When they’re reading college applications, there’s one important criterion that the admissions committee uses to separate the wheat from the chaff: academic rigor. When a student has this quality, it means he or she has got a consistent record of not shying away from learning challenging content….and of kicking butt once they’ve enrolled.
How do you demonstrate that rigor? Well, one important way is to take as many AP classes during your sophomore, junior, and senior years as you can handle, if your school offers them.
But here’s the thing: you’ve got to do more than just take the hardest classes available during high school—you also need to succeed in them. After all, your college application will be squaring off against those of students from intensely academic high schools where taking a full schedule of AP classes junior year is the norm. (I speak from experience: I attended just such a high school!)
It’s long been clear to me, a college admissions expert, that APs are important. But don’t just take my word for it. As the College Board (more on them in a minute!) shares on its website: “85% of selective colleges and universities report that a student's AP experience favorably impacts admission decisions.”
To put your most impressive foot forward, you’ll want to earn as many passing scores as possible...but ideally 4's and 5's. So let’s try to optimize your shot at success by helping you figure out which AP classes will highlight your strengths come application time!
Article Contents
What are AP classes?
The College Board has been running the AP, or Advanced Placement, program since 1955. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re also the creators of the SAT.
AP classes are a hybrid of a tough high school class and an intro college class. At the end of the school year (usually in May), you’ll take a standardized exam with all the other AP students taking that specific course across the country.
And taking APs doesn’t just give your college application a boost. If you do well on the test, some colleges and universities will count these classes for college credits, so you can skip intro courses and prerequisites for major classes and move on to more advanced ones.
For example, if you successfully pass AP French, your college may count that as a language credit. Most schools only require one language credit in order to graduate, which your AP class would satisfy. Now you don’t need to take another language class in college.
Does every school offer Advanced Placement courses?
Nope. Some schools use IBs (International Baccalaureates) instead, while some use their own “honors” system. A third category of schools DO offer APs, but with restrictions: say, sophomores can only take one AP, or Juniors can only take two, etc. Still other schools allow students to enroll in just a small handful of APs from the College Board’s list.
So it’s actually pretty rare that a given high schooler will get to “choose” whichever AP course they want to take from the College Board’s list of over thirty courses. Often, you’ll have to work around a) what’s even offered at your school, b) how many APs your school allows you to take, and then finally c) what subjects interest you.
It’s also worth noting that, regardless of the technical rules around APs at a given institution, the culture around APs also varies between different high schools. Some of my one-on-one SAT/ACT tutoring clients attend very prestigious private high schools that treat AP classes as the holy grail, making a huge deal out of them…yet these are also often the schools that cap the number of APs one can take in a year.
How many APs should I take?
As you might imagine, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. I still find that helping my tutoring clients make this choice is more of an art than a science—and depends highly on the individual person.
The headline is this: you should enroll in as many AP courses as you think you can manage to take while maintaining high grades. APs are often more challenging than the average high school course. So if you’re struggling in your regular classes, maybe don’t take ALL APs senior year. It’s not worth tanking your GPA just to add on an extra AP for its own sake!
That being said, if your grades are relatively steady already, don’t freak yourself out about how hard APs are—many students each year take multiple APs at the same time AND do well on the exams, too. And it DOES look better to take the AP class and get a slightly lower grade than to take the regular or honors version of the same class just so you can guarantee yourself an A+. Most colleges will see an A- (maybe even a B+) in AP Calc BC as more impressive than an A+ in regular (non AP) calculus. It shows you’re challenging yourself and following your interests, not grade grubbing. That said, if you’re historically TERRIBLE at math and don’t plan on doing it in the future, don’t take AP Calc BC and then fail it and bring down your GPA!
Another thing to consider is that any subjects that you plan to make major parts of the “story” of who you are and what you’ll study on your college application should likely be on your AP list. It might strike admissions committees as odd if your admissions essay discusses your excitement to become an engineer one day…but you’ve declined to take any APs in the STEM fields.
As for whether to take the exams for the AP classes you enroll in: do it! Especially if the subject at hand is related to what you plan to claim your academic interests are. The exception being: if you discover over the course of taking an AP class that you’re really, really struggling with the content, don’t waste your time studying for and taking the exam.
How does the College Board grade AP exams?
Your scores from the multiple choice section of the test and the free-response section will be weighted and combined. The final score will be between a 1–5.
According to the College Board:
5 = Extremely well qualified
4 = Very well qualified
3 = Qualified
2 = Possibly qualified
1 = No recommendation
Colleges will typically accept scores between 3–5 for college credit. But you definitely need to check the rules at your top-pick school, as every university gets to set its own policy.
Here’s a little something the College Board won’t tell you: You don't have to get an "A" (90% correct) to get a 5 or a 4 on the AP exam. In fact, for the Calc AB test, you could still get a 5 with only 70% correct! As you can see, the curve can be VERY forgiving, even if the tests themselves are hard.
AP scores allow your potential colleges to validate your high school grades.
For example, if you have an A in your AP Bio class, but you only scored a 3 on the exam, it's going to cue college admissions officers that your school's grading system might be easier than one where a student who earned a 5 on her AP Bio exam only had a B in her AP Bio class.
So how do we merge your skills with the right exams to show off your strengths?
Best APs for college applications
Top-tier colleges and universities expect to see potential applicants take at least one AP class under each of these five major umbrellas during their high school career:
Math
History
Science
English
Foreign Language
But to truly impress your dream school, you’ll need to choose the right foreign language classes or the right science classes that both show off your expertise and align with your stated career goals.
I’d also add: colleges want to see a development and progression of your academic interests.
If they see that you took AP Environmental Science as a sophomore, AP Chem as a junior, and AP Bio as a senior, your personal essay about how you want to reverse the effects of climate change will go a lot further to solidify your point!
AP list
The full, current list of APs on offer is available on the College Board’s website. But you and I are going to dive deeper here, with analysis on which of these courses play to which strengths and college/career goals!
APs in the Sciences
If math isn’t your strong suit, stick to AP Environmental Science (APES) and AP Biology. AP Bio is slightly harder than APES, but will look better on your transcript if you only plan on taking one science AP.
You shouldn’t take AP Chemistry without first taking an introductory Chem class, as the pace of the class is too fast to absorb all of that information for the first time.
As their names suggest, AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based and AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based will focus on applying Algebra in the realm of physics. On the other hand, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism and AP Physics C: Mechanics are Calculus-based.
You should only take AP Physics C if you’ve already taken Calculus (or are currently taking Calc) since you will not have time to learn both the high level math and the high level Physics in one course.
Physics C is more advanced than Physics 1 and 2 because it will focus heavily on specific concepts in greater detail. Physics 1 and 2 are more general. You should take a Physics class before taking Physics C, but you don’t necessarily need that prerequesite for Physics 1 and 2.
Math AP courses
You currently have three (soon to be four!) choices when it comes to AP Calculus and they all depend upon how you feel about Calc.
You can start off with AP Calculus AB before moving on to AP Calculus BC to complete the sequence. (This is what I did, since I took Pre-Calc as a Sophomore.) Or you can take one or the other.
BC Calc will cover all the topics of AB Calc, but will also include additional topics. Because it covers so much, it moves very quickly and is quite challenging (though not impossible!). Falling behind is not an option.
Beginning in May of 2024, an AP Precalculus exam will be offered.
If Calculus classes really do not appeal, check out AP Statistics. You’ll learn how to collect and organize data, which will be helpful for majors such as sociology, journalism, and economics.
Think you’ll travel down the computer science route in college? Take AP Computer Science A, where you’ll learn how to program, and AP Computer Science Principles, which will teach you about how computer technology impacts our world.
English AP options
There are only two AP English exams, but they cover very distinct aspects of comprehension and writing.
If you take AP English Language and Composition, you’ll be reading non-fiction works such as newspapers, blogs, personal essays, magazines, etc. to break down arguments and rhetoric.
This will be useful for anyone looking to prove their writing and analytical skills without being bogged down with flowery literature.
Your other choice, AP English Literature and Composition, focuses on the exact opposite: fiction and poetry. You’ll read for tone, symbolism, characterization, and other literary nuances that make for great literature.
The passages will be longer, BUT if you want to pursue any major in the Humanities, such as English, Literature, History, or Philosophy, nailing this exam will show admissions committees that you can read and interpret complex ideas.
Advanced Placement classes in the Social Sciences
Classes that cover wide areas of geography and time—like AP European History and AP World History: Modern—will have much more material to cover, and will be incredibly fast-paced in order to cover that material by test day.
However, many find them subjectively easier than AP United States History (APUSH) because APUSH only covers one country over a relatively short period of time and requires very detailed knowledge compared to AP World’s more general material.
If economics and politics seem interesting to you, take AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP United States Government and Politics, AP Comparative Government and Politics (which focuses on six political systems outside the U.S.), or AP Human Geography (the study of land use patterns, human migration, and population).
Psychology is always a popular major, but an AP Psychology class is also a great option for those of you who might go into non-Psych fields that still entail working with people, such as lawyers, writers, marketers, and business owners.
Foreign languages at the AP level
Here are your options for getting a foreign language AP under your belt:
Can you take APs in the arts?
Your high school may also give you the opportunity to take arts-related APs. Because these do not fall into the five categories identified above as the core areas that colleges look for in all applications as basic indicators of rigor, these classes may only be worth your time and effort if you’re passionate for them, and/or plan to pursue those subjects in college:
What if your school doesn’t offer an AP you want to take?
If you’ve always wanted to be a web developer, but your school doesn’t offer AP Computer Science, you shouldn’t let this deter you. You don’t NEED to take an AP course to take the AP exam.
Take the highest level classes you can in school (honors, IB, etc.), start practicing for the exam with a Barron's or Cram Plan book, and give it a shot. You can send your AP scores directly to your potential schools and show them how you went above and beyond for your education.
Top strategy for deciding which AP classes to enroll in
Here’s the takeaway: “playing it safe" may not get you into your dream school. My overall advice is: load up your schedule with as many AP classes as you can probably do well in. Or at least, try to stay ahead of the pack. If the norm at your school is to take four APs over the course of your high school career, see if you can take five.
Paint a picture of your academic career for admissions committees who don’t know anything about you. Show them your passion and your interests and they’ll be more likely to take a chance on you over the undecided applicant who only did the bare minimum without focusing their skills.
