Are There Kids Who Get In The Top 25 Schools With No AP/Honors Courses?

esmee16 · 09-20-2009, 07:34 PM

I mean it would be possible, but how possible? I was thinking about dropping out of my only honors class, but maybe not. I'm a freshman in HS, but just wondering.

Are there actually students who have no honors/AP courses ever in there HS career, but have a high GPA, but got in to one of the top 25 school?

gutter · 09-20-2009, 07:41 PM

High GPA but "non-rigorous" courses would imply that the student may or may not have high academic potential but that since they didn't take the most challenging courses offered there's no way to know. If you had an extremely high SAT it might help balance this a bit but I don't know of any Top 25 schools that would take a student with a non-rigorous course load without some serious extenuating circumstance. They get enough applicants with high GPAs AND a rigorous course load that there's no reason for them to.

chaosakita · 09-20-2009, 07:57 PM

Probably, from private schools that don't offer them.

Will7 · 09-20-2009, 08:10 PM

Unless the school doesn't offer any, thats another topic. NONE at all will definitely hurt, but not impossible. A few that you did well on counts more than doing fair in a stack of them.

goldeneagles9995 · 09-20-2009, 08:23 PM

I'd take honors/ap classes if I were you. You gotta challenge yourself, don't just breeze through high school because it won't be the same for college.

Pleiades45 · 09-20-2009, 08:36 PM

Don't drop an honors course that you have an A in. Stick it out.

swiftjab · 09-20-2009, 09:01 PM

Unless you placed in the top five in an international science fair or you're a national recognized tennis player or something...

esmee16 · 09-20-2009, 09:20 PM

Well I do have a 91 in this Honors class. I do go to a prep school in the Upper West side of Manhattan, but still. People are telling me that since I go to prep school I am not going to breeze through high school and colleges will recognize that. Somehow, that might not be true......

hmom5 · 09-20-2009, 09:25 PM

The competition from your own high school at top colleges will be brutal--everyone at NYC preps wants the same few colleges. If you take a less rigorous course load than your top classmates, you won't be able to compete with them.

monstor344 · 09-20-2009, 09:32 PM

Yeah; they're called high priority athletic recruits/developmental admits.

keylyme · 09-20-2009, 09:33 PM

Athletes and kids from rigorous prep schools.

monstor344 · 09-20-2009, 10:03 PM

Oh and not literally top 25 but at the 25-35 range I'm sure quite a few in-state admits for top state schools (Mich, UNC, UVa) didn't take AP classes.

epiphany · 09-20-2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

kids from rigorous prep schools

Definitely. Course content (curriculum, or curriculum level) known or knowable to admissions is what's key. (Not the fact the h.school "doesn't offer" AP's/Honors. Could be a lame h.s. Has to be a matter of reputation or accessible content.) Many prep school courses include some which are tougher than many AP courses, in terms of analytical thinking, course requirements themselves, and style of testing.

college3231 · 09-20-2009, 10:37 PM

If your school offers them, and you don't take them: you are at a disadvantage. Might not take you out of the running for top schools completely, but will certainly put you behind others with the most rigorous course load.

If your school does not offer APs (which some private schools I know do not) then you will not be at a disadvantage. As others have said, often the course load at these schools is more challenging anyways.

However, I don't think dropping one Honors class Freshman year would be a big problem.

Good Luck!

esmee16 · 09-21-2009, 05:46 PM

But what if that is my only honors class?