S25 is tranferring schools for senior year. We’re running into an issue with his English class selection for senior year.
He took AP Lit sophomore year.
He is wrapping up AP Lang as a junior.
The school he is transferring to initially suggested taking a 1-semester DE accelerated Lit & Comp class in conjunction with AP Research/Senior Capstone.
The school has now said they would prefer he take AP Lit again instead of the DE English class because it is more intertwined with the AP Research class, or at least this is the explanation from the GC so far. He cannot sit for the exam again. I am waiting for more detail from both the GC and the department chair.
This would mean AP Lit will appear on his transcripts twice. The GC has said they will include an explanation for why this happened in their letter.
How big of an issue could this be for his applications?
If the school agrees to let him take the DE class, is that in fact the better option for him, or would taking the AP class again be considered a more rigorous course load?
Agree that taking a different English class would be a much better option. But if taking AP Lit is the only viable option I would insist that the guidance counselor put an explanation in his/her LOR saying that the school required the student repeat the class as it is intertwined with AP Research at this HS.
That’s a lazy excuse. While AP Research structure depends largely in the teacher, if the classes are interlaced, then kid already has learned half the material. Assuming kid really wants to take AP Research.
Agree that repeating AP English literature is of little or no educational value. It can also be problematic to college admission in many circumstances (can look like grade grubbing).
I agree with skieurope. It is downright wrong and stupid for the school to want him to take AP Lit again, especially if he did well in the class and on the AP.
It also serves no educational or admissions benefit.
@blossom - Creative Writing, College Writing (a college app writing/SAT verbal prep seminar), and Public Speaking. There are a few technical writing classes geared toward the CTE students (the school runs both a traditional high school and CTE center). I think generally, they track the kids into either a rhetoric/composition class (standard or accelerated/DE) or AP Lang junior year, and then lit & comp (standard or accelerated/DE) or AP Lit senior year.
@skieurope - this makes a lot of sense. He’s not thrilled about AP Research, but is required to complete a Capstone project to graduate, which AP Research fulfills and is probably the most rigorous option for doing so. If he opts out of AP Research so that he can avoid taking AP Lit again, my assumption would be that he will be enrolled in the Accelerated Senior Capstone, which is a “one-semester, heterogeneously-grouped, interdisciplinary class” and the DE English class. Ultimately, I think this looks like the “less rigorous” track for this school, but not the “least rigorous”.
@happy1 - absolutely. I am considering asking them to share the language they plan to use for this specific issue.
Still preferable to the alternative of repeating AP Lit, IMO. And assuming the rest of his schedule is rigorous, I can’t see AOs picking apart his course selection course by course, although their eyes will quickly focus on a course taken twice.
If the school has a dumb policy that AP Research must be combined with AP Lit, then that’s what the GC should clarify in the recs as a reason for not taking AP Research, not as a reason for taking AP Lit again.
Agree that the guidance counselor will need to step in here-- to explain that the student took Creative Writing because he’d already taken AP Lit, OR to explain that he’s repeated AP Lit because it’s a school policy.
I think the former is the better way to go- both the optics AND the pedagogy.
I would combine DE and either Creative Writing or Public Speaking + take the Research capstone.
If AP Research has to be paired with AP Lit, then you’ll need to make sure the GC provides an explanation why yoir child couldn’t take AP Research (ie., had already taken AP Lit and the school only offered the paired combination).
Even if the class is paired due to having the same teacher managing the content, he’s already covered that content… so I’m not sure how that’d a problem.
@skieurope - it’s funny you mention the AOs seeing the course twice… that was S25’s reason for it being OK funnily enough, because he thinks for some reason it will make them want to dig deeper into the rest of his app to find out why. Seems super risky to me, but also about on par with how my 17-year old would think about this.
AP Research must be combined with either the DE class or the AP Lit class and they probably usually put their students aiming for very selective schools in the AP Lit class.
For context, the rest of the schedule is:
AP Stats (completing Calc AB this year, no interest in BC)
AP Micro (completed APUSH sophomore year, completing AP Gov this year)
Jazz Band
Psychology (fall only, other options for this semester were Intro to Woodworking, Intro to Drawing, Robotics, College Writing, Entrepeneurship, and Sports Medicine. AP Psych had a conflict.)
Forensics (spring only, has taken regular chem, physics, and AP Bio, not interested in AP Enviro or other AP sciences, added to keep a science class on the schedule, will not take if in AP Lit)
I just assumed that he took at the old school, because it is a required prereq.
If they dig deeper, and that’s a big if, it will be at the expense of reviewing the rest of his application. Having to dig deeper doesn’t mean more time to review his application; it means that the digging eats into the set time
The DE class seems like the logical alternative since the student has already taken AP Lit. I can’t imagine it would be viewed as less rigorous than repeating a class.
AP Seminar is only open to sophomores and juniors at the new school, and neither AP Research nor AP Seminar are offered at his current school.
I don’t see any mention of the AP Capstone Diploma in the course bulletin for the new school. The senior capstone project is a requirement for all kids at the school, even in the CTE programs, so it’s not tied to the AP Capstone Diploma. AP Research is one path to meeting the requirement. But they must be waiving the AP Seminar requirement for him since he didn’t have access to the class.
I see ‘grade grubbing’ mentioned a lot in these forums. Is this something AOs are asked to look out for?
Considering that the same colleges are happy to take more money and allow the students to repeat courses (below a certain grade) for a higher grade, why the hypocrisy?