<p>Not a dumb question at all. Colleges are very aware of this ‘game’ and often claim to take the whole AP thing with a grain of salt. I assume this is why they really just want to know if the student took the hardest curriculum possible - whether it be advanced, honors, IB or AP classes. Personally, I think that colleges should require the student to submit the AP exam score along with the transcript. An amazing # of students (I think less than 50%) taking the AP exams even pass them. A lot of kids don’t even bother to take the exam. </p>
<p>This is a lot like the whole weighted average issue - only makes sense when you look at it in the context of the student’s particular HS.</p>
<p>My high school is a lot harder than every other high schools in our district.</p>
<p>Will they take that into account? Or let the slacker lazy deadheads from our surrounding jackass high schools get the same treatment as us who have to work a lot harder to get a lower GPA?</p>
<p>Yes, I sound elitist, but why not? Who doesn’t want to work 4 hours less everyday and get a higher GPA taking the “same” level of courses?</p>
<p>Now. You can make your high school choice work for you. The school profile, the rep locally (where your school is a known quantum), the rec’s, the courses themselves can all play a sweet tune. Market what you have effectively and you can still come out finest-kind.</p>
<p>The kid from Slacker High has to do the same- play to your strengths.</p>
<p>Yeap, this is a lesson I learned after been on CC for so many years. I also corrrelated admission results with kids we knew back in elementary school. In fact, I have a friend whose daughters got into Stanford because they went to an urban city school and graduated valedictorians. They rise to the top despite the circumstance. They are both ORM. Colleges do not want to penalize kids just because parents can’t afford a house in a good school district.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for telling me that choosing a harder magnet school over my zoned school was a mistake.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely recommend future students to stay away from our IB program. It’s not worth it, and I learned it the hard way. Don’t make the same mistake. All those extra 500 hours of homework basically ruins high school life for no reason. I thought colleges would it like more, but apparently it’s all the same.</p>
<p>And don’t hire me as admissions officer. I’ll go elite-education-mode and slash all the bad high schools over the super rigorous high schools and throw the “in contex of your high school” out the window and take whoever worked harder regardless of having/not having opportunity. I would not make a good AO.</p>
<p>I feel for you, my nephew goes to a top IB magnet in the state of CA and only sleeps 4-5 hours a day. He is a freshman, but he loves it eventhough I had warned his family about it.</p>
<p>The point isn’t to rack up APs. It’s to be prepared for college. Big difference. The scuttlebutt from S2’s IB program is that college is easier. (Can’t imagine at this point how college could be much tougher!)</p>
<p>S2 did pay attention to schools who like IB, as he felt they would understand the GPA tradeoff and workload more so than schools that are more by-the-numbers. Among the schools he’s considering, the # of IB kids from S’s school who get in is about double the official acceptance rates.</p>
<p>For those in private school, how many APs is a full AP senior year schedule? One of my kids attended an elite private school and a “full schedule” of APs there was 4 senior year. The gc at our ps said my kid there would have to take 7 APs senior year.</p>
<p>Yes, for a good public HS 7 AP classes is the probably the magic number–though you might add self-study APs to that number for some. My D wanted to take an elective in her senior year but her GC said she couldn’t tick the box unless she took 7 actual AP classes, even though she had taken the max number of APs and honors her first 3 years of HS. 7 APs translates to about 7 hours of HW per night plus papers and projects. D has more like 9 hours of reading/p-sets a night at college. A few extra hours of sleep is still reserved only for the weekends. But, the APs, which were good at her HS–well above honors level and with best teachers, did prepare her for the rigors of college.</p>
<p>Both schools my D attended require a student in an AP class to take the AP exam. I know they cost money but I believe this is the only way it should be.</p>
<p>My daughter took about 10 difficult AP classes, at her GCs recommendation. I assume (and where were you when I needed you to help me pen a letter, curm) he indicated my daughter took the most rigorous curriculum. Looking back, good lord, it was sheer insanity. All those highly demanding classes in some subjects in which she had little interest, and her college didn’t grant one single credit for earning 5’s (one 4) across the board. </p>
<p>I digress. Here’s my point. My daughter was dying to go to UChicago. Among many many other accomplishments, she assumed having straight A’s in all those AP classes couldn’t hurt, should help. She was rejected. Her classmate (a swimmer) had taken zero AP classes, much lower GPA, and was admitted. I’m sure this is not all it boiled down to, but it did infuriate and confuse me at the time. My daughter didn’t know what to think. She felt tricked, betrayed, misled, left to wonder why she worked so damn hard. </p>
<p>My second daughter is having a much more enjoyable high school career. She is taking lots of art and music (which she loves and has talent for), the bare minimum of science/math/social studies. Probably no AP classes. I could not care less if this limits her college options. There will be some place for her. It is just not worth getting all worked up over, having seen my older daughter work like a dog for four years, and end up with crushed dreams to show for it.</p>
<p>It was a twist of the knife (and an enlightening life lesson) to see academically mediocre classmates sail into top-tier schools for reasons that had very little to do with scholarly achievement, and much more to do with athletic prowess, who daddy knew, and/or the size of his checkbook. AP classes taken? Most rigorous curriculum? Seemingly irrelevant in light of other more desirable qualifications.</p>
<p>At our high school, the weighting is 2 points for an AP class but only if you take the exam (which the school district pays for). If you don’t show up and take the exam then it is one point (and they do go back and change your transcript). </p>
<p>I wish that my son’s top 200 hs didn’t offer and stress so many AP classes. The class rank race is cut throat and ridiculous and I wish my son wouldn’t play that game. I would rather that they offer more higher levels of math like multiv. calculus (our school has AB and BC AP Calculus and that is it). The kids are really under a lot of pressure to overload on the AP’s (and the school reinforces this because it directly affects their rankings).</p>
<p>As an IB Student here has been my schedule… I’m not sure about its difficulty within the context of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>9th Grade:
-German III H
-English 10 H
-AP Human Geography
-Pre-Calculus H
-Biology H
-Creative Writing / Team Sports
-Guitar I / Lifetime Fitness</p>
<p>10th Grade:
-German 4 H
-Pre IB English
-AP European History
-Chemistry H
-Physics H
-AP Calculus AB
-Health / Gym
-Computer Information Systems (1020) / Business Management</p>
<p>11th Grade:
-IB German (SL)
-IB History of the Americas (SL), basically AP US History
-AP Art History
-IB Biology (SL)
-Business Webpage Design / IB Theory of Knowledge
-IB Language Arts 11 (SL), basically AP English Lit
-IB Mathematics (SL)
-IB Chemistry (SL)</p>
<p>12th Grade:
-IB German (HL)
-IB English (HL)
-IB 20th Century World History (HL)
-IB Chemistry (HL)
-AP Physics B, school doesn’t offer C
-IB Biology (HL)
-IB Mathematics (HL)
-IB Theory of Knowledge / Humanities 1100</p>
<p>Melin, there are pros and cons to both IB and AP. It is just one tool in the arsenal of K-12 education. Kids come from all different types of schools and mush together in college. There is no magic “checklist” or “if I do this I’ll get this.” If you are applying regionally there is a very good chance that the college/uni admissions offices are familiar with your school and can “compare” you to others applying in the same admissions cycle. Cur is giving good advice. Read it again. Watch out for those slacker lazy deadheads…they can bite you in the ass if you aren’t careful – if not now, when you land in college.</p>
<p>The point of having a challenging curriculum is to be challenged. It’s not to get into a particular college. There are lots of great colleges besides the ones everybody seems to be obsessing over.
I pity those who think their hard work is for nothing if they don’t get into one of their dream schools. As if a solid education was of no account.</p>
Agreed–you’d be fired pretty quickly as an AO. The extra workload of a magnet school will give you a better education, not necessarily a stronger college application.</p>
<p>Also, at my school everyone MUST take the AP exam that corresponds to an AP class. The admin threatens auto-failure (e.g. F for a final grade) if you don’t show up, although I’m not sure if that’s actually ever happened. And you pay for your own exams unless you qualify for aid based on need.</p>
Well D1 found out some of her best friends in her college that did get into HYP type of schools but chose her college for scholarship reason did not know some basic latin phrases like “Mea Culpa” for example.</p>
</p>