AP Classes

I'm going to be a bit honest with everyone here.

Taking AP classes - even if its just 1 or 2 classes in your junior yea, not going all-out - will boost your college profile significantly. With the exception of certain circumstances that cannot be avoided, taking these courses is strongly recommended if you want college admission officers to even seriously consider you for admissions. Taking your first AP's your senior year will be too late, because admission officers only view academics from sophomore to junior year; they will not look at your senior year academics that much (they only check there just to make sure that you're not slacking off)

Plus in the coming years, I'm predicting that APs will be a bigger factor in the academic portion of admissions than anything else. Why am I saying this? Starting next year, for example, (not this year, thankfully), for the class of 2012, the UC system is making SAT I and SAT II's optional. Yes, optional. (However, certain majors will require SAT II's). What does that mean though? More weight on academics. That translates to more importance in taking AP courses. I don't know what other colleges/universities will do in terms of their admission policies, but I can say with certainty that importance on academics will be the trend in the coming years. (P.S. Admissions officers will still look out for the other goodies, like extracirriculars, community service, etc)

However, that does NOT mean you shouldn't go and take full loads of AP's. Each person has different limits on how many APs they can handle. Take as many as you want, take as few as you want. But bring back good grades and good AP exam scores. That's the key thing here.

In my defense, my point is that taking APs during senior year may not have much of an effect compared to taking APs during junior year, as it won't be part of your main academic profile in your college applications. You can still get credit for passing the AP tests, but you may not stand out in the admissions process simply because you don't have AP courses listed in your sophomore and/or junior year transcript.

I'm not being harsh. I'm just telling the truth, especially regarding college admissions. Take this with a grain of salt if you wish.

P.S. APs also save a lot of money too. Would you prefer wasting a few hundred dollars on similar courses in college, or just dedicate your time and effort into AP courses during high school, and only pay $86?

You are basing national standards on a California University? Also, why do you assume that every school is AP certified in all areas? AP certification is a rarity and not a good standard for benchmarks. College admissions depends on factors that range from academics to social life, and are not heavily weighted on AP. I would go so far to say it isn't, and I hate this word, fair to take an AP student from X high school that offers various APs instead of an Honors student from Y high school with none or just a few APs.