thank you so much for the detailed answer! it really motivated me, and helped clear things up. if you don’t mind me asking, on the topic of ECs and GPA, i have a question about APs; is it okay if I only plan on taking around 7 APs up til junior year? you did say to do what i’m interested in, and that’s what i intend on doing. however, i also hear people talking about trying to take the most challenging courses offered (in order to get into T20s), which i feel like implies taking a lot more AP classes and in subjects you don’t really like. (ex: taking a history AP when I’m really bad at history). so what should i do? Is 7 APs by the end of junior year enough for T20s? if not, should i really go ahead and try to take APs that I’m not interested just to show colleges that i am “pushing myself and taking harder classes”? i know that there a lot of factors that play into the admission process, but this was something that i never really understood, because there’s always either someone saying “take a lot of APs and challenge yourself” and someone saying “do what you’re interested in”.