Dumb High School is changing course names...

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>Ugh, I go to a semi-uncompetitive (I’m competing with like 1 or 2 other people for #1…which doesn’t matter since they ELIMINATED VAL/SAL starting with the class of 2008) that has already p-ed me off because they eliminated the class rank system (apparently, they are still putting it on transcripts, but not report cards or recognizing val/sal at graduation–moving to “cum laude” system.) Now, the district is changing most of the AP courses to “Honors courses”</p>

<p>AP Sr. English is the only one that is still ‘AP’ (doesn’t matter though since I’m not taking English sr. year! woot!), but AP Chemistry is now ‘Honors Chemistry 2’, AP Bio is now ‘Honors Bio 2’, etc. What the heck!?</p>

<p>I asked my counselor, and she said “It’s becoming standard across the country.”</p>

<p>I still plan to take the AP exams in these subjects (well, depending on the college I go to…Ill know by May next year)…but won’t this new course name look bad to colleges, or will they see that I took Chem junior year/Bio soph year AND NOW (senior year) I’m taking “Honors Chem/Bio” and they’ll get the idea? Honors just sounds less better (haha) to me…bleh.</p>

<p>Speaking of…my school stinks course-wise. They really screwed me over by being stupid…I was supposed to be able to skip General Science Freshman year, and take Chemistry freshman year (like the “smart” freshmen are now). However, I took Chemistry junior year, not allowing me to take physics (I doubled up on English this year so I wouldn’t have to take it next year), so now Im taking regular physics next year instead of AP–I mean Honors. Um, so blah. Colleges will hate me?? :(</p>

<p>My senior year schedule will hopefully be (if it all fits):</p>

<p>Honors Spanish IV [Possibly AP]
Honors Chemistry 2 [AP]
Honors Biology 2 [AP]
Honors Calculus [AP-AB}
Physics 1
Dual Enrollment Class @ Comm. College</p>

<p>The stuff in won’t be on my transcripts.</p>

<p>AGHAHAH I hate my school! I could only take 1 AP class junior year (APUSH–Actually an AP class)…well there was a couple others who took AP US and AP Bio, but that option was not conveyed to me. I’ll never get in to Cornell/MIT/Berkeley/Wash U/Urbana-Champagne coming from my school. Ugh.</p>

<p>Oh wow, this post was supposed to be just about course name changes!! Sorry to anyone who read the whole way through. I just needed to vent I guess (and want help now!) because people on here seem to be the only ones who “get it.” </p>

<p>(People from school: "You got a 29 on your ACT!!??! You can go ANYWHERE!!)</p>

<p>-sigh-</p>

2

<p>Just to let you know, most colleges require four years of English, so you might not want to drop it.</p>

3

<p>Well, I took English 9, 10, & 11 and also this year I took English for the College Bound and Modern Media…I still have the 4 units that my district and most colleges require.</p>

<p>Also, I want to go into engineering, so my senior year courses will show passion/interest for math & science.</p>

<p>Also, (# 2 haha) the community college course I’m taking MIGHT be a Gen. Ed. English course…1 sem.</p>

4

<p>If you want to go into engineering, I’m surprised about the physics…</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I am too…Like I said, I was not told about it by my counselor. I should have had some some guidance on choosing classes AND my school sucks.</p>

<p>So bah.</p>

6

<p>Heh… “The standard.” Our districts doesn’t have honors at all. We have “accelerated” – which gets us not GPA weight – and AP. I hope they keep the AP there until my little brother graduates.</p>

7

<p>If the school wouldn’t mention on your transcript that they are AP Courses then just send extra information to the colleges yourself that says those are basically AP courses with different names. </p>

<p>but, wow, 3 sciences! Even if you want to be an engineer you should take a wider variety of courses.</p>

8

<p>I completely understand what is happening to you. I was so ****ed when the school decided to call some of the classes, advanced, or honors, instead of AP. Such as AP Art History becoming enriched Humanities. What the heck.</p>

9

<p>That’s stupid if they’re not changing the curriculum. It’s basically the same thing, so why not call it as such?
Enriched Humanities sounds stupid and actually even more pretentious than AP Art History. </p>

<p>My school is starting to actually drop AP courses but the curricula for the new courses are different because they are up to the teachers to decide on instead of based off of what the AP would ask. Still, people are ****ed off.</p>

10

<p>Colleges don’t give a crap what the name of the class is.</p>

<p>Stop whining, its not pleasant.</p>

11

<p>I’m pretty sure the reason why your school is doing this is because College Board is implementing auditing for AP courses because there are a lot of cases where schools are calling courses “AP” when they really shouldn’t be to give their students a boost in admissions by making it look like they are taking AP courses when the classes are actually easier than they are supposed to be. So they’re doing audits to make sure the courses are on par with what the College Board deems appropriate.<br>
Perhaps you school, for some reason, does not want to comply with the auditing?</p>

<p>there are also a lot of schools that don’t want to participate in the AP curriculum because they feel it is too restrictive and test oriented. </p>

<p>but since your school is keeping AP English, it seems like they don’t feel that the other AP courses are on par with the College Board’s guidelines…</p>

<p>I think there is a thread on this somewhere on the Parent’s Forum or Cafe</p>

12

<p>That makes sense.</p>

13

<p>I believe it’s because Collegeboard decided to get all nazi on us again and have now implemented AP Audits which are a pain in the butt.</p>

<p>Honestly, and they’re quite stupid, too. Our AP Biology program was rated number one in the world last year, and guess what? It failed the audit. Our AP US History program also failed because it “didn’t do enough essay-based questions.” UMMM we did about 2-3 FRQs/DBQs a month. It was just quite stupid.</p>

<p>I doubt colleges will care, as long as they see that you’re taking the AP test. Or as long as it’s the most challenging</p>

14

<p>This is the thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=296960&highlight=audit[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=296960&highlight=audit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>Hmmm, the audit point is interesting. I’m pretty sure that the APs we have DO follow the curriculum though.</p>

<p>I was just worried because in several schools they have regular, honors, AND AP. So, won’t it look like I’m not taking the hardest classes–when I am!? </p>

<p>Yeah, 3 sciences <em>IS</em> crazy, but it’s because of the course selection really. I know it sounds bad, but I need to take honors to keep my rank up. The choir director really wanted me to take Concert Choir (highest choir) because I did it fresh/soph. year. I am taking Theatre Practicum (Honors) second semester though (if it doesn’t conflict with any other classes…which is unlikely since all of these Honors classes are only offered 1 hour :().</p>

16

<p>i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread
i guarentee i will ruin this thread</p>

17

<p>no, actually, you shouldn’t be worried because when your gc write their reccomendation or whatever, they have to say whether your course load was not rigorous, rigorous, the most rigorous, etc., so as long as you took the highest level of courses offered at your school, the college would know.</p>

18

<p>Oooo right!</p>