Didn’t get any answers on another website I posted it in, so here goes:
Our school wasn’t supposed to offer AP Euro history or Psychology… so when I was a sophomore I just self-studied for them and got good scores on the actual AP exams.
However, the next year, our school decides to create AP Euro and Psych classes–I didn’t take them since 1) didn’t really know about how AOs stress course load, and 2) had studied them already
Would colleges understand…? I thought it would be pointless & kind of sneaky of me to take AP courses that I’d already gone over. Yet this put me in a position where I look like I took less AP courses than some of my fellow classmates… I’m thinking about explaining this on the Additional Info section btw
Whether to take the courses and (presumably) retake the AP tests also heavily depends on what the alternatives are—if another AP class, esp STEM or such, or even a very meaningful elective like Band or Choir or Yearbook, then retaking those two AP courses is not worth your while. Either way, I think it is perfectly fine and advisable that you mention the situation somewhere in your application, and ideally your counselor’s recommendation should also point this out on your behalf.
I disagree. In almost all cases, when a student uses the additional information to “explain” a grade/a course, it will come off as making excuses or whining. The school profile may mention that these classes were recently added; if not, let the GC explain.
There is not reason for you to take these courses now, particularly if you have other options. No college AO, in the 10-12 minutes that they spend on an application, will microanalyze your course selections.
He would not be “explaining the grade” in the way we usually think of it, but explaining why he did not take a pair of AP courses in which he had an AP test score—kids often mention self-study, and in this instance he has the odd coincidence of self-studying subjects that only later became offered at his school. That is a different kettle of fish and worth mentioning.
No, it’s really not, IMO, which is what I said earlier; s/he is "explaining why s/he took (or did not take) a certain course. For starters, AOs will not care that a student chose to forgo AP Psych. Now if it were AP calc, it might be a different story. Even there, though, I would leave it to the GC to discuss. YMMV.
I would take AP Euro in class, adcoms prefer an AP in a class vs AP self-study and/or online. It’s ok to take the ap beforehand, many students take prep-AP class in the summer before the AP classes to give them a head start. It’s not sneaky as well. As ski says, don’t worry about Psych, it’s not an AP adcoms at selective colleges look for.
@skieurope We can agree to disagree. My point is that NOT taking two AP courses may superficially affect his course rigor evaluation, when many of his classmates will have taken those AP classes and earned equal or higher AP test scores (I am assuming from OP’s initial post he earned a 4 but not a 5 or he would have said so). The OP expressly states that as a concern of his. I also don’t think we can blithely say AOs don’t care about these things without any context of which schools he is applying to, etc.
Last, as I mentioned in my first post on this subject, a big variable is what courses he would take in place of Euro and Psychology. If not AP courses, then the issue of rigor does indeed loom large. If the OP will take an AP Science and an AP Language or an AP Social Science (Econ or Am Gov), then I would agree with you that explaining why he didn’t take AP Euro and AP Psych is silly and not useful.