<p>Look, that’s the answer everyone gives.</p>
<p>I think two things are true: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>For the very top schools, other than recruited athletes or the equivalent, a kid is not in the running at all unless he or she has taken a very challenging courseload. A kid with all As in non-honors courses is not qualified. A kid with all Bs in all honors courses is also probably not qualified, or way behind. The only way to get qualified is to take, at least, mostly honors courses if possible, and to get, at least, mostly top marks in them.</p></li>
<li><p>But that doesn’t mean that EVERY course has to be honors or AP or some such. A non-honors course isn’t a black spot on a kid’s record. From a college admissions standpoint, probably the only relevant cut-off point is what would cause a GC at a particular school to check the “challenging” box rather than the “most challenging” box when characterizing a kid’s curriculum.</p></li>
</ol>