Some personal thoughts on taking APs

In my opinion, the only two reasons you should take APs are:

Gaining college credit.
Taking rigorous coursework.

Please note what I didn’t say: college admissions, GPA, and class rank.

Against GPA

Different schools have different GPA schemes. Colleges are aware of this; it’s why they take your raw grades. What does that imply? Your GPA says nothing beyond what your transcript says. Instead, colleges have a decent idea about the rigor of the courses available to you at your high school. They judge you on what you took versus what you were offered.

That means that any GPA boost your school gives for AP classes is meaningless. When you see other people boast about their 4.57 GPA or whatever, it’s actually the least informative data point they could give. (Which implies something about how the rest of their stats look.)

So when I see people say that they want to take APs for the GPA boost, I’m internally screaming, “that’s the second worst reason to take an AP.”

On Class Rank

A while ago, I was talking with a friend, and they were complaining about how many APs they had to take. Hold on, had to take? “It’s absolutely insane. I probably have to take at least five to maintain my class rank!” I said that class rank really wasn’t that important, but they didn’t respond. Maybe you’re also dumbfounded that I would suggest that a number on your transcript is less important than having a balanced workload and genuinely enjoyable classes. So I’ll try to explain here.

Obviously, this is motivated by college admissions. The dominant narrative is that you need to distinguish yourself in some way from your peers to stand a chance. So let me ask, when you see other people taking a crazy number of APs, why do you think rushing to take more APs will distinguish yourself?

Do you think that spending hours on busywork in classes you probably don’t even care about in a desperate race to get valedictorian is an optimal use of your time? Every sweaty student can do that. A far more unique and interesting thing to do is to be yourself, by doing things you actually enjoy and pursuing your real interests. Not only is this more fun, it looks better for college!

But I can’t just take easy classes, colleges will think I’m lazy!

True enough; avoiding APs entirely can be just as much of a blunder. What I’m really trying to say is that you should actually think before you take an AP class. At least put more thought than “this class has AP in its name and other people are taking lots of APs”!

The three questions to ask yourself before taking any class are:

Am I actually interested in this topic?
Will it be appropriately challenging for me?
How will it affect my workload?

It should be obvious from personal experience that taking a class you have no interest in is almost never a productive learning experience. But many people aren’t even considering their personal interest at all! This is the one aspect of school you can control to some extent, so don’t give it up to the crowd. Please actually think about where your interest (or lack of) in a subject comes from.

Next, a lot of APs really aren’t that deep. In particular, many of the STEM APs suffer because science is interconnected, but each AP has to have a self contained curriculum. So for certain concepts, actual understanding is substituted by memorization. Teachers also affect the difficulty; some will actually underprepare their students for the AP exam, while others will cover material much more thoroughly than the AP curriculum. This depends school by school, so ask your peers!

Finally, a course’s content might not be that difficult, but a teacher can make it more tedious with busywork. I’ve taken a few APs myself where the homework simply was not that useful for learning, and the teacher “compensated” by assigning more of it. Once again, ask other people what their experience with a class was! Time is precious in high school, and worksheets are rarely its best use.

If you use AP classes responsibly, they’re quite an excellent opportunity. An AP exam costs $100, but the credit awarded can be worth thousands of dollars in semester-hours you won’t have to pay for in college. Plus, for many people they are the best way they have to challenge themselves in a topic they’re interested in.

That said, not all APs are created equal.

What APs do colleges give credit for?

Let’s look at the University of Iowa’s AP credit policy. Please note that other schools will likely differ! But often, more prestigious universities will be more restrictive. MIT doesn’t give credit for any APs besides Calculus and Physics C! (They have a placement test system though.)

Calculus BC duplicates two semesters of calculus; AB, only the first.
Computer Science A duplicates the first course in the major program; Comp Sci Principles will not give credit towards the major.
Chemistry duplicates the first course in the major program.
Biology duplicates a nonmajor course, which is for the premed program.
Comparative Government and US Government duplicate courses in the political science program.
English Literature duplicates a gen ed requirement.
Enviromental Science duplicates a course in the major program.
Microeconomics and Macroeconomics duplicate the first two courses in the major program.
Music Theory duplicates a course in the major program.
Physics 1 and 2 duplicate a gen ed course; C Mechanics and C EM duplicate the first year of the major program.
Psychology duplicates a course in the major program.
Statistics duplicates a gen ed course.
All foreign language APs will satisfy the World Language requirement.

All other APs will only give you elective credit!

Note that this all assumes you got a 5 on the AP exam.

I’m very hesitant to make blanket recommendations, since the same course can be taught very differently at two different schools. So these are courses I think have issues even the best teacher can’t surmount.

AP Statistics. Statistics is not meant to be presented at an algebra based level! I think it’s much more worth it to learn calculus and take a calculus-based college statistics course. You’ll actually be able to derive and understand concepts that AP Statistics just forces you to memorize.
AP Calculus AB. I see little point in stretching out what’s supposed to be a single semester class into a year long AP.
AP Precalculus. If you take the exam, you aren’t doing anything but giving Collegeboard a hundred dollars. Any college credit you get will be superseded by AP Calculus, or completely irrelevant because you can take placement exams.

AP courses I am undecided about

I also have issues with these courses, but I do think they have genuine value, when taught by a good teacher, and for the right kind of people.

AP Comp Sci Principles. I used to think this class was pointless, and that people should just take AP Computer Science A directly. But now I think that it can provide a gentle introduction to coding, for people who aren’t interested in intensively learning CS.
AP Seminar/Research. The big issue: whatever you do in these classes bears little resemblance to actual research, and won’t count for much college credit. However, a good teacher can make the class actually worthwhile.
AP Physics 1 and 2. Classical physics is built upon calculus; in fact, calculus was invented for physics! There are some strengths of algebra-based physics classes: experimental demonstrations, emphasis on conceptual thinking, and real world applications. But in too many high schools, the class just becomes a list of equations to memorize. If you’re very interested in physics, I strongly recommend you first learn calculus, then learn calculus based physics.

Final thoughts

I think the biggest mistake you can make in high school is to not take control. And when I see people taking absurd numbers of APs, I have to wonder if they really wanted it, or if they’re letting other people dictate their life. In school, your job is to educate yourself, not to do what others want you to do. Coursework is the foundation of your high school experience, and one of the few things you have agency over. Don’t surrender it!