If you are an AP student, a familiar scene may play out every night at your house: you get home, dump a massive pile of books on your bed, rub your sore shoulders, and curse yourself for ever signing up for your dreaded AP classes in the first place. It is hard to see any sort of reward for piling on such a heavy workload when all that seems to come out of it is a sea of homework that your brain cannot seem to navigate every night. Even though it is hard to see what taking AP classes can do for you at this point in your life, the statistics don’t lie: taking AP classes does pay off when you are applying for college, and when you get in somewhere. AP classes not only add rigor and an impressive edge to your college applications, but they also let colleges and universities know what kind of student you really are. Plenty of students have found that by taking AP classes, they gained immeasurable experience to take with them to their college life.

According to the curriculum difficulty flowchart on the Lambert counseling office webpage, taking 1-2 or more AP classes of each subject is known as the most difficult, or rigorous, schedule you can have. Colleges will be looking at the rigor of your schedule in your applications. I sat down with a group of counselors, including Mr. Santiago and Mrs. Cunningham, and asked them what colleges are specifically looking for regarding AP classes. Mrs. Cunningham said that most colleges in Georgia accept AP classes as college classes, but it depends on the score. “The more competitive the school, the more competitive the score they need,” she said. She also said, “You can look on the website and see what they specifically are looking for.” Mr. Santiago told me that your strengths should determine what types of AP classes you should take in order to make yourself look the most impressive on college apps. “It depends, because if you are weak in one area but strong in another, you can bring up [your rigor score],” he told me. This means that if you are an amazing literature and history student, but math and the sciences are not your thing, you can still achieve a rigorous schedule by taking multiple AP classes in those subjects that you are most comfortable with.

All of that information is helpful when you are applying for colleges, but how can AP classes help you when you are actually in college? I talked to Mrs. Phelps, AP Spanish and Spanish 4 teacher, about the benefits of having taken AP Spanish when you get to college. She told me, “When a student goes to college and they take the test there [for their Spanish class], they don’t get all the credits that they deserve. I know a student that said his college still made him take more Spanish classes even though he performed well in his first-year Spanish class. It is just an opportunity for the colleges to make more money.” However, when you take the AP Spanish exam in high school, some colleges will give plenty of credit hours for getting a good score on the AP Spanish exam. Mrs. Phelps also talked about a student she had who got a 5 on the AP Spanish test, and the college he went to gave him so many credit hours that he could declare Spanish as his minor if he took only one more Spanish class. If you take AP classes across all subjects, not just Spanish, you could see a major pay-off just like that student did.

AP classes, in all their rigorous, grueling, demanding glory, may seem like an unnecessary challenge now, but they can actually pay off big time in the future. AP classes give you a competitive edge, and can cut down on your college workload. AP classes also teach you the study skills and focus that college classes demand. So don’t throw in the textbook yet. There is a reward on the horizon, and it is sweet.