<p>Just wondering, as I have had one AP class my Freshman year, one my Sophomore year, but NONE my Junior year… will that look bad on college apps, even if I get all straight As and a 4.0 Weighted GPA? Please be honest!</p>
<p>It all depends on what sorts of colleges you’re targeting. More selective ones will rightly see your drop-off in course rigor as a huge negative. However, many colleges just want solid academic performance – you’ll still do fine. Just don’t expect to be competitive for any “top-25” sort of college. </p>
<p>MIT or Cornell are unrealistic, unfortunately. In your “chance me” thread, you omitted the point about taking no AP courses your Junior year. The replies would have been much more pessimistic.</p>
<p>Aside from this though, may I focus you on what I believe is a more pressing issue? You’re preparing yourself for college – that’s why you’re cranking your GPA. But college is not about being perfect in easier courses. To benefit the most from college, you need to get the confidence to take classes that will challenge you.</p>
<p>You can start senior year. Take the most rigorous courseload that you feel is manageable (and I don’t mean all As). Good luck</p>
<p>I think you need to speak with your guidance counselor. </p>
<p>When you apply to college, your guidance counselor must rate the rigor of your course load as compared to all other college bound students at your high school. If you have straight A’s and a 4.0 GPA, but your GC does not rate your course rigor as being “Most Demanding” because the majority of college bound students at your school are taking more AP’s than you – then, yes, that is going to lower your chances no matter what college you apply to. See the top section of page 2 – especially the right hand side of the upper section that talks about AP’s and course rigor – on the Secondary School Report
<a href=“http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf</a></p>
<p>Agree with Gibby. Course difficulty is a major factor. You can’t take pe and all art classes and compare to someone with say 9 ap classes even though your unweighted gpa may be higher. They look at the gpa and level of difficulty and reputation of high school’s difficulty. Also your test scores.</p>
<p>100% with Gibby. Admissions offices look at the rigor of your choices compared to: 1-what other students in your high school choose and 2–what is offered or available at your school. For example, at D’s private school AP classes are discouraged until Junior year but many such courses are offered then and virtually all students partake. Your high school will send a profile of your school. Thus they will see the profile and what you selected. And yes a 3.6 GPA from rigorous coursework is favorable to a 3.9 based upon much easier classes.</p>
<p>PS—the latter part about GPA is usually the case with private elite schools. State schools that place a heavy premium on gpa and sat scores may vary. I should say that my experience is with private competitive schools!.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate, but I still hear parents saying that they encouraged their children to take a course load which would allow them to get “straight As,” as though that were the right choice for getting into a competitive college. When I tell them that an A in a rigorous course is the best, but that a B+ in the same course is still better than an A in an easy course, they look at me like I’m trying to lead their children down a failing path.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the sound of “straight As” seems so much better to them than “DC took really tough courses, and got a 3.6 GPA.”</p>
<p>Do what you can senior year. For that matter, look into self-studying for an AP test, or perhaps an online course.</p>
<p>You wanted honesty, and I think you’ve gotten it in the responses.</p>
<p>Course rigorous and GPA are two factors (but related) for admission. Taking easy course with a 4.0 GPA is not better than taking rigorous courses with less than perfect GPA, of course up to a limit. It would be a waste if a straight A student is not taking one or 2 more challenging courses when it is available. The balance between course load and GPA is hard to define. Most schools use weighted GPA as a way of correction. It is not a universal system but it would give you some idea. Course load is often limited by the school. So it is hard to say taking only 2 AP classes is insufficient without looking at your school profile. After all, the GPA scale is also depending on your school profile. Having 4.0 GPA may mean less for some schools than others.</p>
<p>See if your high school may offer a half-year AP course such as AP microeconomics (or AP Macro) that you could take in the Spring.Then you’d take the other half Fall of Senior year + another AP, and your problem would be solved. Or do you have a high-level language that would allow you to jump into AP?
No AP Junior year is a red flag if you have 3.7+ - that you chose the less challenging path.
It doesn’t matter if you’re aiming for your flagship university, where Honors and a high GPA are perfectly good. But if you’re aiming for Top 25 universities/LACs, that will seriously hurt you. Ideally, for these colleges, you would have 4-6 AP classes if your high school offers them, or the maximum if your school offers fewer.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! Sadly, my school offers only two AP courses per year. I live in a U.S. territory, a really small island, and my school only offers AP English and History classes. If there was only an AP Economics I would definitely take that! I’m currently in a Senior Economics class (I’m not sure if that’s challenging enough for colleges to look at, but I was put into this Senior class although I’m a Junior) and I’m getting really high marks in that class because I take it seriously.</p>
<p>Yes, I will definitely take more AP classes Senior year. A lot of my older friends have done this mistake of “relaxing” their Junior year last year and they regret it as they didn’t take any challenging courses Senior year. I’m going to try for AP Government and AP English next year, maybe even AP Calculus! Right now I am only taking Honors Algebra II, and that’s it.</p>
<p>@T26E4, thanks for being so attentive! I’ll definitely take your advice and push myself further Senior year.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, you are all such great help.</p>