Rigor in 5 main subjects

DadTwoGirls
Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:41:29 +0000

There is more to life than academics. There is more to university admissions, including admissions to the highest ranked and most famous universities, than piling up A’s in AP classes.

kristin2121:

Many of her classmates are taking more AP classes,

11 AP classes is a HUGE number of APs. You can’t compete with everyone in the world. There are too many of them, and some of them are obsessed to an unhealthy degree.

You and your daughter might want to read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. As I understand it, the blog recommends that we each do what is right for us, whatever we do we should do it well, and we should treat people well. That is what my family has done, and it has worked for us (including admissions to MIT and a few other highly ranked universities and/or highly ranked programs – the four of us attended 8 different universities, one each for undergrad and a different one each for a graduate program). We each did very different things. We just each did what was right for us.

MIT Admissions

Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions

How to get in to MIT.

kristin2121:

but she is not interested in them…

Then she shouldn’t take them.

kristin2121:

(and do her second language in her limited free time)

Different students vary in terms of how much free time they need. At least two of the smartest people I have ever met need quite a bit of free time. Some other people I know are just driven and can keep working on a wide range of tasks for what seems to me to be an unending period of time. We are not all the same. However, some of us really do need to keep some free time, and in many cases that does not stop us from being very successful in life.

I do not think that she should drop ceramics.

kristin2121:

Is it enough to have the highest rigor in just the 5 core subjects?

Yes.

I do not think that anyone can tell you for sure whether any particular level of rigor will or will not get a student into Harvard or MIT or Stanford or Princeton. However, I can tell you that people who graduated from any of these four highly ranked schools, or other highly ranked schools, routinely work alongside graduates from any of a few hundred other very good colleges and universities. Also, graduate students at these top schools typically come from a huge range of undergraduate schools. You can do very well in life with a degree from any one of a huge number of universities.

And I can give you a complete list of what I did in high school specifically for the purpose of getting accepted to MIT: Nothing. I just did what was right for me at the time.

kristin2121:

Music Theory,

One additional thing that I think might be worth mentioning: AP Music Theory is tough. My older daughter was a very talented musician and was very good at math. She took AP Music Theory. At the beginning of the year the teacher said that by the end of the class the students were all going to hate her. Well my daughter didn’t hate her, but she did find AP Music Theory to be a lot of work and a tough class. Some of it involves something resembling normal studying. However, I also remember playing thirds and fourths on the piano and having my daughter listen and tell me what each was (this was a test after she had being playing thirds and fourths on the piano and on her guitar by herself). There is some ear training involved. I don’t recall what else was involved but it is not easy and is definitely only appropriate for someone who really wants to do it.

kristin2121:

She also has a ceramics class that she genuinely enjoys to fill out her schedule.

And this sounds great!

kristin2121:

I think it’s a bad idea all around.

I agree.