AP classes really sound good, but the reality can be something different.

We have no experience using the AP courses as they are used by the public school system. We do know that they were developed by and are sold to the school systems by College Board (the SAT people) to provide college credit to high school students. We also know that most public and private schools discourage students from earning college credit during high school in any manner that requires attendance off of their campus, e.g., community college dual enrollment. The main reason appears to be that the money from the state, county, and the Feds follows the student so if the student is at community college taking a dual enrollment course part of the money leaves the public school.

We found in our Florida Private School that AP Courses and their use for our student's purposes are a little iffy.  A case on point, the student took the AP course in the fall, but could not take the AP final test until May leaving lot's of time to forget the course content, thus requiring a major review before testing. The lag time finishing the course and taking the test may be that we don't have an AP coordinator and have to rely on the local superintendent for testing.

While researching a book we found that the AP course option consists of over 30 college level courses taught on high school campuses by high school teachers who are trained to teach these classes. To gain college credit for these courses the student must pass the course, take a special AP Exam and earn a score acceptable by the college or university they want to attend. The key to earning college credit is the test score. Colleges do not always accept AP courses for college credit. The top AP test score is 5 and if you don't score a 5 you may just have another high school course, especially if you are applying to Harvard or a similar school.

It is advisable with AP as with other college credits earned during high school to check with the colleges you are going to apply to and see what their opinion of what you plan to do is while you still have time to make changes.
In our research we read some sad stories of students counting on these courses and their colleges not accepting them resulting in re-taking the courses in college and of course paying college tuition for the course.