<p>my freshie friend has his heart set on davis right now. but he’s taking all regular-level classes at this point (no honors). he’s thinking about changing his tune next year though, depending on what davis is looking for. so his question: how many honors classes do students who get in to davis usually take? do most take ap classes in high school too? how many? </p>
<p>i know top 4% automatically get in and to be top 4% at our high school, i told him you have to take a considerable amount of honors and ap classes. but obviously people besides the top 4% get in right? how many people besides the top 4% actually do get in? should he mainly strive to be elc? </p>
<p>There isn’t a certain number of AP/honors classes he should aim for, but I would say the more, the better. </p>
<p>He should take as many AP and honors classes as he feels comfortable taking, while still managing to get good grades. It’s better to take one or two AP/honors classes every year and get straight A’s, than to take all AP classes and get straight B’s. </p>
<p>Also, sports and extracurricular activities are just as important as grades/gpa. And it’s better to stick with one or two extracurriculars throughout high school - and really get involved in them - than to superficially join a huge number of clubs/teams.</p>
<p>Getting ELC is great. But let’s say he’s in the top 10%, not the top 4%. If he has a high gpa and good extracurricular background, he should have a decent chance of getting in. Keep in mind that ELC is determined during the summer between Junior and Senior year - so only the first three years of high school are considered.</p>
<p>yeah that’s what i told him but he’s scared that the only ap class he can do really well in is ap bio cuz he’s big on science but the rest he’s kinda iffy about. he said he’d probably be comfortable taking honors math too but not ap. so would 1 ap class + some honors be enough if he got mostly a’s and some b’s (he’s currently not sure if he can get straight a’s in english and history)? or should he strive to do better?</p>
<p>as for ec’s, he’s trying out for golf next year i think and he plays the alto sax in our jazz band.</p>
<p>The ec’s sound good. He might want to consider volunteering somewhere too. It looks good on an application.</p>
<p>If he really thinks he would struggle in a particular AP or honors course, I don’t think it’s worth taking it. But that doesn’t mean he should only take classes that he knows he’ll do well in. Taking challenging classes can be good, if he’s up to the challenge.</p>
<p>Davis doesn’t put as much emphasis on ECs and the essays as most other colleges. It’s more of a cut and dry process - if you pass the total points threshold, you’re in. With that said, Davis doesn’t give you additional points for taking more APs and Honors. Of course, your GPA is boosted, which is the only benefit. If his heart is set on Davis, then the most strategic way to approach is to take 8 semesters of AP/Honors classes in CLASSES THAT HE CAN DO WELL IN! Don’t just take random APs and Honors just because of its name.</p>
<p>I believe 20% of Davis’ admissions criteria is composed purely of extracurricular “non-academic” activities. The other 80% is academic, and includes SAT/ACT scores (not just grades/gpa).</p>
<p>iirc all of the UCs except for Berkeley and LA use a point system for admissions; that is, his best bet would be to find the criteria (i swear i found them at some point but as of right now i have no idea) and see what he can do.</p>