With each new year there are more and more high school students applying to the colleges of their dreams hoping that they can look good enough to at least one of their choice schools admission board to be allowed to attend that college. High school students already have a tough enough time going through their regular course work, playing sports, participating in clubs, workings jobs, having a social life and just being a teenager. However now often times even all of this is not enough for the student to be admitted to the college of their dreams, the students now must take college level, Advanced Placement (AP) courses to have a shot at competing with the other students across the country and the world. These AP courses can range from Calculus, Chemistry, US History, English, Spanish and many, many more and have much larger and more difficult work load that many high school students have never encountered before. And after completing all the course work for the school the student must pass a final AP test to prove that they learned enough in the class, this puts an immense weight on the students as they know that all their hard work throughout the year could be for not if they are unable to pass the final test.

Yet, for all these challenges that AP courses present to the students, in the day we live in they are extremely important if not essential for students to enter the college of their dreams. Last year the incoming freshman at UCLA had taken an average of 7 Advanced Placement or Honors courses between their 10th and 12th grade years. These AP courses have added benefits apart from helping students get into colleges, as they prepare students for what a college level course may be like, challenge the more advanced students and help them from becoming bored with course works and if students are able to pass the AP they are sometimes able to forgo some college courses and save time and money at University. AP courses while more rigorous and challenging for students pay immense benefits that cannot be overlooked. AP classes may not be for every student but if a student feels able to keep up with the course work and pass the final test with or without extra help, the classes are completely worth it in the present and definitely in the future.