Across the country, main concerns among adults seem to be gas prices and politics; but in the eyes of the student the most worrying thing is college application. One way to boost opportunities has consistently been through taking Advanced Placement classes.

“College admissions have become really competitive,” freshman Rhea Sinha said. “Anytime I try planning which classes I’ll take, I always consider the difficulty of the classes because those can really stand out. This year I’m taking AP World History, which has one of the harder AP exams. If I can pass it with a high score, it’ll look good to colleges, especially since I’m a freshman.”

During the past decade, there has been a 57 percent increase in the number of high-school students taking AP courses, with more 1.2 million students taking at least one in 2019.

“Taking AP classes and passing them with high scores allow you to stand out to colleges,” Sinha said. “They show you can work hard, manage your time and balance school with your personal life.”

Many colleges look for science, math, and English AP classes, with some additional ones that may apply to your possible field of study. One of the most popular and most difficult AP classes nationwide is AP Physics.

“It’s a challenging class that requires students to be disciplined and self-motivated in order to be successful,” AP Physics teacher Joe Estevez said.

Freshman Caelen Garcia, who plans to go into the medical field, takes AP classes so he can show colleges he cares about academics and he is always up for a challenging course.

“I am definitely striving to take more APs catered to the science field,” Garcia said. “I’m going to take as many AP courses as I can so it will look better on my college application and set me apart from others.”

By Emily Marshall