As the college admissions process continues to become more and more rigorous, students have been looking for countless strategies to give them an advantage over other competitive applicants. 

One of these strategies is taking as many AP classes as possible to demonstrate “academic rigor” on their transcript.

As scheduling season approaches, students are requesting to take more AP classes in an attempt to impress selective universities. 

These difficult classes were created to prepare students for college classes through high level coursework. Taking AP classes has evolved from taking the course to prepare and pass the AP exams to earn college credit, to taking as many AP classes as possible just to show intelligence on a transcript or to have a higher weighted GPA.

 In fact, many students take AP classes and don’t even take the AP exam because they only take the AP class to boost their GPA.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the amount of APs being taken, school districts should begin limiting the amount of AP classes students are allowed to take in order to preserve their mental health. 

Although students may not like this idea, this could be an effective measure school districts can take to help relieve overwhelming stress.

 Many students who take multiple AP classes often find themselves swamped with multiple tests a week, some even having two to three tests a school day.

Reducing the maximum amount of coursework can help students make more time for their hobbies, sports, or keeping up with friends. 

Additionally, by having a cap on the amount of APs that students are alowed to take, taking the reduced maximim will still demonstrate “academic rigor” to colleges as the AP class limit will be reflected by our school’s profile. 

For example, if our limit was 1 AP class freshman year, 2 AP classes sophomore year, 3 AP classes junior year and 3 AP classes senior year, and you take 9 AP classes, then colleges will see that you are still pushing yourself in your academics. 

As colleges are all utilizing the “hollistic review” method there are more factors in an acceptance than just grades. By implementing a policy such as this, the district will allow stuents more time to find unique activities that distinguish themselves outside of the classroom.