As Bishop Kenny steps into the third quarter, students are faced with the task of choosing classes for the next year. With that comes the decision of whether or not AP classes are worth it.

The stress of multiple AP classes stacked on top of one another is not a casual feat for the average student, yet year after year, students decide to take them in hopes of making their application stand out.

According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), “The important thing to remember is that enrolling in rigorous classes is counterproductive if you are not able to keep up and be successful.”

Colleges don’t want to see yet another AP HUG class; they want to see a balanced curriculum, having a multifaceted class schedule is just as important as a rigorous one, for admissions officers.

“As a general rule, your AP exam scores aren’t going to be a major make-or-break factor in whether you get into a college or not,” according to test prep and college counseling website Prepscholar.com.

Although taking AP classes might change your placement into some college classes, many colleges do not allow students to shorten their time in college. Ivy leagues like Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard and Princeton do not accept AP credits toward graduation, so you will have to take extra classes anyway.

“Decisions are not made solely based on grades and testing, rather, all the qualitative factors mentioned previously, including essays, extracurriculars, interviews, letter of recommendations…are considered as an admission decision,” according to NACAC.

There’s also the fact that language, art and multimedia programs are put down in favor of AP classes. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but limiting coursework that doesn’t diversify your application can, in actuality, negatively affect it.

“A holistic approach [to coursework] allows them to see and consider students beyond just the numbers and statistics associated with their application,” NACAC said.

By stacking AP classes students could detract from leadership positions that they could get through having a job, or JROTC. There are also unique honors societies like Quill and Scroll and Tri-M that students can get inducted into by consistently taking often looked over classes.

The benefits should not be minimized, however. Colleges see taking AP classes as proof of effort, and for many students that’s what makes them worth it. The extra point added to help boost one’s GPA is also potentially helpful.

This does not justify drowning students in the expectations that taking multiple AP’s every year is the only way to get into a college, especially when the reality of it is that most colleges would’ve taken them without the unnecessary AP classes.

“It’s a waste of time, waste of money,” junior Khamari Scott said. “If you don’t want to be stressed out, then maybe it’s not worth it.”

After realizing the true worth of AP classes, I encourage students to evaluate whether drowning themselves in class work will really help them in the long run.