How would taking BC Calc and AP Physics C in junior year stands out?

NotVerySmart
Sun, 15 Feb 2015 22:18:56 +0000

@Woandering‌ -With just 1 AP class before this year, and with OP claiming a lack of strong extracurriculars, there’s not much reason for optimism. It would take something exceptional (winning a national academic competition, curing cancer, that sort of thing) to make OP a really strong candidate.

@Alfonsia‌ -Actually, no. I know this chiefly because I’m in a slightly different situation (US citizen living abroad), and recently discussed the matter with my school’s guidance counselor. Here’s the way applications are divided, as she explained it.

1. Every applicant's folder is sent in from the school he/she attends.

2. That folder is read by the admissions staff for the region. This means (taking a random example) if OP now lives in Maine, the application will be read by the New England staff.

3. The only applications considered "international" are those of students attending high schools outside the US (whose applications would thus be sent to the staff for whatever country they attend school in). For example, an the dossier of an applicant from Slovenia would be read by the staff for the Balkans.

4. Each region, including countries has a soft quota of applicants. Although the admissions officers will never say "We've got 400 students from the Midwest, so we can't accept #401," they will try to avoid taking 750 students from a region where their target is 150.

5. The rest of the world has about as many spots in its soft quota (~10%) as, say, the great plains region. That's right, one sparsely populated region of the US has as much representation as the homes of the remaining 6.7 billion people of this world. As a US citizen living abroad, I hate all of you lucky (redacted) with "only" a 94% chance of being rejected :stuckouttongue: