AP Courses: Do you need them?

Nowadays, high school students across the globe are all thinking the same questions. How am I supposed to get into college? What do I put on my application? How can I stand out? One big question many ask is whether they need to take advanced placement courses in order to be admitted into schools.

What even is an AP course? AP courses are college level courses that high school students are able to take. The people who want to be in challenging classes tend to take these courses. However, there are other benefits to these classes, including earning college credit and placement, saving money, boosting GPA, and much more.

Greenwich High School offers a great deal of AP classes: 32 to be exact. There are AP classes for English, math, science, world languages, art/music, history, and more. AP courses have increased in popularity, astonishing colleges. Around 80% of high school students in the US have gone to schools “with 5 or more AP classes available” (apcentral.collegeboard.org). Since this information is sourced from the College Board, it is the key to know what colleges want to see on college applications. Given that GHS provides 32 AP courses and the average US high school provides at least 5, colleges will be more impressed if you take a few AP courses throughout your high school career at GHS. The College Board encourages “everyone interested in this work to review the AP Program’s toolkit for broadening access to Advanced Placement.” The “toolkit” primarily talks about enrolling into the AP courses and how to prepare for AP courses. 

 GHS students are lucky to be given the opportunity to take so many AP courses. 

Some people may wonder, who can take AP courses? On the GHS website under “Advanced Placement courses,” it says that freshmen can take AP courses; some schools don’t allow this. Freshmen, however, are limited to specific AP courses that they can take. GHS recommends taking the ‘soft limit’ opinion. “A ‘soft limit’ is a recommended maximum number of AP classes a student can take in a given year” (GHS website). GHS recommends that freshmen don't take more than one AP course, sophomores take two, juniors three, and seniors take four AP courses, in the time period of one school year. Do all students have to listen to this “soft limit"? The answer is no. If you would like to take more than the recommendation, you can; GHS put this ‘soft limit’ in place to offer students guidance. 

Is it a smart idea for students to load their schedules with AP courses in the hopes that colleges will be impressed? No, this is not always the right path to follow. Filling up a schedule can end up backfiring on the student. If they take a ton of difficult classes, then they might not receive good grades in their classes due to the struggle with balancing tough courses. This isn't to say that no one should fill up their schedules with AP courses; some students have the ability to take several AP courses and have great grades in the classes. However, it's good to know that it's very difficult to accomplish this result. 

College admissions officers don’t love seeing a bunch of AP courses taken without passing the class or the AP exam. “It shows that the student was trying to compete in a field they are not ready for and are simply trying to enhance their transcript with courses they think will impress a college" (usnews.com).

What AP courses are the best to take? There aren't specific AP courses that are superior to take; everyone is different. When I say everyone is different, I’m talking about college majors. For example if somebody is going to major in criminology, then taking AP German likely wouldn’t be useful for your college credits. However, taking a class like AP Psychology would be useful. “Part of the appeal of AP classes is possibly earning college credit….. Taking an AP course that aligns with your anticipated college major can mean a head start on college-level material and the potential to earn valuable credits” (usnews.com).

Before taking AP courses, make sure you're ready to make that commitment and have weighed both the pros and cons.