Question

for college, do you think it's better to take more APs but not necessarily get the best grades in them, or take easier classes but have higher grades?

Answer 1

Well being in AP means "advanced placement" in order to get into AP classes you HAVE to have good grades like A's and B's. Being in AP classes is excellent and it's what most Ivy League University's look at. It will look REALLY good on your record.

If you're not as advanced to be in AP there really is NO reason for you to fail or do bad in school. That's how I look at it. Always keep your standards Higher than they should be and think positively about school, because i know it's boring and all but VERY second of it benefits you.

So yea. Do the best you can (:

Answer 2

EVERY*

Answer 3

^

Answer 4

APs look great. It's great to score well on them if you're gonna take them at all: that being said, most ivy leagues need you to have some to even consider you for your application to look competitive.

And the AP tests are even better, esp. if you get anything like a 4 or higher.

Nowadays, a perfect SAT score alone can't get you into a top-notch school.

Answer 5

From experience, if you take the AP tests, and don't do well, you've had almost no impact on your future (except maybe wasting hours and hours of your life if it was a bad class). It doesn't help, and it doesn't really hurt you either. If you do well on the AP tests, that's great. You can get a lot of college credit out of the way, and maybe even graduate in 3 years (that's what I did).

My personal advice would be to take the AP classes where you're reasonably confident that you can make a 4/5 on the AP test, and take regular classes for the others. Then again, if you really want to get into a great university, you should take a bunch.

Overall, the most important thing on a college application is the letters of recommendation, and essays. Not SAT/ACT and AP scores. Although you do still need some kind of minimum score.

Answer 6

The universities say that, "Not SAT/ACT and AP scores." and that they don't have an impact: in reality, they actually do, it's very rare for anyone to get into an ivy with a really low SAT score, even an average score won't usually get you in an ivy any more...

Answer 7

"you do still need some kind of minimum score"

Test scores are not the most important factor. They have very little relevance to how you will actually perform once in college, and out of high school.

Answer 8

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/sat/a/sat_side_x_side.htm

Answer 9

This is a little dated, but the abstract claims that there is very little correlation between SAT scores and success in college (but more correlation than high school GPA).
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED395019&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED395019

This one is more recent, and the abstract claims that most of the predictive power of the SAT (no claims on how much power) comes from the demographics of students.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304407603002537

I'm not arguing that certain colleges don't accept low enough scores. I'm arguing that the scores show little in what people are capable of in terms of college success. Take me for example. I had relatively low SAT scores compared to my classmates, and I'm the only one (as far as I know) accepted into a grad school right now.

Answer 10

I'm only talking about being admitted, not about how successful you'll be at the university itself.
And I'm only going by the statistics published by the ivy universities themselves.

Answer 11

how well you do in a AP class in high school prepares you for college so if you do bad in a AP class in high school your probably not going to get a good grade in the same class in college take a easier class and get a good grade

Answer 12

All of this is pretty much true. Bottom line. Take a few APS, take the exam, do well. Maybe 4. Sends the right signal. gives you a heads up if the college accepts AP credit. If it doesnt, then you still have had the experience. My recommendation for APS, Calc, Chem, English and one more, maybe language, Spanish or Econ or something like that.

Answer 13

It's better to take AP classes or Dual Credit classes because it shows that you are more challenged. Having high grades in easier classes doesn't show much about you as a student because anyone can do great in an easy class but few can do well in AP or Dual Credit classes :)