Certainly far too late to be making this post, but I was wondering how much harm not having four years of Math and Science in HS will be when applying to ivies?
I finished all four years of required HS math and all three years of required HS science in middle school so I began with AP calculus and the only AP science my school offers. Because of my already taking of all of the science classes at my school, I did not end up being able to take any science classes sophomore year (unless AP economics counts as a science? ). I was able to take science classes junior year and senior year however through DE.
Math wise, I was able to take AP statistics sophomore year, but junior year I was only able to afford one semester of math (MVC) through DE and I will likely not be able to pay for second semester DE math this year (I’m a senior) .
Will this negatively affect my application, if so, should I explain in the additional info?
I think these colleges understand it gets tricky once you get through the end of what your HS actually offers. I would consider getting in that information about not being able to afford more DE, either by having your counselor do it or putting it in Additional Information. But overall I would not worry too much about this, with the obvious point you should make sure you have a full list of Likelies and Targets and not just Reaches (but that is true for everyone).
Given that you have taken the highest level math and science in your high school already, and have taken more advanced courses at a college, and many colleges’ “4 years of high school math” etc. are recommendations rather than requirements, it is likely not an issue by itself. However, if your AP science and college science do not include all three of biology, chemistry, and physics, you may want to include in your application that these were completed in middle school (assuming that you took high school level courses in these subjects while in middle school).
It may actually be public universities that list hard requirements that you need to be most careful of, since you may need to look up their rules on how higher level courses fulfill requirements of lower level courses or how high school level courses taken while in middle school may or may not be counted.
Does your school district have an education foundation? If so, they may offer grants to lower income students to pay for DE courses, particularly if the student has exhausted the offerings at the local HS.
Yeah, privates tends to “recommend” a lot of things because they ultimately want the freedom to do whatever they feel like in individual cases. Publics are potentially subject to system or state policies that are intentionally more predictable and less discretionary.
). I was able to take science classes junior year and senior year however through DE.