How Many AP Classes Should I Take?

The honest answer is this: take as many AP classes as you can get an A-, A, or A+ in, provided they are in the core academic subjects, and provided they don't crowd out the opportunity to take second or third year college-level classes. Let's break down every part of that answer.

Why Course Rigor Matters More Than You Think

Admissions officers at T20 institutions, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Caltech, and their peers, are reading thousands of applications from students with near-perfect GPAs. What distinguishes one 4.0 from another is the context in which that GPA was earned. A 4.0 in all regular classes is not the same thing as a 4.0 in the most rigorous curriculum a school offers.

Colleges evaluate academic strength through what's called the "course rigor" lens. They want to know: given the opportunities available at this student's school, did they challenge themselves? Did they seek out the hardest courses on offer? This is why the Common App asks counselors to specify whether a student took the most rigorous curriculum available.

But here is something that often surprises families: this principle cuts across majors. Course rigor isn't just about taking hard classes in the subjects you plan to study. It's about demonstrating intellectual range and the willingness to challenge yourself even where it's inconvenient.

Consider a student who wants to be an English major. Should they skip AP Physics C and take regular physics instead? Our answer is no, and admissions officers at elite schools would agree. The student who can handle the calculus-based mechanics of AP Physics C alongside their AP Literature coursework is signaling something important: they are not afraid of hard work, they can think across disciplines, and they are the kind of person who will thrive in a rigorous college environment. Elite universities are not just looking for specialists. They are looking for intellectually alive people.

The same logic applies in reverse for STEM students. AP Language and Composition and AP Literature are, for all practical purposes, mandatory for any STEM student seriously targeting T20 programs. The ability to write clearly, analytically, and persuasively is something every leading research university expects of its students, regardless of major. A student applying to MIT or Caltech with a transcript that skipped English AP courses is leaving a noticeable gap, one that admissions readers will notice.

The principle is simple: the more college-level classes you take across the core subjects, regardless of your intended major, the stronger your application looks. This is not about checking boxes. It's about demonstrating that you are the kind of student who rises to every challenge put in front of them.

The Core Subjects: Where AP Classes Actually Count

AP classes carry the most weight when they are in the five core academic subjects: Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. These are the disciplines that colleges universally value, the ones that form the backbone of any rigorous secondary education, and the ones that admissions committees scrutinize most closely.

AP classes outside the core subjects, AP Art History, AP Music Theory, AP Psychology, and similar offerings, should generally be avoided unless your school's graduation requirements mandate them, or you are applying to art or music programs where they are directly relevant to your intended area of study. Taking AP Art History when you could have used that slot for AP Chemistry or AP European History is a missed opportunity. It signals breadth of a kind that doesn't actually impress, while potentially preventing you from building the academic record that does.

Focus your AP course-taking energy where it counts: load up on AP courses in math, science, English, history/social studies, and your foreign language of choice. That is where rigor is measured, and that is where your effort will pay off.

The Grade Inflation Problem: Why an A- Cutoff Matters

Here is a hard truth that most school counselors and well-meaning advice columns will not say plainly: a B in an AP class, particularly in your junior year, can hurt you more than taking the regular class would have.

This is a direct consequence of grade inflation. Across the country, many high schools now hand out A's with the generosity of free Halloween candy. When admissions readers at elite universities see your transcript, they are reading it in context, they know what grade inflation looks like at your school, because your counselor's report tells them. What they are left judging is not just the letter grade, but how it compares to what A students at your school are actually doing.

In that environment, a B in an AP class does not say "I challenged myself." It says "I challenged myself and came up short." That is a meaningful distinction at the margin, especially at schools where a significant portion of applicants have 4.0s or close to it.

Junior year carries the most weight of any year on your transcript. It is the last full year of grades that most schools see before making their decisions, and admissions officers treat it accordingly. A B in an AP class during junior year is among the most damaging signals a strong applicant can send.

The implication is clear: do not take an AP class you are not confident you can get an A- or better in. If a course is likely to produce a B for you, take the honors or regular version and spend that energy getting an A. A stellar grade in a non-AP course is better than a mediocre grade in an AP one.

This is why "take as many AP classes as possible" is bad advice without qualification. The right framework is: take as many AP classes as you can genuinely excel in. That number varies by student, and identifying it accurately is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make in high school.

Beyond AP: The Case for Actual College Courses

Here is where our advice diverges most sharply from what most college counselors tell students: AP classes are a floor, not a ceiling. The most impressive academic signals a high school student can send are not AP classes at all, they are real, second- and third-year college courses taken at an actual college or university.

Once you have exhausted the AP curriculum in a given subject, or when AP simply isn't rigorous enough, the right move is to enroll in college courses through dual enrollment, community college, or university programs that admit high school students. A student who has completed AP Calculus BC by sophomore year and then spends junior and senior year taking Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations at a local university is telling admissions officers something that no AP class can: this student is already operating at a college level. They are not just ready for college, they are already doing it.

This is why we caution against loading up your schedule with AP electives in non-core subjects as a way of inflating the number of AP classes on your transcript. That space is far better used by a genuine college course. Five AP classes and two real college courses will almost always outperform seven AP classes with no college coursework, assuming the grades are comparable.

The goal is to keep pushing the ceiling upward. AP classes are the starting point for academically driven students, not the endpoint.

AP Classes to Avoid — And Why

Not all AP courses are created equal, and a few belong nowhere near a serious college applicant's schedule.

AP Statistics is a class we actively discourage for students past their freshman or sophomore year. This is not because statistics is unimportant, it is extremely important, but because AP Statistics is not a real college-level statistics course. Nearly every university-level statistics class is calculus-based. AP Statistics is not. It covers a useful set of concepts, but the course's analytical depth does not match what colleges teach or what colleges consider genuinely rigorous. It is a perfectly fine class for a freshman or sophomore to take as an introduction to data analysis. As a junior or senior course intended to demonstrate rigor, it falls flat.

AP Precalculus is, frankly, an embarrassment to the AP program. Precalculus has no meaningful relationship to calculus, the "pre" in the name is aspirational at best and misleading at worst. More importantly, students who take AP Precalculus instead of moving directly from Algebra II to Calculus arrive at college one full year behind their peers who took the more direct path. This course exists because it keeps math teachers employed and generates revenue for the College Board. It does not belong in the schedule of any student serious about STEM or about maximizing their high school math trajectory. If you are on a path that would include AP Precalculus, talk to us, there is almost certainly a better route.

AP Research and AP Seminar, the two courses that make up the Capstone program, are well-intentioned but fundamentally limited. Neither course has a meaningful college analog. The research conducted in AP Research is not supervised by a faculty expert with domain knowledge. The "seminar" model of AP Seminar does not replicate the intellectual experience of an actual college seminar. For students interested in demonstrating genuine research ability, one of the most powerful things you can show an elite university, real supervised research under a professor or professional researcher, whether through a summer program, a university lab, or an independent research mentorship, will always be more impressive and more authentic than anything the Capstone program can offer.

Putting It All Together

Here is a simple decision framework for every AP class under consideration:

First, is it in a core subject, math, English, science, social studies, or foreign language? If not, you almost certainly shouldn't take it.

Second, can you realistically get an A- or better? If not, take the next most rigorous option and earn the A.

Third, is it one of the courses on our list, AP Stats (for juniors/seniors), AP Precalculus, AP Research, AP Seminar? If so, look for a better alternative.

Fourth, could this slot in your schedule be used for an actual college course instead? If you are already at the top of the AP curriculum in a subject, the answer is probably yes.

Apply this framework honestly to your schedule, and you will have your answer. For most academically strong students at competitive schools, that number lands somewhere between four and seven AP classes per year in the upper grades, but the number matters far less than the quality of the choices behind it.

Do you need help deciding which classes to take to be as competitive as possible for your dream school? If so, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today.