The highly selective colleges want applicants who have demonstrated their willingness and ability take on intellectual challenge and who will thrive in an academically challenging environment in college.

The best way to demonstrate that you possess these academic qualities is through taking academically rigorous high school courses and scoring well in them. Not only must you take the tough subjects, you need a concentration of them relating to the major you intend to take in college.

How many AP classes should you take?

If your goal is to attend one of the highly selective colleges with acceptance rates below 5%, like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, Caltech and Princeton, then it is imperative to take as many AP classes as possible and achieve official scores of 4 or 5 in each of them from the College Board. You will be competing against the best and brightest students in your age group in the country as well as internationally, and you must put your best academic foot forward.

If your high school offers a large selection of AP classes, then you must avail yourself of this opportunity and take as many as possible. The College Board offers a total of 34 AP classes to high school students, but most high schools do not offer the whole list.

To make the academic cut with these ultra elite colleges, you should be taking somewhere between 7 to 12 AP classes in high school. You can take more if you can cope with the workload, but it is not necessary for you to do so. There are additional ways for you to demonstrate your intellectual capabilities.

Even if your high school offers a limited number of AP classes, you should take as close to the recommended range of AP classes as possible if you goal is to get admitted to one of the ultra elite colleges. The colleges will take into account the fact that you had limited access to AP classes at your high school.

The highly selective colleges with acceptance rates between 5% and 10% are only marginally less demanding academically than the ultra elite ones and you will still be competing with the best and the brightest for admission. Your plans for AP classes should be no different than if you were targeting the ultra elite colleges.

As the acceptance rates get higher, the number of AP courses that those colleges expect you to take will drop. For highly selective colleges with acceptance rates above 10%, you should expect to present between 5 AP to 8 AP classes with official scores of 4 or 5 from the College Board. Again if there are a limited number of AP classes on offer at your high school, you should aim to take as many classes as possible to get you within the recommended range.

Remember the rule of thumb that a B scored in an AP class is more valuable than an A scored in a standard level class for purposes of admissions to a highly selective college.

Since AP classes will generally increase the academic workload every year, it is wise to space out the AP classes over 10th, 11th and 12th grades.

It is advisable to take no more than 2 to 3 AP classes in 10th grade, and spread the remaining classes over 11th and 12 grade.

Some AP classes are only half a year long, while others are year long classes, so you should plan your AP schedule in advance starting in 10th grade to maximize your AP opportunities.

Are Honors classes good enough?

If you are aiming for the top tier of highly selective colleges, then you should take Honors classes only in the absence of AP classes for a specific subject or if you have already surpassed the maximum recommended number of AP classes for this tier of college. Even then, take the AP class if you can cope with the workload.

Again as the acceptance rates get higher, the colleges have less expectation that you would take as many AP classes, and a good mix of Honors classes would be acceptable to them as well.

Also, if your high school offers only a limited number of AP classes, then taking Honors classes would be a very good substitute and still demonstrate your willingness to pursue intellectual rigor.

Taking subjects compulsory for graduation at the AP level

We strongly recommend that students complete these subjects compulsory for high school graduation at the AP level including the following:

• AP English Language and Composition

• AP English Literature and Composition

• AP US Government and Politics

• AP US History

• AP (Language)

If you are planning on being a Humanities major, taking these 5 subjects at the AP level should be an automatic choice especially if you are targeting the top tier of the highly selective colleges.

If you plan on being a STEM major, and writing is not your strong suit, you could take these subjects at the Honors or standard level so as not to negatively impact your GPA, but you must make up with AP classes in other areas.

STEM Subject Concentrations

If you are planning to pursue a STEM discipline at a top tier college, then it is incumbent on you to take as many STEM related APs and Honors classes as are available to you that are relevant to your intended major. Since access to many of these AP classes is limited to those of have completed pre-requisite classes, it is extremely important to focus on these pre-requisites as early as your high school will let you so that you have enough time to complete these AP classes in junior and senior year.

The STEM related APs offered by the College Board include:

• AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC

• AP Statistics

• AP Computer Science A

• AP Computer Science Principles

• AP Physics 1 - Algebra based

• AP Physics 2 - Algebra based

• AP Physics C - Electricity and Magnetism

• AP Physics C - Mechanics

• AP Chemistry

• AP Biology.

• AP Environmental Science

Business Subject Concentrations

Some of the toughest undergraduate programs to gain admission to are the business programs at the highly selective colleges. The acceptance rates to these programs are usually lower than the acceptance rates for the colleges overall. To demonstrate your preparedness for these business programs, we recommend that you take a concentration of subjects that demonstrate intellectual capacity to handle the program.

The business related AP classes you should take include:

• AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC

• AP Statistics

• AP Macroeconomics

• AP Microeconomics

Do not sacrifice your GPA

More than 90% of every freshman class at the highly selective colleges graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. To make it into this select group of academically high performing students, you must maintain an exceptionally high GPA throughout your high school years.

For those targeting the top tier of highly selective colleges, you not only must maintain a high GPA, you have to do it while taking a large number of AP classes.

For students targeting the colleges with acceptance rates higher than 10%, you should keep this in mind - if pushing yourself to take more than the recommended number of AP classes means getting a C in those additional classes and an official score of 3 from the College Board, think very carefully before you pursue that subject. You may be better off taking the subject at the Honors level and scoring an A grade.

Academic Enrichment Beyond the Classroom

For students with a strong passion in an identifiable subject area, you can pursue related enrichment programs beyond the classroom to demonstrate your scholarship in that specific academic area. In the academic evaluation of an application, the highly selective colleges will give weight to enrichment pursuits that demonstrate an applicant’s capacity for intellectual challenge and development of scholarship in an academic subject.

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