questbest

I am very interested in UDEL. How important is it to have AP classes to get in. I will have an Honors Italian IV class and no APs. I am not interested in the APS offered at my high school. If they offered AP Psych I'd take it but they don't. My gpa is around 3.8 with ACT 23 (I don't do well on standardized tests). Would having one AP class (AP Environmental Science) really make a tremendous difference?

misterbill

I think if you read posts here, you will find that many people who got admitted took a large number of honors and AP classes. It seems like you've got one honors class (have you taken any others in previous years?), and a low ACT (and I assume no SAT scores), which is not all that great. Of course, I am sure that not everyone who was admitted had lots of them, but you have to assume that schools are going to look at how challenging a course load you took, and that is as important (if not more so) than the GPA.

the_mom

I agree with misterbill. UD stresses the importance of a challenging course load and it is not clear from your post if you have other honors courses or even if they are offered at your school. Are you planning an ACT retake? If environmental science interests you, then it is a good choice. In the scheme of APs, it would not carry the same weight as one in physics or calculus. Whether or not you are a Delaware resident will matter a great deal - read UD's Commitment to Delawareans. Commitment to Delawareans

nataliercoley

It is important to have high level honors classes, but they don't have to be specifically APs. I did the full IB diploma in high school (its sort of like the European version of IB) and I got into the University of Delaware just fine because it showed I could do college level courses (I also go 20 credits for it which was nice). I think, even if you aren't super thrilled about the AP courses offered at your high school, you should take some anyways because they aren't really that hard (or so I've heard from friends who did a mix of AP and IB courses).