AP Classes?

You don't need to take them, but they would boost your chances of being admitted into any college/university. Also, because AP is considered college level, it'll prepare you more for college-level work once you go to college compared to a student who never took an AP course before in high school.

And, if you pass the AP exam in May, you may earn college credit, which means less requirements in college in order to graduate, saving you both time and money.

So, as you can see, taking AP courses in high school has a ton of benefits, but it is a lot of work, so you need to have self-discipline.

If you want to go to an elite school, you will need a competitive academic record. For that, you will need to take challenging classes and stellar grades. If you have a high gpa taking ceramics and weight lifting then it doesn't matter.

If it wouldn't what classes you take, no one would bother breaking their backs with harder classes.

AP's are never a requirement for college. I've known students who got accepted to Stanford without even a single honors-level course (I do urge you to take it if you're not taking APs). Also, I'm planning to only take one AP course and all honors (choice school is stanford), but I do thousands of extracurricular activities, aim for nothing but A's, maybe take on a internship or camp to gain some experience for my designated field. Purdue is still there for you, but you need the A's, extracurriculars, a glowing essay, test scores, and run the extra mile with internships or a camp (biology camp, Purdue summer school, laboratory research).

Purdue university doesn't require that you take an AP class to apply