How many AP courses are appropriate for students aiming to enter the top 20 universities in the United States?

How many AP courses are appropriate for students aiming to enter the top 20 universities in the United States?

Are all high school students taking AP classes doing well? Whenever you think about AP, I think everyone is worried about which subjects to take and how many they should take. So today, I will write about how many APs you should take.

This post is based on students aiming for the top 20 universities in the United States.

How many AP courses will the Top 20 universities truly appreciate? I hope you find the answer by reading today's post.

First, let's briefly explore what AP (Advanced Placement) is.

AP stands for Advanced Placement, and it refers to taking university-level courses during high school, which, when completed, can earn you credits in college for those subjects. It's essentially a way to save time and money by studying what you need in advance, as per the College Board. This saved time can open up other opportunities, such as internships. So, there are various advantages to it.

However, it's important to note that the recognition of AP credits by universities varies from one institution to another. Therefore, it's advisable to inquire with your college after you've been admitted.

The benefits of taking AP courses go beyond saving time and money. The real focus should be on "Standing Out to Your Colleges!!!"

One of the advantages is that students who have taken many AP courses stand out when applying to colleges. We should focus on this aspect.​

Universities provide information about the qualities they seek in prospective students on their respective websites. Let's take a look at a few examples:

1. Harvard University

   Let's examine Harvard University's ideal qualities. Harvard explicitly states, "Have you reached your maximum academic and personal potential?" In other words, they are looking for students who are intellectually curious and have excelled in their studies.

2. Princeton University Next, let's explore Princeton University's desired attributes. They say, "We look for students with intellectual curiosity, who have pursued and achieved academic excellence. We also look for students with strong personal and extracurricular accomplishments." Here, they emphasize intellectual curiosity and academic excellence.

As observed in the ideals of Harvard and Princeton, these universities place a significant emphasis on intellectual curiosity and academic excellence as the foremost qualities in their ideal students.

1. Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University also highlights the question, "How do you demonstrate your academic passions?" They focus on academic passion and mention, "To get a good idea of where your academic spirit lies, we'll look at your transcripts and testing, but also your teacher and counselor recommendations."

While there are many more universities, just by looking at these three examples, we can see that intellectual curiosity and academic achievement are highly valued qualities across different institutions.

Now, let's start talking about how you can get tips on how to attractively present yourself to the university you are applying to with your AP course list.

Ultimately, what we're curious about is how many AP courses top 20 universities desire from applicants to gauge their academic preparedness.

Let's take a look at the number of AP courses taken by students admitted to Harvard, MIT, UPenn, Brown, Cornell, and NYU over the past two years:

• Harvard: 15

• MIT: 16

• UPenn: 15

• Brown: 13

• Cornell: 12

• NYU: 11

When you observe these numbers, it might seem like students need to excel at an almost superhuman level of academics to gain admission to these prestigious institutions. However, it's important to note that I'm not presenting this table to draw a definitive conclusion.

Let's consider another set of data – the number of AP courses taken by other students admitted to the same schools:

• Harvard: 12

• MIT: 11

• UPenn: 10

• Brown: 9

• Cornell: 9

• NYU: 6

As you can see from this data, and as you likely already know, the number of AP courses taken isn't set in stone. AP courses have inherently ambiguous standards. Because of this, I'll share A-One Institute's perspective on how students should approach AP course preparation.

A High School Student vs. B High School Student

Let's consider two hypothetical students, one attending A High School and the other at B High School, to illustrate the point:

A High School offers 23 AP courses and a student there has taken 13 AP courses.

B High School offers 13 AP courses and a student at B High School has taken 9 AP courses.

Now, if these two students apply to the same college, the comparison would look something like this:

The A High School student has covered 13 out of 23 available AP courses, which is 60% of the AP curriculum. The B High School student has covered 9 out of 13 available AP courses, which is 70% of the AP curriculum.

In this context, it's been suggested by some that what matters more than the absolute number of AP courses is the ratio of courses taken to the total number available.

While I cannot definitively state this, based on our statistical analysis of students at our academy, we tend to give slightly more weight to students from A High School. Both students are excellent, but we lean towards A High School students because we place importance on the absolute number of AP courses taken.

If you're reading this post while in the process of choosing a high school, I would advise you to investigate how many AP courses each school offers. Schools with a higher number of AP courses generally have a higher academic standard. So, when selecting a high school, opt for one with a robust offering of AP courses.

If your current high school offers fewer than 10 AP courses, consider the following advice: Approach your school from the perspective that your exceptional abilities make you a challenging applicant for them. In other words, position yourself as, "Our school may find it challenging to accommodate a student of your exceptional capabilities."

During your 10th or 11th grade, take all available in-house AP courses at your high school and then seek external opportunities to further increase your number of AP courses. Here, a crucial note is that when taking external AP courses (at a community college, university, or online courses affiliated with a school), make sure to take subjects not offered at your high school. Enrolling in courses externally that are already offered in-house may be less convincing.

Please note that this advice is not applicable to all students but should be considered for those aiming for admission to the top 20 U.S. universities.

Let's now discuss the quality and distribution of AP courses in high school. Quality can be judged by the number of core AP courses a student has taken. If two students have both taken 10 AP courses, but one student has completed 2 core AP courses and 8 elective AP courses, while the other student has completed 3-4 core AP courses and 6-7 elective AP courses, the latter student is considered to have a higher quality of AP courses.

In other words, when students select AP courses, it's crucial to prioritize core courses first.

In the image provided, the left list represents STEM courses, while the right list represents non-STEM courses. AP Psychology and AP Seminar are positioned on the left side. The courses inside the rectangular table are core courses, so it's recommended to focus on these core courses first to increase your number of AP courses and then build your elective courses.

However, because AP Statistics is predominantly an elective course, it's advisable to focus on other courses within the table.

Once you've structured your AP courses with a focus on core courses, you'll need to consider the distribution of AP courses. If, as a STEM applicant, you choose to include only courses from the STEM list, colleges may view your academic balance unfavorably. Similarly, if a non-STEM applicant only selects courses from the non-STEM list, it might also create an issue with academic balance.

While it's challenging to produce definitive data for AP course distribution due to the diversity of student cases, from our extensive experience, it tends to be favorable to intentionally mix non-STEM courses for STEM applicants. For example, if you plan to take 10 AP courses, having around 6 STEM courses and 4 non-STEM courses is often a recommended approach.

For non-STEM applicants, there's slightly more flexibility, and taking around 70% non-STEM and 30% STEM courses can be considered appropriate. Remember that even for non-STEM students, it's essential to pay attention to STEM courses.

Ultimately, the distribution of AP courses should be tailored to your field of study and balanced to show your academic versatility and capability to colleges.

While it's never a good idea to force a student into taking AP courses for subjects they have no interest in, it's worth noting that most top 20 universities highly value academic achievements. Extracurricular activities and other non-academic aspects have their limits in showcasing academic prowess. Therefore, how you distribute and perform in AP courses, along with your AP exam scores, plays a crucial role in demonstrating your academic accomplishments within your GPA transcript.

We hope that the advice and emphasis we've provided in this discussion can help you successfully achieve your desired admission to the university of your choice.

Once again, it's essential to clarify that the content of this post is geared towards top 20 U.S. universities, which tend to have higher expectations than the average institution. Please keep this in mind when considering the advice.

We look forward to providing more valuable content in the future.