<p>I’m not quite sure what this means and how flexible this is. I am hoping you all have some good interpretations.</p>
<p>In our school, there are a lot of different tracks for different subjects. In general, would a student need to be on the very highest track for every subject to get this designation? For example, in the very top math track, a few students begin taking specialized high school math courses in middle school. But there are also honors and then AP math courses. Would the student with only the honors/AP be disqualified from HCA? What about the student who begins a second language as a sophmore and wouldn’t end up with an AP course? </p>
<p>The HS brochure handed out to colleges isn’t that detailed.</p>
<p>It would be fine. This does not mean that the junior and senior years must be filled entirely with AP courses. S took two foreign languages, neither to AP level. He took an introductory course in a technical arts subject because it was the only level offered that year (and tech arts was a graduation requirement), ditto another art course.</p>
<p>Even if the student ended up taking Pre-Calc rather than AP-Calc in senior year, it might not matter too much so long as the student did not apply as a future math/science student.</p>
<p>I think that this is up to the high school counselor to determine. They can check off a box for “most rigorous curriculum available” if they feel that this is applicable. It is completely within the context of that high school. I would guess that if your son’s curriculum looks like other students’ in the top 20% or so of his class, that box would be checked.</p>
<p>At our high school, the top 10% of the class probably have 8 APs or more, but we are at an AP-crazy school, where non-AP classes are not particularly challenging. It’s not expected that a student takes up to AP level in every subject though, and very few students take their foreign language through the AP level.</p>
<p>“Hardest curriculum available” usually means AP level classes in the core subjects: English, math, natural sciences and history. Electives and languages don’t matter as much - honors level is fine. My kids (very anecdotal here) have found that there isn’t much difference in difficulty between honors and AP anyway. The APs are taught to the test, which is sometimes more straightforward than an errant teacher going off-road in an honors class.</p>
<p>I think that all students - even non-math/science concentrators - should take at least AP calculus AB in high school in preparation for college core requirements. My guess is that the most selective colleges like to see AP calc on the transcript.</p>
<p>There’s only one right answer to this question: talk to your guidance counselor and ask, specifically. It’s basically up to the guidance counselor to draw the lines, and there’s no mechanism for school-to-school consistency. That’s not to say that admissions staff may not notice if the counselor says that everyone took the most challenging curriculum, but they didn’t take any of the available high-level courses. But that would be an unusual situation.</p>
<p>Talk with the GC. And argue a bit if you think his or her standards are not fair.</p>
<p>Also, without being too precise here, I suspect there are fewer than 50 colleges where not taking the most challenging curriculum would weaken your application in any meaningful way, and probably fewer than 20 where that would be a serious problem. Most colleges don’t care at all, or are fine with the second-highest level.</p>
<p>My opinion-- don’t worry about it. Worry instead about the colleges want to see and what your child needs/wants. My dd was not rated “hardest curriculum available.” The gc said that the only way to have that checked off was to take full IB or 7 APs at the same time. (Dd took 7 APs over her last 2 years-- at least one in every major subject-- and had honors in other subjects but we thought 7 APs at the same time were ridiculous.) Anyway, from what I can tell, there was no effect on dd’s applications. The colleges all said that a strength of her application was the difficulty of her curriculum.</p>
<p>My sense is this issue must be vastly overrated. At one of our children’s school, for a host of reasons, near impossible for most (or any) kids to take ‘most rigorous’ as defined on paper. In our province in Canada, too many required courses to 12th year, that can not be accelerated out of, or taken elsewhere. or replaced by AP. At best one can fit in a few APs in 12th year, but one has to decide which ones. Yet it seems they go to top US schools just the same.</p>
<p>The following should be considered as the hardest curriculum if available:
English(4 yrs): Hons. 9th, 10th, AP English Language, AP English Literature
Math (4 yrs): Hons. Pre Calc, AP Calc BC, Multivariate Calc, Differential Eq, AP Statistics/Math Elective
Science (4 yrs):
Physics: Hons. followed by AP Physics C
Chemistry: AP Chemistry
Biology: AP Biology
Elective: AP Environmental Science/Human A./Genome/
History (4 yrs): AP World History, AP Euro History, AP US History, AP Art History
Foreign Language (4 yrs): 3 years Hons., AP Language
Electives(1 year): AP Comp. Science/AP Psychology/AP Econ/</p>
<p>Results in at least 12 APs with 2 to 4 more APs or post AP courses. It will provide the opportunity to be AP National Scholar after Junior year ( A distinction only ~600 students have in the whole US).</p>
<p>From what I understand, the term is also used to let students know that if they attend a school with few or no AP courses offered, they will still be considered if they challenged themselves with the best curriculum available, …to them.</p>
<p>PIOH’s post is one of many that reminds me why I truly don’t understand American HS today. Why not just let qualified kids skip highschool and go straight into college? Why is one assumed to be qualified to do AP English in 10th grade after just honors 9th grade? What happened to the other three years of highschool English that makes them irrelevant? I mean these as serious questions, not to be argumentative at all. I honestly don’t get it. </p>
<p>In our system, north, you would need to take honors English 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 before you can take AP English. Likewise an AP science only comes after Science 8, 9, 10, honors 11 and honors 12 in that subject (which by the time you took say AP physics, you’d have had 3 full years of HS physics under your belt). AP French would come after 11 years of language, not 3. </p>
<p>One could argue HS here is lame by comparison but indicators say otherwise and our students do extremely well when they take AP exams and also at college with few APs.</p>
<p>The college guidance counselor at our huge public high school told my son and I that in order for her to check the “took the most rigorous courses” box he would need to take 1 AP sophomore year followed by 5-7 AP’s junior year AND senior year. Yikes.</p>
<p>I agree with talking to the GC. It varies a lot by what is offered at each school as well as by what the top students at that school typically take.</p>
<p>Our story: When registering for classes senior year D planned to take AP Lang, AP Spanish, AP Calc, AP Gov. The question was whether she should take Physics (non AP) or AP Chem.She really isn’t a “science person” and had no intention of majoring in anything science related. I called the admissions offices of the colleges she was considering (all competitive schools, not Ivy’s) and they all recommended Physics in her case. So that’s what she took.In addition, she took Drama 4 and Newspaper journalism as electives because theater and writing are two of her passions. Yes, she could have “loaded up” with 2 more AP classes, but at some point enough is enough. In her school almost no one takes more than 4 AP classes at a time anyway.</p>
<p>She was accepted to her first choice school.</p>
<p>The PIOH’s curriculum won’t fly at my kids’ HS, no matter how smart the kids are. We require – absolutely, no ifs ands or buts – 3 years of hons. English. Only sr. can take AP in that subject. Every one has to take Biology (academic, no honors offered), world studies, an art subject… In short, we’re a higly competitive HS (T50, US), but the administration is doing everything possible to limit the number of AP students can take; they come up with all sorts of prereq so that you can’t take AP in 9th or 10th grade. Then, you can’t take more than 4 APs a year. Doesn’t mean you can’t, just way too many hoops to jump through. Realistically, a top performer can have about 7-9 APs; most of the kids have 4-6. When my D started HS, I think the admin sucks. Overtime I think it is a wise policy.</p>
<p>We have a school system with 11 regular high schools. There should be standardization across our school system (but there isn’t; I think the individual GC makes the determination of what is the most demanding curriculum).</p>
<p>I wish that the kids were more limited in what/how many AP’s they could take at our high school…then my DS wouldn’t feel the intense need to compete (beyond his ability). He is happy at his local hs, since he loves being part of such a large group of brilliant overachievers (the school has tons of very gifted students and they all track together…making a huge school seem smaller) but if he wasn’t happy with his peers…I wonder if he wouldn’t be “healthier” in a less grueling environment?</p>
<p>I don’t know where POIH’s kids go but my son goes to a highly competitive, top-ranked private college prep school. Even the tippy-top of our classes (who routinely get into HYPM) don’t take a curriculum like that. I agree with Starbright - with a curriculum like POIH is suggesting, why even bother with HS?</p>
<p>At our school - a full IB program (starts in 11th grade) gets you the ‘hardest curriculum available’ as does taking AP courses. However, no one is allowed to take AP in 9th grade. 10th grade it’s usually only US History, 11th grade a few more AP classes and if you earn the right, you can take full load of AP classes in senior year (which is what my son is doing). Getting in to the AP classes at our school is very difficult because you have to prove you would be able to pass the AP exam, which basically means you have to have had an A in an honors classes, get a teacher recommendation and take an ‘entrance exam’. Our school prides itself on the fact that nearly 100% of the students taking AP courses also pass the exams. It’s in our school profile. </p>
<p>Yes - we might, in any given year, have a few students who take Differential Eq or AP Virgil but as VP pointed out - it doesn’t change the definition for ‘hardest curriculum available’ for the rest of the class. AND those definitely aren’t the only kids getting into top ranked schools.</p>
<p>Same here. No AP english until Senior year and some of the classes PIOH listed are not available. As I mentioned previously, almost no one takes more than 4 AP’s at a time. HS is in top 200 public nationally.</p>