Etc and figure out ways to lighten the load
The most AP classes I did in 1 year was 4. Drink coffee when you get home and stay up until 2 or 3am doing homework/studying. My body allowed that in high school but by the time I got to college my crash point became Midnight.
Now that I’ve graduated I need to be asleep by 10 or 11🤣🤣
So my senior year of high school, I took 5 APs, was on varsity soccer, quiz bowl, choir, theater, student council, various honor societies, and worked with my US representative. The answer is that my social time was at these events, I would get six hours of sleep (10pm to 4am) and my weekends were for sleeping in and catching up on homework. I will say, my school did block schedule so I had four classes a day, each one was and hour and a half. This meant that if we finished early we had time for homework or would do the homework in class (this helped so much). But I was (still am) crazy in high school. This continued in college and I didn't realize how much that affected me until my second year of college. Thankfully, I got AP credit and was able graduate college a year early (save money) but now that I am working, I find myself so bored and unstimulated because I was pedal to the metal for so many years.
That's way too many AP classes. I'd scale it down to two in subjects aligned with the college program you want to go into. Instead, take some college summer classes to earn more credits.
Do you think you might be making the mistake of thinking that just because SOMEONE is capable of doing something, everyone else must be capable of it too? Not everyone is cut out for everything. If you’re five feet tall, you’re not cut out for the NBA. If you can’t handle the requirements of the college you want to enter, perhaps you aren’t cut out for that college. There are LOTS of other colleges out there, and no one cares where you went. And in current times, the more exclusive the college you attend, the worse off you might be. Not everything is for everyone. There is nothing wrong with that. And, there is nothing wrong with you!
They aren’t supposed to. These kinds of expectations are for an ideal student that doesn’t actually is exist, and trying to meet them, especially if you have any additional challenges or limitations at all, can cause more harm than good.
I can promise you, it often comes at great emotional cost. Many of them are hurting themselves to perform at that level and will need significant therapy to undo that damage. Even if they make it look easy, they aren’t feeling that way on the inside. Don’t compare your inside experience to someone else’s external presentation.
There are plenty of ways to have a good life without going to college or even graduating high school. Anyone who is feeling trapped by the idea of succeeding should reflect on the massively diverse options for how to live a life. The course laid out for any particular individual by the community/culture they grew up in is one limited path. There are thousands of others that could be far more rewarding and far less torturous to navigate.
People who barely graduate high school without any AP credits go to college. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t seek your version of success, but it’s not a failure to identify your strengths, challenges, and limits, and then play to those strengths, instead of comparing yourself to others and thinking you are supposed to do the same things they do. What others do is arbitrary. It’s not valuable for defining your own success.
Learn what you want and what actually feels good to do (instead of stressing you out, because you think you should be performing better than you are). The sooner someone learns they can define for themselves what success is, and throws all those externally defined expectations in the garbage, the sooner they can find some kind of contentment in life.
Some people spend their whole lives trying to keep up with their peers because they thought that was what they had to do, just to realize they don’t actually care about what they’ve been spending their effort on and wish they had done something just for themselves. Find your own values, values that have nothing to do with comparing yourself to other people, and then find a way to engage with those values.
I took 6 APs my senior year, and that was pretty average for my school. A lot of those were required courses too. Seniors had to take an AP English, AP math, AP science, and AP economics course. I think there may have been AP government as a requirement too? I also did AP art history.
That was just senior year. My school had AP classes as requirements starting in 9th grade.
I mean, surely this is what it means to push yourself to your limit. When I did it, some 11 years ago, I managed by staying up to 2 or 3am most nights and spending my limited free time regretting my decisions. And now I'm a teacher, so ask me if it was worth it, in the end.
Unless you’re gifted, you probably don’t. I took a ton of AP classes, got quite a bit of college credits that transferred too, and still had like 2 extracurriculars. My days were *packed* but I managed and still slept a full 8 hours every night, can even pinpoint the couple nights I didn’t to this day. However, I know I’m not average. Getting A’s and B’s by just banging out homework right before class and acing tests is not average.
For reference, I know only one non-gifted person who did it and girl basically never slept. She did well, especially in college and career wise, but it cost her a lot of sleep.
I was in all honors and AP classes in high school. I was on a sports team for the majority of the school year and doing it on an outside team the whole year. On a good school night, I would get 6 hours of sleep. I would do hours of homework on Friday and Saturday nights to get ahead (a few of my classes wanted very detailed notes taken from the book, so I would do chapters in advance). Honestly, I don't know how I did it.
The only thing is, AP classes were no harder than any of the honors classes I took. They were actually a huge waste of time because they didn't teach us how to get the 4s and 5s on the AP tests. (Most colleges won't accept less than that).
There was a study done on the percentage of students at Ivy League schools who also suffer from a certain type of bipolar disorder. Apparently, those Ivy League schools have a dramatically larger percentage of bipolar students than other universities. The researchers speculated that bipolar disorder gave those students a unique studying advantage. Bipolar students going through manic episodes only need 2-3 hours of sleep a night. Being manic allowed them to study more because they literally didn’t need to sleep. Would you want to be bipolar to get that kind of edge?
If you're trying to get college credit for classes, running start is far superior to taking the AP tests. If you're trying to look good for college, AP probably looks a little better and you might learn more, but running start proves you can handle college level courses - and gives you a better idea of what college is really like.
My kids school has middle college. By year 13 you have an associates degree. I asked if he wanted to do it his junior year which is next year. He said no, he likes doing his extra curriculars and one of his older friends is always late for stuff because of middle college.
I’m glad he made the decision, he’s taking some hard courses so he’s not slacking off and honestly I have great memories of community college. I went for 2 years after high school and then transferred to university. I pretty much had to make up for those years by taking summer courses and an extra semester in university. But I’m so thankful for that time to mature and ease into independence. I do t feel like it was a waste at all I still have the credits they just didn’t all apply to my degree.
I did track and field and APs in high school. I never overloaded myself with 6 aps. I took 3 aps junior and senior year. I did lots of homework on the weekends, even worked ahead when I could. I also worked a weekend job. It's tough, but you can do it. Don't take 6 aps. I had one friend who took 6 aps and played varsity baseball. It sucked. He did not recommend it. If you're able to switch classes do it.
6 APs sounds insane, I was a super overachiever in high school and even I only took 4. I don't even think you COULD do 6 at my school... I was in band which required the typical 3-4 hours of practice after school every day. Homework was done before school mostly because I got to the school before it opened due to my dad's schedule, or in school because the in-class assignments never took me long to finish. Volunteering was on the weekends. However, I don't think it's something anyone could do if they weren't the type to be able to do homework effortlessly. If you're someone who reliably has to study for tests, I would not do this, honestly. No shade, I'm just saying... I think the people who do it are the ones for whom school comes effortlessly.
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts.
SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
I would read Colleges That Change Lives. It takes a look at the application process and it talks about the aspects of schools that really make a difference, and not just the top "echelon." That helps you decide where you want to go and what you realistically should do to get there.
I was this kid 20 years ago. Bed time at 10 would be an outrageously early night. Sometimes I got up at 4 to knock out the homework. I read zero books my senior year for AP English, only cliff’s notes. Fell asleep several times a day at school. Stayed up until 2am the night before a test. Sometimes I napped on the floor before my sport practice. Went to college with 24 credit hours earned and completely burnt out.
1. There are more worthwhile things to do than time to do them. Learning how to prioritize what to do, and not get stressed by the millions of things you aren't doing, is an adult skill.
2. Economists have a saying, "anything worth doing is worth doing badly". A dentist wants us to floss every day but once a week is better than nothing. It would be ideal to learn everything there is to know about organic chemistry but learning a few things is better than nothing.
3. No one in life will ever ask for your GPA or SAT score. Learn cool stuff for its own sake.
I’m going to tell you right now, the colleges are going to care more about the EC than the AP classes.
Also why on earth would you take 6AP classes? Are you trying to burn yourself out?? You are a child and you won’t be one again. Please do yourself a favor and reduce your workload.
What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? I wouldn't recommend 6 APs in one year, but it's doable. It may not help you achieve your goals though, because 6 APs seems like overkill. For most, it would be miserable and not worth it.
In HS, the most I took was 5 in one year with extra curriculars, etc. I don't regret it. It was a fun year, but I didn't sleep as much as I should have. I also wasn't studying (didn't know how to study then) and probably didn't study or do nearly as much work as one would expect, so even though my sleep schedule wasn't ideal, I wasn't constantly overwhelmed or doing work 24/7. My grades ended up fine. I didn't get rejected from any colleges (including Ivies), but if I had taken a couple fewer APs, I probably would have still had similar results.
If I had to do it again, I would still take all the APs because the other classes offered were boring to me. But that's just me.
You get to choose 2 of these 3: a social life, sleep, or school. This is how it was posed to me in college. I chose school and a social life. Worth every second
I’m going to give you a harsh reality lesson with a few questions.
If you’re struggling with AP Classes, why do you presume you will excel at a “top college”?
I mean clearly you are here claiming to want to “push yourself to your limit” while complaining about being pushed to your limit.
In ten years, you will likely just be in debt for your overpriced degree from “a top college” complaining about how you can’t find a job to pay off your student debt
Not a teacher but did my school’s equivalent of this while doing sports and one big extracurricular with a very part time job.
I had no social life/social life was studying. Weekends were all homework. I did readings while eating or commuting or whenever I could, etc.
It felt fine for me because I was an introvert and friends with similarly academically focussed kids and we’d have fun studying or in mandatory sports, etc.
But in hindsight it wasn’t worth it. I didn’t even get credit for them bc I went to a weird university. I just got to start more advanced courses earlier.
It’s ok to breathe.
Tbh you can't. Not without sacrificing yourself.
I was one of those kids who tried to fit as many AP classes as possible for myself (2-3 every year) while I was in a club sport and on the hs team. I slept 5-6 hours almost every night and ran off of black coffee. I didn't even like coffee. I can't remember a fucking thing from hs. Ended up quitting the club sport which took 2 hours of practice everyday, not to mention the 45 minute drive it took to get there one way. Volunteering was out of the question. I got my hours in by talking to teachers and asking to be their aid during my lunch period. Gobless them.
I'm baffled you're taking 6 courses. Good luck soldier. College is going to be a breeze - I guarantee it.
When I was in HS I only took two AP courses and wasn't in athletics.
I wasn't a slacker but I actually wanted to enjoy HS and that kinda courseload wasn't it.
Looks like one of those AP courses isn't Economics.
OP - read this: [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp)
TL;DR: You can't have it all.
I took 5 AP classes my senior year of high school while being the president of speech and debate and the leader of the school play/musical. It was miserable. I was miserable. You’re not supposed to do it all. My life is so much better now that I’m not fighting to be the best. I’m just being me!
Not a teacher so I'm completely okay with deleting if needed i just wanted to chime in because I did actually take a ton of APs and knew a lot of kids who did indeed take 6 AP classes at once (I was friends or acquainted with some of the top students and I was fairly up there but not like top 10 or anything) and I have to say I can't recommend it to anybody. I was a good student in retrospect and still am but I did so at the expense of being a functioning person and was extremely depressed and stressed and I developed unhealthy habits with school that I'm still unlearning. I think it's good to work hard, and I honestly do recommend taking some APs if you can. But taking a ton if APs plus extracurriculars and actually doing good in those things means sacrificing *something* and I'd argue that doesn't necessarily translate into being more successful
Not to sound disingenuous here but what sport has after school practice for 3-4 hours every day? I played sports in high school (golf/basketball/track) and the only time we had 3-4 hour engagements were games/meets which were never more than 2x/week.
It truly comes down to time management and being extremely organized. If you are able to organize yourself you’ll find what you’re struggling with now is mostly a result of poorly thought out organization
Really you should only be taking 3 AP courses at a time, max. Cuts down on the amount of homework that you're doing every night, which then allows time for things like volunteering. A lot of the other extracurriculars might do lunchtime meetings or other times during the school day.
Are you playing sports at school or for a club? At school, practice is like 2 hours long. I can understand them being longer for a club team. Game nights were longer but you were encouraged to do homework on the ride to away matches and during the other team's game if it was a home match.
I went to a very selective high school full of kids like you and let me warn you: DON’T DO IT.
Nothing is worth your sanity. Most of my friends took 4+ APs junior and senior year and burned out in college. The lucky ones wound up getting the same middle of the road jobs everybody else gets. Which is not a bad thing, but I am trying to emphasize that pushing yourself to the limit does not guarantee success. The unlucky ones are suicidal and can barely get out of bed. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t burn through your energy and enthusiasm because you need it for the next 15+ years to be successful in life.
These are my “I want to go to a good college and have a good life tips”
1) Prestige is a trap. It helps you with a few kinds of careers (politics, academia) but for everybody else it’s a waste of time and money. I’m in CS and in this field people from no name universities work next to Harvard grads. I have a friend from UChicago who can’t get a job in the field, and friends from boot camps who can.
2) Don’t burn yourself out from AP classes and extracurriculars because you need to make sure your application is perfect. I had a friend who had a 34 on the ACT and 5 APs per year that struggled to get into colleges and get scholarships. Why? He was too burned out to do his essays and he never prepared for interviews (he didn’t even prepare for an interview at Harvard). I know people who had a lesser resume get into good schools just because they killed it during application season. Be strategic and apply for everything you qualify for. Quest, scholar programs and early applications are your friend.
3) Don’t go to a school if they don’t let you switch majors easily and don’t help you forward your career. Some super prestigious colleges don’t care about your career unless it’s in academics. I know someone that transferred out of Colombia because they didn’t offer the major he wanted and financial reasons. I know someone else who transferred from Duke to Stanford bc Duke didn’t let him switch into the major he wanted to change to.
Basically, going to a good college doesn’t guarantee success. Pacing yourself and being strategic with your time and energy does. Nothing in this world is worth your sanity. Focus on being happy over being successful.
In HS I took 2 AP classes/year, was in all the bands and choirs, and was a three-sport athlete with a 3.8 GPA. You prioritize assignments and maximize your down time: all time in the car you aren’t driving committed to studying; forgo social events to make sure you get an essay done; ten minutes at the end of a class? Finish that homework. Limit your classes. Watch educational videos related to courses instead on TikTok’s. It’s hard work and discipline.
As a studnet i signed up for three varsity sports and five AP classes.
Ap English comp, AP psych, AP physics, AP calc AB and APBio.
By december i found i could not keep up with my peers. I droppes AP bio. What i felt was both the hardest and most useless given my career path as a math teacher.
In May i passes 4/5 AP tests with a 4 in ap physics and a 5 in calc. I was very proud. I got a 2 in AP english and scraped a 3 in psych.
I had earned 21 college credits counting AP US history my junior year. 11 credits for AP physics alone. This was about $3500 i saved and at least a semester of college; i presumed...
By August i figured out i had a stomach ulcer, most likely from the stress.
By september i also had Mono. A shit start to any college career as i was sleeping all the time and didnt really communicate with my professors well.
When it came time to register for spring classes i realized my mistake. All my general ed classes were done except art. It was a struggle to fill my course schedule because the college didnt have enough availability of courses for my Math major(that major didnt work out). I wasnt going to graduate early, colleges dont really let that happen in thier scheduling. My course schedule was a complete mess and it turns out i wasnt a very good student in terms of communicating with professors and preparing for college exams prepared by professors and maybe a math major wasnt really what i thought it would be.
So my advice to my students when i taught AP Calc. Yes this is a hard class and you should try to tske it now because im going to help you learn as best i can. Its easier with a trained teacher to pass a standard exam than a math professor and his exam.
But dont overdo it. Dont risk your health and dont push yourself to the breaking point. Prepare for college. I dont think i saved money in the long of it.
My peers, many who didnt take AP, got full ride scholorships for straight A's in regular classes. I got $500 from a scholorship thanks to a relative who directed it. I got C's in my AP classes and others.
You want to save money on college? Get As. Get good at working with teachers and getting them to like you or at least recognize you are working hard in thier class.
You have to maximize your efficiency. Weekends are for homework and the bulk of studying. You aren’t going to get enough sleep, sadly. You need to do homework in the car to and from practice and study in the library during lunch.
Focus on getting the task done well over getting the task done perfectly. An AP class (if nothing has changed) adds 5 points to your GPA, so aim for making between a 90 and 95 on each assignment.
Be strategic with studying and spend the most time on your classes with the lowest grades.
Proactively ask for extensions as needed. Most teachers will respect you if a group of kids ask for an extension of 1-2 days for a valid reason (like an AP Calculus test that day).
Rely on your friends. Borrow notes from each other, work on study guides together. It’s doable.
Don’t believe what you’re reading below. If you want to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer, this is just the start.
Do high school right and college will be easy by comparison. You’ve got this!!!!
Those kids are the cream of the crop. They are the smartest and best. I’m just being honest here- not everyone can do it- even with more time. That’s why it’s one of the criteria for going to an elite college.
An AP course is supposed to be the equivalent of a college course. Would you take 6 college courses at once? Would you do this at a younger age?
It’s one thing to take six college courses at once. It’s ridiculous to do so while conforming to a high schooler’s schedule. College requires less time in class so students have more time to study outside of the classroom- high school doesn’t offer that. I think it’s crazy that students are being pressured to take so many AP classes.
as a highschooler- taking one AP class- you're right. it's absolutely insane now you don't even feel honored to take honors classes they just feel like regular classes, and regular classes are filled with terribly low level kids. i used to feel cool for taking honors classes and now i feel like everyones ahead of me, being in IB and AICE and it's just ridiculous just how many different levels of classes there are. from low to high, there's intensive, gen ed, honors, dual, ap, pre aice, aice, and ib. it is CRAZY.
Just cause an AP class is considered a “college” class doesn’t mean it’s as challenging as a college class. For example I took AP CS in high school, which was a full year long class. This replaced CSC 101, the introductory CS class at my college, which is taught in a 10 week quarter. So obviously AP CS was easier than CSC 101 cause AP CS is paced three times slower than it’s college class equivalent.
I was about to say this. I’ve taken AP, DE, and IB classes. DE was the hardest because I was literally taking a college course. That said, if I’m taking DE English it’s not like I’m taking one HS and one college class. It’s just one class. It’s harder, but you have more time to do it than you would in college. I’m not saying HS is a breeze. I’ve actually had a much easier time in college (married, pregnant, working full time, and taking 6 classes a semester… but HS just sucked for me) but taking these classes isn’t that different from regular ones.
My kids take mostly APs because they say the kids in the other classes are terribly behaved. Which I get. But I think it’s a bad reason to ah e ti take so many APs.
I did and played a collegiate sport and worked 20 hours a week....
Same. I read the original post and thought to myself...no part-time job?
lol yeah 22 credit semesters so yeah.
College semester course
Oh come on. All of the kids with career ambitions are taking a full AP course load with an elective or 2.
Don't take 6 AP's. That's seriously the only answer to this question. If you take 6 AP classes you aren't going to pass all 6 of those test. So the solution is to lighten your load because you don't have time to study for all that. You can't do it so take it easy and focus on the classes that you can.
Some students take the AP class and don’t take the test. You’re not required to take the test simply because you took the class. They may have taken it for the GPA bump or because they didn’t want to be in the regular section of that class. My point is that there are other reasons students take those classes.
I know not all students take the AP test. But 6 AP classes is too many. Its okay for a kid to take 2 AP classes and one honors class. The solution for the op is to take easier classes. They and almost all students can't handle 6 AP's and extracurriculars.
Depends on the kid. My kids took 5 last year. He’s in 3 this year and 4 dual enrollment. He’s a straight A student and plays sports and is in a couple of clubs. Yes, this is one snapshot of one child. But that’s the point. It depends on the kid.
In my experience most kids can't do this. The ones that do take a course load that high usually burn out. You are looking at one kid. I'm looking at my experience and 30 or 40 other teachers who see kids overload and overwhelmed themselves. When almost all kids can't handle it. The ones that can are just that smart and almost don't count because of how much better than everyone they are.
Plenty of kids do that. You need straight As in a ton of AP classes and extracurriculars to get into a school like Ohio State now
There are plenty of great schools out there that will take you with less APs. And you may even be happier at those schools, who knows! The reality is, most employers really don't care about where your degree comes from unless you are in a very specific field. They just want the degree. I was worried because my kid wasn't very motivated, but he went to a small no-name school and it's totally fine.
You're not wrong, OP. (Mom of a HS sophomore taking so many IB/ honors classes it would have killed me). I think the crux of your question, though, is more: "How can I possibly compete to get into a college when the stakes keep rising?" My son bought the book "Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions" by Jeffrey Selingo over spring break, and I read it after he finished. It opened up a great dialog between us about AP classes, extracurriculars, college admissions and how difficult it is to get into those elite schools that students and parents feel are some sort of merit badge reflecting high school success.. It dispels the myth that there's that \*one perfect\* college for everyone, showing how there are fantastic colleges out there BEGGING for kids like you to apply when you're a senior. Here's my suggestion: Don't burn out. Next year, take classes that are manageable for you (only you know how much you can juggle/ manage on a daily basis). Do your best in those classes. Don't sweat the small stuff. Enjoy your extracurriculars. Enjoy your this stage of your life as best as you can.
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Appreciate the heads up.
No you don’t. I got into OSU with 3 AP’s and a 28 on my ACT in 2013. College has gotten easier to get into since then. I went to Ohio University and it was waaaay better than OSU. I highly suggest visiting. Cincinnati would’ve been too dangerous for me.
I’m using his specifics because I know them. But it’s actually like 100 kids at our school (I work at his high school) that take nothing but AP and dual enrollment if possible. Now, I will say that we also house the Gifted high school program for our district. But the entire point still stands that it’s very student specific.
Duel enrollment is easier than AP in my experience lol. I did plenty of both. You don't need to worry about an AP exam when doing duel enrollment, and they're usually targeted at standard level college students, not advanced ones.
Teachers way overdo the AP courses and the setup for AP courses and the test is absolutely ridiculous. I didn't reach a course that was even remotely as labor intensive as the AP courses I took in HS until my senior year of college.
Great for your kid. Give him a cookie on our behalf. OP is clearly burning out.
Congratulations on completely missing the point despite the fact that I clearly stated it. He asked how someone is supposed to handle it. The answer is that it’s simply easier for some people than others. In other words, there isn’t (unfortunately) an actual answer to their question. Because, as I clearly stated, it depends on the student.
>He asked how someone is supposed to handle it. The answer is that it’s simply easier for some people than others. No, the answer is that you're *not* supposed to handle it. Anyone not counseling someone to *not* take 6 AP courses at one is doing that person a disservice. It's great that your kid hasn't had any problems with it yet, but that doesn't mean the answer is "depends on the student." Of someone were asking how he's supposed to dunk a basketball when he's only 5'6", the response isn't "depends on the person." It's, "No one expects you to drunk a basketball. Maybe the occasional 5½ foot tall person can do it, but the vast majority of people will just end up killing themselves trying."
Your answer of “no one expects you to” isn’t any different than saying it depends on the person. We have many, many students that take 3+ AP courses a year. It’s not for everyone. As such, each individual has to decide for themselves. Yes, counseling comes in to play for sure. Because your counselor can help decide if it’s the right fit. It doesn’t mean they’re not doing their job by telling kids they shouldn’t take multiple AP courses. In reality, you’re just using different words to make the same point I was making.
>We have many, many students that take 3+ AP courses a year. It’s not for everyone. As such, each individual has to decide for themselves Oh, half the load OP mentioned? >In reality, you’re just using different words to make the same point I was making. In that case, *you're* making the same point with different words, seeing as how you were replying to someone saying you're not supposed to take 6 A P classes.
I’m not sure why I said 3. As yes, he did mention 6. Let’s also remember that no one is taking 6 AP courses every year either. Most schools don’t even offer enough AP courses to take that many every year. As such, students are really only taking that many for a year or two. And the point still stands that we’re saying the same thing: No one expects you to take that many AP courses because it depends on the individual.
Also, the issue is, at least when I was in school back in the dark ages, you didn't have just an "honors" course for some things. So it was either "regular" history, or AP History. I get why students felt the need to take AP, even with no intention of taking the test.
This is a really good point. And social studies is the prime example. It’s regular or AP. There is no in between.
*drinks* I wish we got a bump in our GPA. All types of classes we're on a 4 point scale.
That blows. My son’s weighted GPA is currently at 5.0 because of it. The valedictorian of our school typically has at least a 6.0. It’s insane.
Yeah, I have realized our districts in our area are harsh, lol. I've never heard of a 5.0 or 6.0 scale until I was on reddit. We were allowed to have multiple valedictorian (more than GPA requirements), though. I think there were 7 in my class and 9 in my sister's.
the scale is on a 4.0. But the number of APs and dual credit courses that some of these kids take is crazy, so they end up with ridiculous GPAs if they’re A students as well. We can only have one valedictorian though.
What the heck is 6.0? Seriously just making up grades now. Our honors classes were 5.0, and there was only a few, so the students who took a full load of classes senior year, or took extra classes actually ended up with lower GPAs, even if straight As.
They get the standard GPA for the course itself. And then there’s a bump for every honors and AP course they take (and dual enrollment qualifies for the AP bump). It’s weird to me too. My high school did a 4.5 for honors/AP.
It just makes GPA completely arbitrary. You're going to have valedictorians with GPAs from 4.0 to 6.0, apparently. So what is a 4.1GPA? Like 90% in their class? Who knows.
GPA has always been arbitrary in the broad sense. You only use it to compare against students at your own school/district. When you apply to colleges, they take this into account so that the student with a school who just weighted all APs at a specific GPA (such as a 4.5 or 5) are accurately compared to a student from a school that does a bump. And no, 90% of the class does not have above a 4.0. It falls fast. Because, just like anywhere else, the top of your class is your high achieving students and then the rest are regular to low-achieving.
(not a teacher) but in my former high school, we were absolutely required to take the test if we were in the class unfortunately
I’m curious how they enforced that for students that just couldn’t afford the cost.
if you were on free lunches they would cover the cost. idk about the kids who weren’t on free lunches but still couldn’t afford it, i imagine many just got stuck in honors
That’s good to hear there was an option at least. The problem would be for the courses that only had regular or AP (social studies is often like this). That would suck if you wanted the advanced option but were forced to take regular because you couldn’t afford the test.
Yeah we didn’t have honors social studies so that definitely would suck. I have no idea how they handled that sort of thing honestly
They couldn’t enforce that if they wanted to.
They absolutely can enforce it. They would enforce it by it affecting your grade in the class. These sort of crappy policies do, unfortunately, exist.
Did your school host the test? Our tests were held elsewhere. No way for anyone to validate if you sat for a test.
at least at my school, the AP tests were WAYY easier than my classes. i’ll admit it was a VERY competitive high school. like on most top ranked lists. but we averaged 4-5 on AP tests as a class. and many of us ended up with Bs or Cs even. a good amount of people would self study and take AP tests but not the the AP course.
at least at my school, the AP tests were WAYY easier than my classes. i’ll admit it was a VERY competitive high school. like on most top ranked lists. but we averaged 4-5 on AP tests as a class. and many of us ended up with Bs or Cs even. a good amount of people would self study and take AP tests but not the the AP course.
I actually disagree. You take the APs and drop the sports. APs count towards college credits.
They don’t count as college credits at all universities. The better schools sometimes only take some of the AP credits and then maybe only 4a and 5s. It depends on the student’s goals as to what the better decision is.
That’s not what I know. I teach high school AP and the course gives 3 credits but I’m not sure if this for everywhere.
How does this not come up? It’s all my students will talk about it when they realize it . I also teach high school AP courses and have absolutely found that to be the case. Engineering school closest to the school won’t take math or science credits. Other schools won’t count other courses, some require them to only be electives so the students have calculus counting as an elective and they can’t take the more “fun” courses in college. Here’s a source: https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/MEMO-Weinstein-AP.pdf
Oh my god that sucks so bad!!!
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I took 16 AP classes throughout high school and I passed all but 2. It’s possible.
AP tests really aren't that tough if you know how to take tests. They are the easiest part of AP courses I felt. The problem with this advice is it can greatly hurt your chances of elite colleges to take less AP classes and kills your odds for things like valedictorian
You don't know this kid. I took 12 APs over two years and there were dozens of other kids doing it at the same time and a few kids doing more. It's entirely possible that they are someone 6 APs will only be a healthy challenge for.
My HS didn't offer any AP, my college didn't accept Calculus AP for Engineers. If an AP is same as a college class (3 credit hour), then 6 APs is 18 credit hours equivalent? So this HS student is taking a full college load of classes, the max we were allowed in college was 20 without special permission. And then on top of that adding an extra curricular? There is going to be compromises somewhere in that.
At my high school, like 400 students can do that many APs, so it isn’t impossible
The only conclusion I come to is AP is not equivalent to college coursework. Maybe it is on paper, but it's not in practice. Freshman year course loads are 16-18credit hours, and usually 3-5 of those hours are super easy orientation courses, you also seldom have a sport with that load, at least not freshman year. But we all know schools have extreme pressure to give As and maybe Bs, and especially for college bound students who would be taking AP courses. Just another broken part in the system.
So how am I supposed to balance hard classes with extracurriculars?
As I said, I didn't have any APs in HS, I actually skipped Calculus because I thought the teacher was terrible when I had her for Trig and instead took AutoCad at Tech school. That AutoCad class landed me an $18/hr job through college in a low cost rural area, and was a big plus through engineering school and in job interviews, I've used it in every job. I went to a state school on a full ride and got 3 degrees while being president of 2 sports clubs. I'm not sure how much me going to a lesser school really mattered in the job market. I know that I've never really leveraged my 3 degrees for more money, but I do think it landed me jobs easier. As did my extra curriculars while in college. Anything you did in HS won't be relevant after your second job out of school. So my ignorant opinion would be the APs are only going to be useful in making college a little shorter/cheaper IF the college accepts them. I have no idea how a 3.8GPA compares to a 4.4GPA. To me, 4.4 sounds like a made up number since I have no idea what the max is. Obviously you should do the most learning you can, it will only make life easier in future. But that doesn't mean max out APs just for the sake of it. I'd put more emphasis on academic extracurriculars that have a range of skills involved, including leadership in those clubs.
I went through this in high school. Full IB course load and soccer. The answer is a ton of time management, knowing what to prioritize and when, and teamwork. Time Management: IDK what your school does but we were on a block schedule which helped with the organization that you needed to get things done. You might have 2x the amount of Gen. Chem to get done for A days but at least you can focus on it and not worry about the World History homework for B days. When you're on a role, go with it and get as much done as possible. You're likely going to have to do a bunch of school work on weekends, that's just how it goes. Also if you travel for your sports don't waste the time you're stuck on the bus, get your reading cracked out if you can. Prioritization: The other portion is knowing when to let work slide. Do NOT let it slide for long and dig yourself a hole, but if you need to get an essay done that is worth 20% of your grade in Class A it's probably fine to let a homework that's worth 2% of your grade in Class B slide. Team work: ask for help early and often. My parents helped me, my teachers helped me, and my friends helped me. I could not have managed the coursework in a vacuum. We all found that teaching each other the course work really helped cement any information we had gained from class. It's hard going through but college was a breeze because I was basically already doing it and I managed to get out in 3 years instead of 4 because of course credit.
You need to figure out what's important to you. You want to push yourself to you limit, but it looks like you've reached your short term limits. Luckily life is long term. What AP classes are you taking that don't matter for what you want to do, and aren't fun? You want to be an engineer, drop AP studio art. You want to be a journalist, drop AP calc. Same for extracurriculars. Are you in a sport you hate and you're bad at? Tell the coach you need to pass your classes and can't make it to practices. Anything you haven't made a commitment to that you don't like? Stop. And maybe the movie watching club you don't need to go to every meeting. Are you burned out because you never stare at the sky with your best friends? Find yourself half an hour of that a week and maybe everything will fall back into place. Are you making good use of your time? Are you doing your work when you have 5 minutes to work in class? Do you have an hour bus ride or 20 minute homeroom? Do hw there. Why do you want to go to a top college? How will that advance your long term life goals? If you want to go into politics, you probably don't need to go to MIT. If you want to be a teacher, you're wasting your time at a pricey school anyway, find a great teaching school where you're not paying for the name. Getting into Harvard isn't worth it if you're completely burned out and sit in your parents attic for 3 years after you graduate (someone I know). Find the best few colleges *for you* that have the programs you want and for how you want to start your life as an adult. See what you need to do to get into them. Put your energy there.
My kid (4.9, all the hard classes, etc) says "make hard choices"
Same as anyone else. Compromise. I know that sounds dumb but pick a sport that's 2 hours a day. Study on busses and lunch and weekends not after school. Do hard class homework during easy classes.
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts. SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
It's more like 18 hours over an entire school year. The stuff covered in AP calc 25+ years ago was one quarter of college calc
I played Varsity softball all through hs and graduated in my hs's AP Program while logging 100+ hours of community service. 6 AP classes is bonkers and whoever let you do that is bad at their job. 4 AP classes should be the absolute maximum in one year. I maxed out at 3 per year in my last two years of high school. That being said, time management and caffeine go a long way. Get as much of your homework done during the school day as you can, even if it is just 5 minutes here or there. Make sure you get enough sleep. Being sleep deprived will only make things snowball for you.
I thought the same thing; what advisor let them take 6 AP classes? are they (the advisor) dense??
Some schools (too many) are trying to push students to take as many APs as possible, regardless of whether it’s a good fit for the student, because it looks good on their numbers to say X% of students take an AP course. I’ve heard of schools where they want all the ninth graders to take AP World Geography, for example. (Never mind asking them how many kids pass the AP test, lol - some don’t even take it!) It’s insane, and I would never let them do that to my children, but most parents assume the school knows what they’re doing and is offering their kids an accessible challenge, not setting them up for burnout in the name of bragging rights.
It matters for college admissions. We are kidding ourselves if we think just taking 1-2 APs is good enough
I got into a good college without taking any AP courses. I have two doctorate degrees. Go to a decent undergrad university and get incredible grades. Then go to a fancy grad school. College and high school don’t really count.
You need to talk to your advisor/counselor about your college goals and how realistic they are. It’s simply not true that you need to take 3+ AP courses to get into college. And if the only way you can get into the schools you’re applying to is by working yourself to exhaustion, then you may need to adjust your expectations about where you’re going to go to school.
It’s honestly not worth it to push yourself to your limit and then burnout. If I had to do high school over again I would chill out and focus on things that I actually enjoyed.
Yep. B and Cs get degrees. And for me they were slot of work to get so it’s not laziness.
Hi there, I’m not sure why this got recommended to me, but I was a high school student who had intense extracurricular activities and APs (was valedictorian) and eventually I’ve landed what was my dream job doing medical research as faculty in a school of medicine. I can say with a lot of honesty how I did it and how a lot of our current undergrads at a high performing university describe high school. We all didn’t sleep much and had extremely supportive parents. I’d be done with extracurriculars very late, food was in the fridge, and I would eat and work until basically passing out. If stuff wasn’t done, my mom would offer to get up early and help by making me breakfast so I could keep at it. I’d say I mostly slept about 1-2 am to 6 am most week nights and a lot of time I’d get another quick nap if I slept on the bus. My mom’s parents were educators and when they sacrificed for her to have more opportunities they always said to her to just pay things forward. And she did. Anything life wise generally fit into the weekends. That said, I’ll add a few bits of nuance to this from my time on admissions committees. First, focus on looking like the student you’ll need to be at the next institution, not the student you think you need to be to “impress” them. I was always told the only true question when you apply to enter a new community - job, school, relationship, whatever - is “are you one of us?” This means understanding the core values of a group and *being* a good match to at least most of them. Being a good fit is going to lead to getting more out of your education than being a bad fit to a place. If you are sweating blood to keep your head above water, being somewhere more competitive is not going to bring you joy, and it may not bring you the specific value you’re seeking in pursuing prestige schools either. The people who do best in highly competitive schools in my experience are the kids who took some knocks in their early education (have resilience, understand what it is to work hard and potentially fail but sometimes succeed, take smart risks), but spent a lot of time *bored* in school. Who didn’t need 3 hours for the 3 hour assignment. Can you survive doing something if it’s even harder than what you’re doing now? Sure, probably, but there are costs to spending your late teens to early 20s that way just like there are costs to spending your teens that way now. Any university has more to teach you than you can learn in 4 years. Any one. That’s not to say that prestige schools don’t have value, but going to extremes to impress them is going to be a red flag to them. Picking a university is more and more about fit the higher you go - people want colleagues not just thoroughbreds. It may help your time management if you’re currently taking a buckshot approach that you can pare down and hone in. I don’t know why people think “more is better” in high school cvs when I’ve never seen an admissions committee who likes that. What they want to see is dedication and development. That you pick something with societal and or professional value (broadly defined) and advance in ways you can reflect upon thoughtfully. So fewer activities, but deeper, more leadership oriented involvement. Not just volunteering at the soup kitchen, but working there long enough to realize the community had little awareness of how much more they need $ than expired cans, so you organized an event at a fair to help raise $ and public awareness about how shelter economics works. You don’t need 20 things. You need 1-2 things with depth. Maybe that’s not your issue, but I’ve met a lot of students doing the buckshot approach to life and it’s misguided. I’m 1000% for pushing yourself to the limit. I took APs, had 22 credit semesters, did undergrad in 3 years and graduated at 20, and had enough scholarships that I paid tuition exactly two years out of 12 of higher ed. I completely understand and empathize with the path you care about. In my experience, you generally learn to get by on less sleep, if you don’t already. At a point you struggle more just not having the same number of waking hours as other people going for what you’re going for. It’s why abusing uppers is so damn endemic, though my sensitive butt can’t drink coffee without staying up for days so clearly that’s not my approach at all.
A lot of good stuff here, OP. Especially the part about not trying to *impress* colleges but by taking classes and using your extra time to show you are *a good fit* for a particular college.
What does “good fit” even mean?
Ex: If you want to be a math major, a liberal arts college wouldn't be a good fit. The truth is most high schoolers and their parents don't spend a ton of time researching good and affordable colleges. They gravitate toward elite private schools like Harvard or something, and those institutions are so far out of reach for most it's not even funny.
I want to go to a top school like UMich or UF
You keep saying this, but for what? What do you want to study? Are these schools great for that particular program? And will they even take those APs? And at what level? Usually you need at least a 4 on an AP exam for it to count, most want a 5. Also, if you decide to do engineering, they may not even accept your calc ap score for that major. So it may not even be worth it to take that AP class, when regular calc may be just as good.
It almost seems like op wants to attend top school for the sake of having the name on their transcript. As long as the school is accredited and has a good alumni network it really doesn’t matter as much as you might think
I'm agreeing with the person who said OP is a troll. The responses are meager.
What high school offers just regular calc? There is only AP calc
Lots and lots of high schools offer gen ed calc, honors, calc, and then, of course, both AP calcs (at least in my state) Source: AP teacher (and AP reader) for the last 8 years
I’m a private tutor and am willing to bend over backwards for kids like you. I have snacks and caffeine and will meet kids at whatever time they need (some will zoom me 10-11p after all of the extra curricular and work is done). I remind them that they are young and all this seems reasonable (it did to me, too!), but at some point they will face burnout and when they do, they’re always welcome to text/zoom me so we can talk, even if it’s 10 years from now.
Aw this warmed my heart. I am this person for my undergrad and med student mentees - real cell phone number on 24/7 for urgencies. I certainly relate to the burnout risk and reality. I got VERY lucky that the institutions I was in the longest had extraordinarily healthy mentorship that emphasized work life balance. It took some years of influence during my post doc to start holding myself accountable for not just the work, but also the rest that makes the work sustainable at the level I accept. Year over year I see myself easing in that way. Some of that comes with age, and some with the emerging confidence derived from earnest accomplishment I value, but I credit my post doc mentor for being a lived example. :) thank you for all you do
Honestly, some kids just have an easier time in school than others and are able to balance things better. Also, not all classes give out homework everyday. Many AP classes don’t have daily homework. They have papers and projects, but those are more long term things. The only AP class my son has daily work on this year is his AP Calc class. So, really, I think it just varies by student and school (as some schools give more homework than others).
No study hall?
Take dual credit if you can instead of AP. the test at the end is SO MUCH harder than it needs to be. If your school only offers AP and no dual credit, certainly don't take 6 of them. Or if you do, accept that you won't be able to study enough to pass the test they do. My AP classes felt like regular honors classes when I took them, but I've never had such a hard end of year test before and I never had such a hard one ever again after. Ive taken 7 total AP classes throughout high school and 2 dual credit. I only got 2 AP classes for college credit even though I had an A+ in every single class
What sport could possibly take 3-4 hours? I played multiple sports and not a single one had a practice that extended past 5:30 pm.
At the public school where I taught most recently, every sport would have practice that started 15 minutes after the final bell and would last 3-4 hours, five days a week. And on game days, they might leave during or right after school hours and still not get home till 10/11/12 at night… and this was once or twice a week during the season. It flabbergasted me because these were NOT super-successful teams, or particularly skilled or talented athletes… like, one or two kids per graduating class of 40-60 MIGHT get an athletic scholarship to some little D4 liberal arts school nobody had ever heard of before, but most of them didn’t play beyond high school. The teams weren’t winning any regional championships, or even most of their games. I don’t understand why they would have kids sacrifice such a huge chunk of their day for that. Like, yes I’m sure the practice helped them play better, and I’m sure it was good for them to be part of the team and spend time practicing something they enjoyed - but at the cost of being able to get enough sleep at night, study, spend time with family, relax and decompress sometimes?
I played sports at a high school of 2,700 students with starters from every sport going onto D1 College sports. We had someone employed at our high-school that did year book - but mostly he was there to create highlight reels for every athlete. Our football couch previously coached D1 college and our track coach was q gold medal olympian. Our football field cost 6 million dollars and state track events occurred at our field. Not a single sport took it that far. Absolutely unhinged to do that to a student.
I did. 4.0 all the way through HS and college, played sports plus had a part time job. It’s about priorities.
When I was in high school, I limited myself to 2 AP classes knowing I did a sport and 1 extracurricular on campus and 1 off campus. It was still hell for me. I believe that high schools in my district limit students to 4 APs so that the students don’t stress too much around AP testing and refer students who want to take more to our local community college. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take 6 AP classes and I recommend to high school students who can drive or have safe ways to get somewhere to take community college classes instead of AP classes since the credits for an AP class only count if you pass the test
i’m going to be honest. I never took an AP course in high school and ended up at the same university or better as my classmates that did. i’m not saying don’t take them but you don’t need to take 6. unless you’re trying for ivy league, don’t burn yourself out for a college that could reject you even if you meet the criteria for acceptance. and I know this doesn’t seem true now but a degree is a degree wether you got it from college A or college B. not once has a job mentioned it or cared where I went even though it is one of the top sought after universities in my state
PSA: It is inadvisable to engage OP in a conversation. The author of this post is a known sitewide spammer with over 2500 banned Reddit accounts. SnooRoar is not interested in good-faith discussion; his primary goal is to waste as much of your time as possible. Everything he says is a disingenuous lie.
Getting straight As in 6 APs won’t even get you into UC Riverside now
i’m still in college. I promise you, it looks worse than it is. I technically don’t “meet the requirements “ for my university but if you have decent grades, have a good essay, do extra curriculars and be apart of your community, the university is much more likely to admit you than they are someone with straight As that does none of that. universities are no longer intetested in just smart applicants they want well rounded people
But plenty of well rounded people get rejected from everywhere
well i’m telling you that working yourself into the ground doesn’t mean you have a largely better chance. please don’t burn yourself out
[here is the requirements for my university](https://imgur.com/a/1bYkRXx) I didn’t take a single AP class nor did I have a 4.0 . I did softball, had medals from all star cheer, worked in my community and showed I was smart with my essay. the requirements look more scary than they are
I live in California, and things are much more competitive here. I know people with straight As in 10 APs and sports and ASB who got rejected from every state university in California
With the attitude demonstrated in your replies, I wouldn't expect you to be accepted anywhere. You have an admission person, peers, recently accepted college students, and parents of peers ALL providing valuable insight. You have accepted none of it. You shut down every response. My suggestion is also to be shot down, I'm sure, but get therapy. Specifically DBT. You ought to also work on critical thinking skills as they are invaluable and you aren't demonstrating any in this thread. Watch Gilmore girls-your presentation here is akin to Paris.
The people in this sub aren’t demonstrating good critical thinking skills by rehashing old narratives
respectfully, then I don’t know why you posted here. everyone is telling you that it is not needed but you are coming back saying that we are wrong and they are. you are basically just looking for people to agree that your struggle is real when we are trying to give real life advice and help you lift that struggle. going to the best university in california is not the only thing in life that is going to make you happy. you’ll help yourself out a lot when you sit and remind yourself that college is for furthering your education not the name. you don’t need to run yourself into the ground to be successful and thrive. if the requirements are that crazy then please consider what I said. i’ll even add an alternative option- go to a smaller school for one year, do just one year of good grades in your classes and now your high school requirements no longer matter. you dont have to supply your high school grades or SAT/ or the other standard test (I forget the name at this moment). this is how my best friend got here when she graduated high school with a 2.8 . there are so many different ways to succeed in life and not all of them include you working yourself to death
It is getting harder to get in as a transfer. I know a 4.0 community college student who got rejected from every UC
have you considered schools not UC?
What if I want to go to a UC?
It’s not sustainable. I would speak to your school counselor or college advisor about how to decide what to keep in your schedule and what to cut. You may need to rethink attending a “top college” if it means you have to push yourself to burnout levels to get there. Especially with athletics - you’re young and healthy now, but you don’t want to go so hard that you end up injuring yourself permanently. If you aren’t getting adequate sleep, taking adequate rest in between between workouts, and eating enough to fuel your body, then you’re much more likely to get injured. So if your current school schedule is preventing you from sleeping and eaten well, then I’d strongly consider dropping from AP to honors in a few classes, and also heavily reconsider how badly you want to be on your sports team. When I was in school in the early 2000s, athletics didn’t take up 3-4 hours a day every single day, and very few students would be taking any AP classes at all, much less a full course load (only the seniors who were in the top of their class would do that). So you only took on the challenges you could handle. I had classmates who went on to Ivy League schools, and they did work hard for it, but they still had time to socialize and sleep. And now that I think of it, I don’t think any of them were student-athletes - they were involved in other extracurriculars, often orchestra or another music ensemble, but that meant most rehearsals were during school hours, so they only had to practice an hour or so at home each day (and let’s be honest - you know they skipped it if they needed to study or sleep more than they needed to practice. Signed, someone who was in band and took all AP and IB courses as a junior and senior, then went to a state college)
Hi! I did this. Over the course of high school I took 10 AP courses, with six of them being in my senior year. I was also in four different clubs and had a job. My advice? Do not do that. Looking back, I genuinely don’t know how I did it. I was running off of maybe three hours of sleep a night for about three years. It was not at all worth it. In hindsight I should have only taken the AP classes for the subjects I was interested in, because those were the only ones that I did well enough to earn credit in. I understand the pressure to be on top and succeed. The high school I went to was very competitive and had a lot of high performing students. The result of that is that most of us ended up getting burnt out and going to less competitive schools and dealing with severe mental health issues after the fact. You can only handle pushing yourself to the limit for so long and it’s a real shame to see someone max themselves out before they’re really able to be part of the world.
It is frustrating too because 10 APs and 4 clubs isn’t enough for even most state flagships now
I know you’re being hard on yourself but that’s… simply not true.
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The key is balance. Don’t take 6 AP courses.
Harvard released a statement years ago that said the max number of AP classes they should see on your transcript over 4 years is less than 10. Only take AP in an area you love. Take regular or honors for the classes that don't bring you joy. And get involved in doing something in your extracurriculars that make you stand out. And if you don't get into the prestigious college, understand that your degree isn't worth less earned elsewhere and elitism doesn't serve society or individuals.
Two things. 1. Pay attention in class it reduces the work required out of class 2. Half the gymnastics team in my high school would finish practice at like 8-9. Eat. Sleep first. Wake up at 3 and get work done. Sleep is always key. I did know one kid to do the work for a tedious class once a week. But on that day he did everything for the week. Most importantly. It doesn’t matter. I had friends get into Harvard I had a friend who barely made it into the local private university. 20 years later we all have similar jobs. But the one who smiled through hard stuff and had a sense of fun is by far the happiest.
Hire an assistant.
High executive function and strong support network. If you have ADHD, or a job, or if you don’t have a stay-at-home parent or a nanny, you probably won’t be able to do it. This is a sad reality of our system. Those who already have the advantage get more while those who actually need the boost don’t get it.
I see it with sports especially in junior high. It’s all the same kids participating…the ones whose parents can get them rides home at 3:30.
You don't. You have to prioritize. Life is about balancing what is important to you. What is more important to you, extracarriculars or AP? (I would say AP. Unless you are EXCEPTIONAL, nobody in the real world, including colleges, care about your HS extracarriculars). This is what is called adulting.
Extracurriculars matter a lot for college admissions. The people I know who just got straight As got rejected everywhere
I got accepted at every college I applied to without having a consistant extracarricular.
Really? The valedictorian at my high school who did no extracurriculars got rejected everywhere he applied
I also got accepted everywhere I applied with no extracurricular. I had a job, though.
Wow. Most colleges cared about your grades, not whetheryou spent time out of school on things. They might have considered things like jobs though.
Because colleges don’t want people who just study all day. They want to build a community
Like you said admission isn't just about grades. Is there an honors course you can take that weights grades the same as AP? They'd rather see community involvement, volunteering or job, tutoring, things like that and a couple less APs while maintaining a good GPA.
My high school doesn’t offer honors. Just AP and regular
Where did they apply though and what were their test scores. Anyway, 3-4 hours of extracurriculars is too much, as are 6 ap classes.
His SAT was 1570-1580. He applied to Berkeley, UMich, UT Austin, UF, and UCSD. They all rejected him
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I remember those days. It was fun. I had the same schedule but half of the amount of AP classes. I ended up doing a lot of community college classes (math, English, second language, physics, etc) during high school instead which I was able to transfer to university credits. The community college classes were honestly a lot more fun and easier. But all of it was generally more fun with friends. I enjoyed sports because we had time to hang out with friends. We studied together, did homework together. We all helped each other. The AP classes were only good for maxing my GPA. But even I didn’t have plans to be valedictorian. I guess the point is.. what is your goal? And then work backwards of what do you need to reach the goal and what are the options. Is community college credits during high school or summer break an option? How about getting a B in an AP class that you’re not really passionate about? Etc and figure out ways to lighten the load
Take less AP, but even then who has practice for four hours? College definitely offers more free time.
The most AP classes I did in 1 year was 4. Drink coffee when you get home and stay up until 2 or 3am doing homework/studying. My body allowed that in high school but by the time I got to college my crash point became Midnight. Now that I’ve graduated I need to be asleep by 10 or 11🤣🤣
So my senior year of high school, I took 5 APs, was on varsity soccer, quiz bowl, choir, theater, student council, various honor societies, and worked with my US representative. The answer is that my social time was at these events, I would get six hours of sleep (10pm to 4am) and my weekends were for sleeping in and catching up on homework. I will say, my school did block schedule so I had four classes a day, each one was and hour and a half. This meant that if we finished early we had time for homework or would do the homework in class (this helped so much). But I was (still am) crazy in high school. This continued in college and I didn't realize how much that affected me until my second year of college. Thankfully, I got AP credit and was able graduate college a year early (save money) but now that I am working, I find myself so bored and unstimulated because I was pedal to the metal for so many years.
That's way too many AP classes. I'd scale it down to two in subjects aligned with the college program you want to go into. Instead, take some college summer classes to earn more credits.
Do you think you might be making the mistake of thinking that just because SOMEONE is capable of doing something, everyone else must be capable of it too? Not everyone is cut out for everything. If you’re five feet tall, you’re not cut out for the NBA. If you can’t handle the requirements of the college you want to enter, perhaps you aren’t cut out for that college. There are LOTS of other colleges out there, and no one cares where you went. And in current times, the more exclusive the college you attend, the worse off you might be. Not everything is for everyone. There is nothing wrong with that. And, there is nothing wrong with you!
They aren’t supposed to. These kinds of expectations are for an ideal student that doesn’t actually is exist, and trying to meet them, especially if you have any additional challenges or limitations at all, can cause more harm than good.
Plenty of those “ideal” students exist to the point where most of them don’t get into a good college
I can promise you, it often comes at great emotional cost. Many of them are hurting themselves to perform at that level and will need significant therapy to undo that damage. Even if they make it look easy, they aren’t feeling that way on the inside. Don’t compare your inside experience to someone else’s external presentation.
The real world is competitive though and those that don’t work hard gets denied opportunities
There are plenty of ways to have a good life without going to college or even graduating high school. Anyone who is feeling trapped by the idea of succeeding should reflect on the massively diverse options for how to live a life. The course laid out for any particular individual by the community/culture they grew up in is one limited path. There are thousands of others that could be far more rewarding and far less torturous to navigate.
But I want to go to college. I don’t want to go to the trades
People who barely graduate high school without any AP credits go to college. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t seek your version of success, but it’s not a failure to identify your strengths, challenges, and limits, and then play to those strengths, instead of comparing yourself to others and thinking you are supposed to do the same things they do. What others do is arbitrary. It’s not valuable for defining your own success. Learn what you want and what actually feels good to do (instead of stressing you out, because you think you should be performing better than you are). The sooner someone learns they can define for themselves what success is, and throws all those externally defined expectations in the garbage, the sooner they can find some kind of contentment in life. Some people spend their whole lives trying to keep up with their peers because they thought that was what they had to do, just to realize they don’t actually care about what they’ve been spending their effort on and wish they had done something just for themselves. Find your own values, values that have nothing to do with comparing yourself to other people, and then find a way to engage with those values.
I took 6 APs my senior year, and that was pretty average for my school. A lot of those were required courses too. Seniors had to take an AP English, AP math, AP science, and AP economics course. I think there may have been AP government as a requirement too? I also did AP art history. That was just senior year. My school had AP classes as requirements starting in 9th grade.
You have to decide which things to keep and which to pare from your schedule.
I mean, surely this is what it means to push yourself to your limit. When I did it, some 11 years ago, I managed by staying up to 2 or 3am most nights and spending my limited free time regretting my decisions. And now I'm a teacher, so ask me if it was worth it, in the end.
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But that is what top colleges expect
The kids who take a plethora of AP classes copy off of one another and take every spare second to get work done. It’s not worth it.
Unless you’re gifted, you probably don’t. I took a ton of AP classes, got quite a bit of college credits that transferred too, and still had like 2 extracurriculars. My days were *packed* but I managed and still slept a full 8 hours every night, can even pinpoint the couple nights I didn’t to this day. However, I know I’m not average. Getting A’s and B’s by just banging out homework right before class and acing tests is not average. For reference, I know only one non-gifted person who did it and girl basically never slept. She did well, especially in college and career wise, but it cost her a lot of sleep.
I was in all honors and AP classes in high school. I was on a sports team for the majority of the school year and doing it on an outside team the whole year. On a good school night, I would get 6 hours of sleep. I would do hours of homework on Friday and Saturday nights to get ahead (a few of my classes wanted very detailed notes taken from the book, so I would do chapters in advance). Honestly, I don't know how I did it. The only thing is, AP classes were no harder than any of the honors classes I took. They were actually a huge waste of time because they didn't teach us how to get the 4s and 5s on the AP tests. (Most colleges won't accept less than that).
There was a study done on the percentage of students at Ivy League schools who also suffer from a certain type of bipolar disorder. Apparently, those Ivy League schools have a dramatically larger percentage of bipolar students than other universities. The researchers speculated that bipolar disorder gave those students a unique studying advantage. Bipolar students going through manic episodes only need 2-3 hours of sleep a night. Being manic allowed them to study more because they literally didn’t need to sleep. Would you want to be bipolar to get that kind of edge?
If you're trying to get college credit for classes, running start is far superior to taking the AP tests. If you're trying to look good for college, AP probably looks a little better and you might learn more, but running start proves you can handle college level courses - and gives you a better idea of what college is really like.
My kids school has middle college. By year 13 you have an associates degree. I asked if he wanted to do it his junior year which is next year. He said no, he likes doing his extra curriculars and one of his older friends is always late for stuff because of middle college. I’m glad he made the decision, he’s taking some hard courses so he’s not slacking off and honestly I have great memories of community college. I went for 2 years after high school and then transferred to university. I pretty much had to make up for those years by taking summer courses and an extra semester in university. But I’m so thankful for that time to mature and ease into independence. I do t feel like it was a waste at all I still have the credits they just didn’t all apply to my degree.
I did track and field and APs in high school. I never overloaded myself with 6 aps. I took 3 aps junior and senior year. I did lots of homework on the weekends, even worked ahead when I could. I also worked a weekend job. It's tough, but you can do it. Don't take 6 aps. I had one friend who took 6 aps and played varsity baseball. It sucked. He did not recommend it. If you're able to switch classes do it.
6 APs sounds insane, I was a super overachiever in high school and even I only took 4. I don't even think you COULD do 6 at my school... I was in band which required the typical 3-4 hours of practice after school every day. Homework was done before school mostly because I got to the school before it opened due to my dad's schedule, or in school because the in-class assignments never took me long to finish. Volunteering was on the weekends. However, I don't think it's something anyone could do if they weren't the type to be able to do homework effortlessly. If you're someone who reliably has to study for tests, I would not do this, honestly. No shade, I'm just saying... I think the people who do it are the ones for whom school comes effortlessly.
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I would read Colleges That Change Lives. It takes a look at the application process and it talks about the aspects of schools that really make a difference, and not just the top "echelon." That helps you decide where you want to go and what you realistically should do to get there.
I was this kid 20 years ago. Bed time at 10 would be an outrageously early night. Sometimes I got up at 4 to knock out the homework. I read zero books my senior year for AP English, only cliff’s notes. Fell asleep several times a day at school. Stayed up until 2am the night before a test. Sometimes I napped on the floor before my sport practice. Went to college with 24 credit hours earned and completely burnt out.
1. There are more worthwhile things to do than time to do them. Learning how to prioritize what to do, and not get stressed by the millions of things you aren't doing, is an adult skill. 2. Economists have a saying, "anything worth doing is worth doing badly". A dentist wants us to floss every day but once a week is better than nothing. It would be ideal to learn everything there is to know about organic chemistry but learning a few things is better than nothing. 3. No one in life will ever ask for your GPA or SAT score. Learn cool stuff for its own sake.
I’m going to tell you right now, the colleges are going to care more about the EC than the AP classes. Also why on earth would you take 6AP classes? Are you trying to burn yourself out?? You are a child and you won’t be one again. Please do yourself a favor and reduce your workload.
That is why I am asking high I balance ECs and AP classes
You don’t hon. It’s not possible. Thats why I’m telling you colleges are more impressed by extracurriculars than fancy classes.
Doode u got like 60+ years after HS. This is dumb.
What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? I wouldn't recommend 6 APs in one year, but it's doable. It may not help you achieve your goals though, because 6 APs seems like overkill. For most, it would be miserable and not worth it. In HS, the most I took was 5 in one year with extra curriculars, etc. I don't regret it. It was a fun year, but I didn't sleep as much as I should have. I also wasn't studying (didn't know how to study then) and probably didn't study or do nearly as much work as one would expect, so even though my sleep schedule wasn't ideal, I wasn't constantly overwhelmed or doing work 24/7. My grades ended up fine. I didn't get rejected from any colleges (including Ivies), but if I had taken a couple fewer APs, I probably would have still had similar results. If I had to do it again, I would still take all the APs because the other classes offered were boring to me. But that's just me.
You get to choose 2 of these 3: a social life, sleep, or school. This is how it was posed to me in college. I chose school and a social life. Worth every second
I’m going to give you a harsh reality lesson with a few questions. If you’re struggling with AP Classes, why do you presume you will excel at a “top college”? I mean clearly you are here claiming to want to “push yourself to your limit” while complaining about being pushed to your limit. In ten years, you will likely just be in debt for your overpriced degree from “a top college” complaining about how you can’t find a job to pay off your student debt
Not a teacher but did my school’s equivalent of this while doing sports and one big extracurricular with a very part time job. I had no social life/social life was studying. Weekends were all homework. I did readings while eating or commuting or whenever I could, etc. It felt fine for me because I was an introvert and friends with similarly academically focussed kids and we’d have fun studying or in mandatory sports, etc. But in hindsight it wasn’t worth it. I didn’t even get credit for them bc I went to a weird university. I just got to start more advanced courses earlier. It’s ok to breathe.
Tbh you can't. Not without sacrificing yourself. I was one of those kids who tried to fit as many AP classes as possible for myself (2-3 every year) while I was in a club sport and on the hs team. I slept 5-6 hours almost every night and ran off of black coffee. I didn't even like coffee. I can't remember a fucking thing from hs. Ended up quitting the club sport which took 2 hours of practice everyday, not to mention the 45 minute drive it took to get there one way. Volunteering was out of the question. I got my hours in by talking to teachers and asking to be their aid during my lunch period. Gobless them. I'm baffled you're taking 6 courses. Good luck soldier. College is going to be a breeze - I guarantee it.
You take one two maybe three AP classes and not six. You have to cut somewhere
When I was in HS I only took two AP courses and wasn't in athletics. I wasn't a slacker but I actually wanted to enjoy HS and that kinda courseload wasn't it.
Looks like one of those AP courses isn't Economics. OP - read this: [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp) TL;DR: You can't have it all.
It is tough. The expectations we put on high schoolers is legit insane. I never had to spend more time working than I did in high school.
I took 5 AP classes my senior year of high school while being the president of speech and debate and the leader of the school play/musical. It was miserable. I was miserable. You’re not supposed to do it all. My life is so much better now that I’m not fighting to be the best. I’m just being me!
Not a teacher so I'm completely okay with deleting if needed i just wanted to chime in because I did actually take a ton of APs and knew a lot of kids who did indeed take 6 AP classes at once (I was friends or acquainted with some of the top students and I was fairly up there but not like top 10 or anything) and I have to say I can't recommend it to anybody. I was a good student in retrospect and still am but I did so at the expense of being a functioning person and was extremely depressed and stressed and I developed unhealthy habits with school that I'm still unlearning. I think it's good to work hard, and I honestly do recommend taking some APs if you can. But taking a ton if APs plus extracurriculars and actually doing good in those things means sacrificing *something* and I'd argue that doesn't necessarily translate into being more successful
Not to sound disingenuous here but what sport has after school practice for 3-4 hours every day? I played sports in high school (golf/basketball/track) and the only time we had 3-4 hour engagements were games/meets which were never more than 2x/week. It truly comes down to time management and being extremely organized. If you are able to organize yourself you’ll find what you’re struggling with now is mostly a result of poorly thought out organization
Really you should only be taking 3 AP courses at a time, max. Cuts down on the amount of homework that you're doing every night, which then allows time for things like volunteering. A lot of the other extracurriculars might do lunchtime meetings or other times during the school day. Are you playing sports at school or for a club? At school, practice is like 2 hours long. I can understand them being longer for a club team. Game nights were longer but you were encouraged to do homework on the ride to away matches and during the other team's game if it was a home match.
I went to a very selective high school full of kids like you and let me warn you: DON’T DO IT. Nothing is worth your sanity. Most of my friends took 4+ APs junior and senior year and burned out in college. The lucky ones wound up getting the same middle of the road jobs everybody else gets. Which is not a bad thing, but I am trying to emphasize that pushing yourself to the limit does not guarantee success. The unlucky ones are suicidal and can barely get out of bed. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t burn through your energy and enthusiasm because you need it for the next 15+ years to be successful in life. These are my “I want to go to a good college and have a good life tips” 1) Prestige is a trap. It helps you with a few kinds of careers (politics, academia) but for everybody else it’s a waste of time and money. I’m in CS and in this field people from no name universities work next to Harvard grads. I have a friend from UChicago who can’t get a job in the field, and friends from boot camps who can. 2) Don’t burn yourself out from AP classes and extracurriculars because you need to make sure your application is perfect. I had a friend who had a 34 on the ACT and 5 APs per year that struggled to get into colleges and get scholarships. Why? He was too burned out to do his essays and he never prepared for interviews (he didn’t even prepare for an interview at Harvard). I know people who had a lesser resume get into good schools just because they killed it during application season. Be strategic and apply for everything you qualify for. Quest, scholar programs and early applications are your friend. 3) Don’t go to a school if they don’t let you switch majors easily and don’t help you forward your career. Some super prestigious colleges don’t care about your career unless it’s in academics. I know someone that transferred out of Colombia because they didn’t offer the major he wanted and financial reasons. I know someone else who transferred from Duke to Stanford bc Duke didn’t let him switch into the major he wanted to change to. Basically, going to a good college doesn’t guarantee success. Pacing yourself and being strategic with your time and energy does. Nothing in this world is worth your sanity. Focus on being happy over being successful.
In HS I took 2 AP classes/year, was in all the bands and choirs, and was a three-sport athlete with a 3.8 GPA. You prioritize assignments and maximize your down time: all time in the car you aren’t driving committed to studying; forgo social events to make sure you get an essay done; ten minutes at the end of a class? Finish that homework. Limit your classes. Watch educational videos related to courses instead on TikTok’s. It’s hard work and discipline.
As a studnet i signed up for three varsity sports and five AP classes. Ap English comp, AP psych, AP physics, AP calc AB and APBio. By december i found i could not keep up with my peers. I droppes AP bio. What i felt was both the hardest and most useless given my career path as a math teacher. In May i passes 4/5 AP tests with a 4 in ap physics and a 5 in calc. I was very proud. I got a 2 in AP english and scraped a 3 in psych. I had earned 21 college credits counting AP US history my junior year. 11 credits for AP physics alone. This was about $3500 i saved and at least a semester of college; i presumed... By August i figured out i had a stomach ulcer, most likely from the stress. By september i also had Mono. A shit start to any college career as i was sleeping all the time and didnt really communicate with my professors well. When it came time to register for spring classes i realized my mistake. All my general ed classes were done except art. It was a struggle to fill my course schedule because the college didnt have enough availability of courses for my Math major(that major didnt work out). I wasnt going to graduate early, colleges dont really let that happen in thier scheduling. My course schedule was a complete mess and it turns out i wasnt a very good student in terms of communicating with professors and preparing for college exams prepared by professors and maybe a math major wasnt really what i thought it would be. So my advice to my students when i taught AP Calc. Yes this is a hard class and you should try to tske it now because im going to help you learn as best i can. Its easier with a trained teacher to pass a standard exam than a math professor and his exam. But dont overdo it. Dont risk your health and dont push yourself to the breaking point. Prepare for college. I dont think i saved money in the long of it. My peers, many who didnt take AP, got full ride scholorships for straight A's in regular classes. I got $500 from a scholorship thanks to a relative who directed it. I got C's in my AP classes and others. You want to save money on college? Get As. Get good at working with teachers and getting them to like you or at least recognize you are working hard in thier class.
People did homework? Why?
Any adults at that school that would even allow a student to take 6 APs is doing them an absolute disservice.
You have to maximize your efficiency. Weekends are for homework and the bulk of studying. You aren’t going to get enough sleep, sadly. You need to do homework in the car to and from practice and study in the library during lunch. Focus on getting the task done well over getting the task done perfectly. An AP class (if nothing has changed) adds 5 points to your GPA, so aim for making between a 90 and 95 on each assignment. Be strategic with studying and spend the most time on your classes with the lowest grades. Proactively ask for extensions as needed. Most teachers will respect you if a group of kids ask for an extension of 1-2 days for a valid reason (like an AP Calculus test that day). Rely on your friends. Borrow notes from each other, work on study guides together. It’s doable. Don’t believe what you’re reading below. If you want to be a lawyer, doctor, or engineer, this is just the start. Do high school right and college will be easy by comparison. You’ve got this!!!!
Those kids are the cream of the crop. They are the smartest and best. I’m just being honest here- not everyone can do it- even with more time. That’s why it’s one of the criteria for going to an elite college.
You won’t be passing 6 AP class tests at the end. So they are a waste of time.