2010-05-11, 08:53 PM
Objectively Speaking: I took five AP courses but I took them out of possible enjoyment: AP Bio, AP US History, AP Comparative Government, AP US Government, and AP Language and Literature. I scored a 4 on all my exams except for AP Language and Literature which I got a 3. I got an A in all my AP classes. I applied to Rutgers State which isn't selective at all and got accepted. I applied to Yale and got an interview but was rejected. I applied to Georgetown and got an interview but was rejected. I applied to Franklin and Marshall and got accepted. I applied to Allegheny and got accepted. I applied to William and Mary and got wait listed until late May until I was finally rejected. I ended up attending Rutgers as I was offered $60,000 in combined scholarship. The scholarships were based on my GPA and SAT scores. Not on AP tests or SAT II test scores. My AP classes counted towards my cultural requirements so I wouldn't have to take Caribbean Studies or African Arts. It would have raised my GPA if I didn't AP out of those classes, but I would probably hate myself for taking such stupid general education requirements.
Subjectively Speaking: I'm in my third year of college with a bio-based major with emphasis on genetic engineering. I had the option to skip Bio 101-102 but I decided not to, because I wanted to see what college biology would be like. It ended up being really easy because I knew a lot of the material and was able to raise my GPA. My friend who AP'd out of General Chemistry and General Biology took Organic Chemistry and unfortunately failed it. The course material was too hard on him, as he was only a freshman and he became so depressed that he left school for a whole year and came back later. His AP credits ended up screwing him over. I don't know why everyone is insinuating that taking AP courses in high school will correlate with job success and landing a high figure job. In the context of your SAT and GPA, AP tests are secondary. It is important to show that you like to challenge yourself, but not at the cost of screwing yourself over like Captain Ahab. AP classes should be taken if they seem interesting to you and might give you a "sneak-peek" into college course work. Depending on your teacher they are not that hard. It is better to prepare yourself a little in high school. But it really doesn't make a drastic difference when it comes to college and even less when it comes to the real world. I saw a proverb being thrown out so I'll throw in one of mine: Does it matter in the short term? Maybe. In the long term? Not really. It might matter to you that you went to a high profile school like Georgetown and paid massive money to get a stellar education, but all I wanted was to work in a lab, get my hands dirty, and learn some science. That's about it. You can't fathom the amount of pretentious bastards that feel an obligation to reference their school any chance they get. But who knows, I might have been the same way if I got accepted to Yale or Georgetown.
Why I Contributed: Seems to be an awful load of speculation with a twinge of hypocrisy.
Anyway, that's my crappy lump of advice from someone who couldn't make it into the Ivies. Take it with a large grain of salt.
Subjectively Speaking: I'm in my third year of college with a bio-based major with emphasis on genetic engineering. I had the option to skip Bio 101-102 but I decided not to, because I wanted to see what college biology would be like. It ended up being really easy because I knew a lot of the material and was able to raise my GPA. My friend who AP'd out of General Chemistry and General Biology took Organic Chemistry and unfortunately failed it. The course material was too hard on him, as he was only a freshman and he became so depressed that he left school for a whole year and came back later. His AP credits ended up screwing him over. I don't know why everyone is insinuating that taking AP courses in high school will correlate with job success and landing a high figure job. In the context of your SAT and GPA, AP tests are secondary. It is important to show that you like to challenge yourself, but not at the cost of screwing yourself over like Captain Ahab. AP classes should be taken if they seem interesting to you and might give you a "sneak-peek" into college course work. Depending on your teacher they are not that hard. It is better to prepare yourself a little in high school. But it really doesn't make a drastic difference when it comes to college and even less when it comes to the real world. I saw a proverb being thrown out so I'll throw in one of mine: Does it matter in the short term? Maybe. In the long term? Not really. It might matter to you that you went to a high profile school like Georgetown and paid massive money to get a stellar education, but all I wanted was to work in a lab, get my hands dirty, and learn some science. That's about it. You can't fathom the amount of pretentious bastards that feel an obligation to reference their school any chance they get. But who knows, I might have been the same way if I got accepted to Yale or Georgetown.
Why I Contributed: Seems to be an awful load of speculation with a twinge of hypocrisy.
Anyway, that's my crappy lump of advice from someone who couldn't make it into the Ivies. Take it with a large grain of salt.