Importance of rigorous academic classes?

soozievt
Wed, 25 May 2011 08:12:35 +0000

thecheckbook, our state flagship is definitely harder to get into than the other state universities (which are not hard to get into at all). And yes, you have to be a very good student to get in, I believe. In fact, our state flagship draws heavily from out of state students as well. I was just saying that in our state, not every high school offers AP classes or if they do, they may offer just a few. So, the criteria for acceptance to the flagship is not X number of AP classes, but rather the level of rigor of courses the student has taken (which they DO care about at this university) within the context of their HS, which for example, could be Honors classes. I don’t think you have to take the MOST demanding HS courses to get in there (as would be the case at elite colleges), but yes, you would have to take more than average in level of how demanding the courses were…“more demanding,” as they say on a spectrum.

But context of one’s HS and what is offered is always examined by colleges. In fact, when my kids went to our HS, back then, only two courses had the AP designation…Calculus and Physics. The most demanding courses (and they were demanding) were called Honors. My D1 took the most demanding courses and then some (went beyond what was offered and accelerated too) and got into Ivy League schools and other elite colleges (so that is TWO AP classes). D2 also took the most demanding courses (which are Honors here) and AP Calculus in junior year and never got to take AP Physics which is only offered to seniors as she graduated HS after junior year. She had accelerated a lot. She got some great scholarships at various BFA programs. Since my kids graduated, I believe our HS has changed the designation on some of the senior courses to AP and so maybe there are five AP classes offered now. This is an example of what I was trying to say. My D1 was not interested at all in our state flagship (she had out of state private schools for safety schools), but was offered a free ride there which is given to every valedictorian in the state and so again, this is with TWO AP classes but her school record indicates “most demanding” for rigor of classes and above and beyond what the HS offered as well (she also took AP Calculus BC long distance through Johns Hopkins CTY, so I guess that is three APs).