How much does class rank matter for Ivies and Top 20 schools?

tamagotchi
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:49:24 +0000

Lego100:

The engineering courses are listed as AP courses on my HS transcript and worth 5.0 credits each, so I am not sure why you are saying this.

I am not sure what your HS is telling you, but these do not appear to be AP courses. They are not listed on the College Board’s list of AP courses. At the PLTW web site the names of the courses do not have an “AP” prefix, and none of the PLTW material claims that they are AP courses.

If they are listed as “AP” on your transcript, my guess is that it may be because your high school considers the courses similar in level or rigor to an AP course, and using the HS’s own weighting, weights them the same as AP. However this doesn’t make the courses “AP courses.”

The reason to pay attention to this distinction is that AP courses are widely recognized across nearly all colleges, and result in college credit at many colleges. IB courses are also recognized widely, and typically result in college credit.

Other types of advanced courses may be great courses (in some cases more advanced than APs, for example many students take multivariable calculus at their high schools), but colleges will vary in how they view these courses, and whether they result in credit.