Late Arrival/Early Release opinions for Ivy-League

Applying to College
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As the title says, my school offer early release/late arrival as it’s only mandatory for me to take six of eight classes senior year as I already have my credits. For the past years, I’ve been working extremely hard on my ECs and have been taking multiple AP classes. My Classes are as listed.

Freshman Year.

Advanced/Honors Classes: 3/8 (Bio, Eng1, Alg 1)

AP Classes: 1 /8 (APHUG)

+4 extra on-level classes (random stuff)

Sophomore Year

(took Adv/Honors Geometry over summer)

Advanced/Honors Classes: 3/8 (Chem, Eng2, Alg2)

AP Classes: 3/8 (APSem, APEuroHist, APWorldHist)

+2 On-level classes (StuCo + French)

Junior Year (Current)

Advanced/Honors Classes: 1/8 (French)

AP Classes: 6/8 (APResearch, APUSH, APCSP, APES, APLANG, AP Pre-Calc)

(Also taking AP Macro and AP Gov Outside School during the year) (maybe take AP Psych depending on future)

+One on level class (StuCo)

Senior Year (future)

AP Classes: 5/8 (APLit, APFrench, APCalcBC, APPhy1, APCS1,) (If Early Release)

  • StuCo

  • (AP Stat) (If no early release) 6/8

Keep in mind i’m also a student council officer so I have to take a Class Soph-Senior Year

I’m not sure considering the classes I take (which is score well in and have 4-5s in) and the fact that my ec’s are also pretty good, i’d be competitive if i took early release or late arrival

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The Ivies have extremely low acceptance rates. If you don’t get accepted, you will never know why. There are tons more well qualified students applying than seats available in their freshman class.

I personally think it’s fine to take early release if you have four years each of math, English, social studies, and science, and up to at least level three of a foreign language…and some arts classes. If you have all of that, then I personally wouldn’t worry.

But I would spend some time finding colleges you like that are affordable with more likely chances of acceptance than the Ivies.

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The person to give you the best advice is your school guidance counselor who knows what your peers are doing, and how they will rate you on the common app.

At our local HS, it was totally common for the top kids to do late arrival/early release if the rest of their schedule was rigorous. At my D’s nearby HS, all of the top kids added classes and it would have been a big ding to not have a full slate, regardless of rigor. So, IMO, your question is very school dependent.

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The question is, what are you doing with the time gained by early release/delayed arrival? If it’s to sleep late, or relax at home early, no. If it’s in order to work to support your impoverished family, or to gain relevant job experience, or to participate in a research project, or to attend a high level college class unavailable at your high school, yes.

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I would argue that late arrival in order to sleep a bit more is a very good reason to take it. Lack of sleep is endemic along teens, causing mental health issues, and a later wake up time in order to be rested&more productive during the day would make a lot of sense. It would show you know how to manage work life balance and health, 2 important personal skills.

Early release can give you time to work on college apps if you can show the discipline to not fritter it away.

Highly selective colleges will only expect 6 classes, with 5 academic classes - which you would have. How it works at your HS is another matter- Talk with your GC: would that impact your rank, GPA, anything (keeping in mind highly selective colleges use unweighted Gpa).

What would you do during the extra period?

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Why would this be an issue? Some students do spend a lot of time on homework/school projects, and getting sufficient sleep and relaxing is important too.

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Taking a reduced class load without showing some good use for the time off doesn’t look good in college applications. If a person has some productive use for the time, such as early AM practice sessions for their special interest/talent/EC, or doing an interesting, unique afternoon EC that the early release enables, that looks good. But simply taking only 4 classes, when the norm is 6 (plus lunch and a study hall, and keep in mind that most highly competitive applicants are routinely forgoing study hall and even lunch, and taking 7 or 8 classes, most of them AP), without any explanation of how that free time was spent, does not look good, in comparison with certain other applicants.

Of course sleep and relaxation time and adequate time for homework are important, too. But the reality is that the most highly competitive applicants usually are doing much more than just the minimum number of required classes.

Consider four applicants. Equally good GPAs, test scores, rigor, ECs through 11th grade. All continue their usual ECs as appropriate. For 12th grade, one is taking 4 remaining classes, with appropriate APs, and arriving late or leaving early, with no explanation of what the time is spent on. Another is taking 7-8 classes, with appropriate APs. A third is taking late arrival, so that they can more easily spend 2 hours on the ice in the early AM, practicing their figure skating in their attempt to compete on the national level. A fourth is leaving early, in order to spend the afternoon working on an election campaign, or in a doctor’s office as an assistant, or doing an outdoor ecology research project with the local environmental preservation foundation, or attending a college class or two in order because they’ve moved beyond what their high school can offer them.

Which one is more likely to be put into the “set aside unless we need more qualified applicants” pile?

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^ these scénarii don’t apply to OP.
This applicant would be taking 5 AP classes and a class related to a significant EC, not 4 classes.
Hopefully OP is already doing ECs that matter to them, without needing early release for that.
The possible additional class would be AP stats, which wouldn’t change anything for highly selective college admissions.

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My impression, just as a parent, is that AOs don’t read apps that way. I don’t think they are thinking through an hourly schedule or why one applicant has one or two more classes senior year than another. They are looking in totality for some rough minimum of rigor and in totality at the activities outside of class.

There is something to be said for balance.

(My S24 taught me this when I worried about his senior schedule last year, which was comparatively light for a student aspiring to top schools. He now attends a T10 and continues to be very intentional about having a balanced schedule.)

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10

Isn’t it getting a little late to add courses? If not, both of my kids took an elective course for total fun….both took culinary arts and both still say they loved that course.

They both also had one period still of early release/late arrival. Our school had a rotating schedule so there were days in it when the blank period was not at the start or end of the day.

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So, as currently planned, if you do early release senior year, and if you include the outside-school APs during your current junior year, you will have 18 total AP courses over four years (including in-school AP Euro, AP WH, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Calc, AP Physics 1, AP French), and if you don’t do early release, you will add AP stats for a total of 19 AP courses over 4 years.

Your rigor is already more than sufficient both over four years and for senior year. I would not add AP stats; take the early release senior year.

For that matter, the 3 outside-of-school APs you are taking/planning to take during your current junior year are unlikely to move the needle for admission. You will already have an AP in each core subject area. I would not do the outside-of-school APs at all, which would still leave you with 15 total over four years, more than sufficient for Ivy-level schools.

Admission is not a race for the most APs. Find some balance.

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OP is a junior. They are trying to decide their senior year course load.

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Oh! Planning head!

Then my suggestion of a fun elective for senior year might be a good one. Take a course you want to take that is interesting to you, and you haven’t had the time to take up until now.

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Hi!

yes, i absolutely agree, however I heard that it’s somewhat key to get a top 10% rank in your class for consideration, and since I didn’t get the “best” grades sophomore year, at least one AP is somewhat required for rank. Plus, I’m taking AP Gov and AP Econ, each taken in different semesters for self study.

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My opinion, I don’t believe that self-studying for two extra AP exams is worth your time. In contrast, your junior year course grades are very important.

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I intend on working on my startup and ECs with that time.

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I agree as well, however, taking them during junior year boosts my GPA and I’m more of a business person so macro and gov is kinda my thing

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AP course grades, which may be weighted by your high school, may boost your GPA. Can you explain how self-studying for an AP exam, not a course at your high school, has any effect on your GPA?

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It doesn’t have a major impact on my GPA, however I will still regardless study for it and take the exam to reduce college tuition as a large part of my APs are tailored to my major.

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Yes! looking back, i’m likely gonna replace one of those APs with a interesting class like photojournalism or floral arrangement