How many AP classes should you take to get into a top school? — Transcript

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1. 0:00are you a high schooler or a parent of a
2. 0:02high schooler frustrated by course
3. 0:05selections are you hearing some parents
4. 0:07or some teachers telling you to take it
5. 0:09easy while other parents are teachers
6. 0:11telling you to just take as many tough
7. 0:13classes as you can do you have lists of
8. 0:16courses in front of you wondering how
9. 0:18many AP classes do I really have to take
10. 0:20if I want to get into a selective
11. 0:22College well that's a great question
12. 0:24watch this video and we'll tell you
13. 0:26exactly how many AP classes you need to
14. 0:29take if you're trying to get into a
15. 0:31competitive
16. 0:33[Music]
17. 0:51School hello everyone and welcome back
18. 0:53to Lotus Premier education my name is
19. 0:55Amanda and I want to be your college
20. 0:57tutor are you in high school and
21. 1:00wondering how many AP classes you should
22. 1:02really be taking if you want to apply to
23. 1:04a competitive College well that's a
24. 1:07great question and the answer changes
25. 1:08school by school and student by student
26. 1:11so let's dive in if you're wondering how
27. 1:14many AP classes you should take the
28. 1:17answer depends on how many AP classes
29. 1:19your school offers how many AP classes
30. 1:22you can do well in and also which AP
31. 1:26classes exactly you are interested in
32. 1:29taking so let's start at the beginning
33. 1:32when you're applying to college they
34. 1:34will see your transcript and they will
35. 1:36evaluate you based on the rigor of your
36. 1:38transcript but they will also evaluate
37. 1:40you on two other things the first is
38. 1:44increase in rigor over a course of a
39. 1:46period of time or over the course of
40. 1:48your high school experience and the
41. 1:50second thing is how you perform in
42. 1:53accordance to what your high school
43. 1:56offers AKA are you taking advantage of
44. 1:59the most rigorous opportunities
45. 2:01available to you so when you're
46. 2:03wondering how many AP classes you should
47. 2:05take in high school if you want to shot
48. 2:07at a really great College the first
49. 2:09thing you should ask yourself is how
50. 2:11many classes does my high school offer
51. 2:14and also when can we start taking AP
52. 2:17classes so for example my high school
53. 2:20allowed students to take one AP class
54. 2:23sophomore year up to three their junior
55. 2:25year and up to five their senior year so
56. 2:28the maximum number of AP classes that
57. 2:30you could take was nine over the course
58. 2:33of your high school experience the way
59. 2:35that colleges know this is that when you
60. 2:37send in your application you also will
61. 2:40be sending in a high school report this
62. 2:43is something that your counselor sends
63. 2:45in on your behalf you will never see it
64. 2:47but it's basically a piece of paper that
65. 2:49explains what the academics at your high
66. 2:51school look like and one of the facts
67. 2:54that they provide is how many AP classes
68. 2:56they offer when students are allowed to
69. 2:58start taking them and kind of a grading
70. 3:00scale of how colleges can determine
71. 3:02rigor at their high school so when
72. 3:05you're thinking of how many AP classes
73. 3:07to take the first thing you want to ask
74. 3:08yourself is how many AP classes can I
75. 3:11take at my school when and how can I
76. 3:13take them and are there limitations on
77. 3:15certain ones the second thing that you
78. 3:18should consider when thinking about how
79. 3:20many AP classes you should be taking is
80. 3:23how many AP classes can I do well in
81. 3:26there is a myth that kind of floats
82. 3:29around that I hear all the time where
83. 3:31parents or students will say well it's
84. 3:32better to get a B in an AP class than an
85. 3:35A in an honors class that is not
86. 3:38completely true when it comes to the
87. 3:40college admissions process an a is an A
88. 3:42A B is a b a c is a c colleges really
89. 3:45don't want to be seeing a ton of B's or
90. 3:48C's and they definitely don't want to be
91. 3:50seeing a steep drop as soon as you
92. 3:53enroll in an AP class AP means advanced
93. 3:56placement but the College Board designed
94. 3:58AP classes to be more along the style of
95. 4:01a college level course so that's why
96. 4:04there's so much more self-driven
97. 4:05learning and Independent Learning
98. 4:07outside of the classroom if your grades
99. 4:09suddenly drop because you're taking an
100. 4:11AP class what you're telling colleges is
101. 4:14I'm not fully ready for college level
102. 4:16curriculum so it's a complicated
103. 4:18question because you don't want to be
104. 4:21enrolling in AP classes where you're
105. 4:23going to be seeing too steep of a drop
106. 4:25off in your grades but at the same time
107. 4:28you should not just be PL Towing and
108. 4:30taking classes that are too safe you may
109. 4:33have straight A's but if you're only in
110. 4:35the same level of classes all four years
111. 4:37that's showing that you didn't challenge
112. 4:39yourself to keep going above and beyond
113. 4:42so when you're considering an AP class
114. 4:45you want to make sure number one you
115. 4:47understand how many classes your school
116. 4:49offers number two you want to make sure
117. 4:51that you understand exactly how well you
118. 4:54can do in the class is there going to be
119. 4:55an increase in rigor without so much as
120. 4:58a grade suffering and number three you
121. 5:01also want to make sure that when you're
122. 5:02thinking about which AP classes to take
123. 5:04and how many to take you really think
124. 5:06about the ones that are going to best
125. 5:08shape your narrative and also the ones
126. 5:10that are going to increase rigor in
127. 5:12different capacities at every High
128. 5:14School certain APS have a harder or an
129. 5:18easier reputation you want to make sure
130. 5:20that you balance those harder and easier
131. 5:22APS to create a successful transcript so
132. 5:26for example taking some of the harder
133. 5:28ones shows a really appropriate very
134. 5:30compelling increase in rigor on your
135. 5:32college applications but you can
136. 5:35sometimes increase the number of APs
137. 5:37that you're taking without having your
138. 5:39grade suffer too much if you Val balance
139. 5:41some of those harder APS with some of
140. 5:44those slightly easier APS another thing
141. 5:46you want to think about when you're
142. 5:48deciding which AP classes to take is
143. 5:50whether or not it is easy to drop them
144. 5:53so if you're on the fence about
145. 5:54challenging yourself with an AP class
146. 5:57ask your school counselor if I enroll in
147. 5:59this and after after a couple weeks I'm
148. 6:00feeling a little bit unsure can I drop
149. 6:03down to an honors level class most of
150. 6:05the time the answer to that question is
151. 6:07going to be yes they structure schedules
152. 6:09to allow for Mobility if this is the
153. 6:11case there's no reason you shouldn't try
154. 6:13the AP class schools won't see if you
155. 6:15drop it that early in the year and you
156. 6:17can at least give yourself a shot to
157. 6:19really increase rigor over time remember
158. 6:22colleges are looking to see that you
159. 6:23continued challenging yourself and
160. 6:25continued growing throughout the course
161. 6:27of your high school experience last
162. 6:29lastly you also want to be very
163. 6:32conscious about AP classes that most
164. 6:35contribute to your narrative and also AP
165. 6:37classes that are more or less required
166. 6:39in your field so for example if you're
167. 6:42studying economics or business or
168. 6:44another field that really mandates math
169. 6:47you can guarantee that schools are going
170. 6:48to want to at least see AP Calculus AB
171. 6:51if your school offers it probably AP
172. 6:54Calculus BC as well if you're somebody
173. 6:56who's saying they want to go into Premed
174. 6:58you want to make sure you're really
175. 7:00focusing on AP Bio AP chem and AP
176. 7:02Physics so each student's narrative is
177. 7:05going to be a little bit different and
178. 7:07you want to make sure you take that into
179. 7:08account when you select your APS so
180. 7:10going back to the question at the
181. 7:12beginning of our video how many APS
182. 7:14should you take if you want to apply to
183. 7:16competitive colleges that specific
184. 7:18number is going to change student to
185. 7:19student but the way you determine it is
186. 7:21know the classes offered at your school
187. 7:23make sure you're increasing rigor and
188. 7:25make sure that you are taking smart AP
189. 7:28classes as you build your college
190. 7:30narrative we hope this video was helpful
191. 7:32if you have any other questions please
192. 7:34drop them in the comments below we love
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194. 7:38write on our page and make sure you
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198. 8:00you