It depends on the college… some place high importance on AP classes, some don’t… one thing is certain – they won’t hurt.

The only way to be sure is to look at the admission requirements for the school that you want to apply to. Remember that AP courses can affect your GPA (4.0+) and affect your graduation rank.

I would say a 5 on the AP test, but only if colleges actually see it (i.e. if you are taking them in your junior year currently) AND if your classmates are also not doing so great. This is because colleges know that grading varies a lot between schools and if you get a 5 on the AP, that shows that you sort of know your stuff, or at least good enough that they can stop looking at your academics and start looking at your ECs. I also am not sure why those things are exclusive… If you study hard for a class naturally you will know the material better, unless you just have teachers who assign irrelevant homework?

AP classes do help (a lot) but the importance of it is kind of up to the college. Some colleges place higher importance than others on those classes.

I think its good enough if you take 2-3 AP classes each year. Just dont overload yourself with homework and dont fill your entire schedule with AP classes. You need sleep.

No. A lot of schools don’t offer that many AP courses, and a lot of the ones that do are offering some of the fluffier AP courses which are actually less challenging that some non-AP courses. You need to be taking the most demanding curriculum you can in order to get into a lot of the top schools, but there’s no minimum number of AP courses.