<p>Is Cbse till 10th, Maharashtra state board 11th 12th with IITJEE coaching in the ballpark ? Or at least not far outside the ball park ?</p>
<p>I might be wrong, but by high school rigor, colleges want to see -
- Did you take the most number of subjects/courses that one can take in your school?
- Your school’s affiliated board’s curriculum.</p>
<p>–JEE coaching or Pvt. tuitions or SAT prep classes do not count towards high school rigor and there’s absolutely no place on the commonapp where you can point these out, except in the add. info. section!!</p>
<p>-- On the other hand: classes taken in local universities, online college courses, etc. may not count towards course rigor but do count in your application and there is place to show them on the commonapp!! :D</p>
<p>Hope this helps!! :)</p>
<p>Didnt have the option of taking extra subjects. Neither of the boards have electives. I’m not worried about the CBSE part, will the state board hurt me ? I suppose the adcoms are aware of the trend of indian students going for state boards to prepare for JEE.</p>
<p>I am not aware of the rigor of the Maharashtra Board, but do not fall for the “we consider your application in your context” thing. They don’t!</p>
<p>Don’t think that the adcoms would know the Indian student trend of turning towards State boards.</p>
<p>I don’t know why some people say that CBSE is a tougher curriculum than the State Boards.</p>
<p>I am from Andhra Pradesh and I am very sure that CBSE is not tougher than our State Baord. They are almost equally rigorous.</p>
<p>I really don’t know if the adcoms consider CBSE to be tougher than the State Boards.</p>
<p>It’s a bummer that you don’t have electives!! But make sure that when your counselor/principal attaches your school profile - that he/she makes a point about how tough the course is!! 
Well I have no idea about the Maharashtra State board, so can’t help you with that!!</p>
<p>But I’ll give you an example… the Andhra Pradesh State Board SSC is very very easy. But if a student keeps getting ~95%+ throughout his 2/4yrs in the AP state board curriculum then the lack of rigor will be overlooked and attention will be paid to the SAT Subject scores to see whether his knowledge is sufficient enough!!</p>
<p>I doubt whether all college adcoms are aware of the phenomenon you mentioned!! Even if they are, top colleges choose only the best - so excuses such as " becuase I was immersed in JEE prep, I could only get passing marks in school exams" won’t sit well with the adcoms!! :)</p>
<p>@hopingforbetter - Dude, I know AP board … i could not study & get 95% so chill!!</p>
<p>In the Andhra Pradesh state syllabus, I’ve noted the following in the MPC stream…
– Even though the curriculum is vast, nothing is done in depth!
– Set pattern of questioning, which are repeated over and over again!
– Level of English is pretty darn low!
– To top it all, you can write things called improvements! Wherein, you take the exam again to improve your marks!! Haha!!</p>
<p>Now I didn’t study AP state syllabus, but I have friends who shifted from ICSE to that after 10th. All of them laugh at it’s rigor. Even the guys who managed an average 80-85% in ICSE boards got 92% + in their 11th board Exams!!</p>
<p>Ha…“set pattern of questioning”–take a look at the stunning number of 12th class phy failures and low scorers in 2012. I am not one of them–never depended on the previous papers/repeated questions/important questions.:D</p>
<p>And yes, I agree with the rest. I took the IIT-JEE prep in 11th n 12th–maybe this is the reason I find CBSE not at all tough. There is a reason for this confusion (of clubbing my IIT-JEE prep and the 12th board syllabus)–I never prepared for the boards. All that I had was IIT-JEE prep for the entire 2years.</p>
<p>I am sorry guys!</p>
<p>I agree that getting 90+% is easy in AP Board. And you don’t need to learn anything. Just mug up everything!</p>
<p>@hopingforbetter - The stunning no. of phy failures that you are referring to is not a mark of the rigor of the syllabus!! It is more so due to the fact that lot of average/below average students don’t study & hence fail!! </p>
<p>I bet you went/go to FIITJEE or Narayana or Chaitanya! :)</p>
<p>But all that aside, @Shreyas - Don’t worry too much about this!! Do well in your 12th boards!! And leave it up to the adcoms to decide! As it is you can’t change anything!! Haha!!</p>
<p>If they don’t see the state board and Cbse differently, which I doubt they won’t, I’m at an advantage 
Maharashtra state board is way easier than Cbse. Don’t even ask about english. My Sister studying in 9th Cbse has tougher English than 12th hsc. Essay topics are usually “trip to village” “my best friend” “my favourite festival” x_x</p>
<p>@shreyas - What about science/math/others ?? Are those subjects easy too?</p>
<p>Because if they are then you’ll have to make sure that you have a consistent 90%+ in every exam! Also you’ll have to do well on the SAT I,IIs to confirm that you’re 4 years of high school work has made you ready for college!! Because adcoms look towards SAT I, SAT II more when the curriculum you follow is not known about/not widely recognized!!</p>
<p>Yes i’m going to get 90+ in ever subject, except CS. but wont be less than 85 ! i have almost an year to prepare for SATs so no worries there. though i havent given an official test yet, i get in the bandwidth of 2250 in the prac ones</p>
<p>@shreyas, @hoping</p>
<p>It is not the curriculum per se. IIT JEE has approximately the same syllabus as CBSE XI but the exam is considered more rigorous. In the US, many high schools may have the same syllabus but the challenge set to individual students might be different (and colleges in the US have some statistics on what schools/classes are rigorous and what are not). </p>
<p>Historically Maharashtra state board exams (Xth, XII) are considered below par to CBSE not only in curriculum but the lackadaisical attitude and the way questions are asked. CBSE X (but not XI and XII) in their current CCE avatar is moving in that direction, so a 90+ in IX-X CBSE means a lot less (“essentially meaningless for the ivies”) than it used to be. XIth in a particular CBSE school might be quite different from a XIth in another. </p>
<p>XIth in many/some areas of Maharashtra appears to be less genuine that XI in CBSE – the studious ones are concentrating like @shreyas on IITJEE and the others are “partying” leaving the classrooms despondent. </p>
<p>12th (XII) however is likely to be considered more genuine in CBSE than in Maharashtra State board despite the “increase in syllabus” for XII this last year in Maharashtra. @hoping: When you look at the textbooks you see the same material but the type of questions asked are different.</p>
<p>As rishav17 says, “don’t worry too much. do well”</p>
<p>I don’t think syllabus matters too much…Enjoy your time…party:D</p>
<p>There is only one space in the commonapp to specify the rigor of your High School curriculum, and that is in the counselor report. There, too, as far as I know, your counselor is supposed to write whether you’ve taken the most rigorous curriculum that <em>your school offers</em>. This is mainly for schools which have Honors, AP, IB courses etc, in which case some students will have taken a more rigorous course-load than others. Doesn’t really apply to us.</p>
<p>Apart from that, how rigorous the colleges view different boards as, we don’t know and it’s up to them. There’s nothing you can do about that.</p>
<p>@Idledevil - Well yeah. But what the OP was asking is whether or not the CBSE till Xth & Maharashtra State board till XIIth is considered to be a rigorous curriculum. The answer is that the state board ain’t rigorous enough!! Now I agree that the OP can’t change his board… but he can always do very well in his board!! :D</p>