In her case, it’s not about padding gpa. It’s about the mindset that led to those choices of APs. An adcom can look at it and ask, “Why those choices?”
And getting into a tippy top is holistic. EC choices matter. Willingness to stretch academically, yes. But stretch socially (with peers) and in community service, too. Grow, develop perspective, and more.
It is possible she will master everything, grow and make deeper choices over her hs years. But that takes being informed. Never to early to start learning the whole of what matters. You give the impression you think she’s off to a good start. But in the end, it all needs tomake sense to adcoms.
She chose them herself. I advised her to only take classes she could handle, and she assured me that she was. I edited the post above; she took PE over the summer, not to mention that it is not required for IB graduation. She is not interested in chorus or art, and she didn’t want to take band because she plays an instrument outside of school. Are arts classes good for her transcript?
That is part of her concern. Are these AP classes too random? Do the classes chosen look like they were chosen on a whim? Like I said, she says she wants to take these classes to gain AP experience, and she will take core classes next year. If these classes are too random, she is willing to drop Environmental Science, but she thinks she can handle it.
Many universities have a Visual/Performing arts requirement so she definitely needs to take at the minimum a year long fine arts course during HS.
We just checked, and the Visual/Performing arts requirement is part of the IB diploma. Thank you, though!
Note that some colleges expect a year of high school visual or performing arts as part of the expected academic preparation.
In addition, it is best to have all of biology, chemistry, and physics in the sciences (they do not all have to be AP or otherwise advanced).
“Top adcoms aren’t impressed by flufflier APs, some inflated count of APs, or a high gpa composed of easier classes.”
Right, that’s why the OP started this thread, the concern that the classes may be seen as suspicious or fluffy or gpa padding by adcoms. The OP did not come in and say, my D will have 20 APs, Harvard, here we come!
“Are these AP classes too random?”
I don’t think so as they would be seen as electives, since the core classes are very rigorous.
We found that many colleges required three lab sciences. Required…not recommended. Will she fulfill this requirement?
As noted, arts is a requirement at many colleges…or for HS graduation. Good that she will be required to do that as part of her IB program.
She wants to have something in her college applications that doesn’t scream “all I took was academic courses”.
With these 8 courses, will she have time to pursue her instrument outside of school, play one sport a year, volunteer or do other community service, be in a school play, see friends socially?
All of these things matter in the long run.
Yes, she will meet all the requirements for graduation. She is handling all her current classes well and is involved with many other things. She definitely has a life.
So should she take more “fun” electives in the next years of her high school? I was just talking to her and she said that there are some students that refrain from taking the classes they want lest it drop their weighted GPA. Should she choose interesting electives over honors/AP elective next time?
It’s not enough to say that she chose them.
And @theloniusmonk in post 7, OP said, “Suspicious as in padding your GPA.” Padding the gpa is not the issue here, afaiac.
Thank you theloniusmonk!
Could anybody else tell us whether these courses are too random?
So do you think that she should drop the Environmental Science to make her course choices less random? She seems genuinely interested in these courses. She still isn’t sure about what she wants to do when she gets older, so she is taking these courses for experience and to discover her passion. I doubt there is a space to explain this on the college application, though.
Environmental science is a hot major now in many colleges but I think that you might be missing the point. Don’t take classes you think colleges want to see. My son went to a all honors /AP school. Kids would join a sports team to trade it for an academic class. 7/8 classes was the norm so I get it. Let her take classes that are interesting to her and she wants to learn more about regardless if they are AP or not.
As stated more AP is not better. What is the norm for her school?
The problem is that it LOOKS like she is taking classes that the colleges want to see, but she is just taking the classes that she is interested in.
Freshmen can choose between World History and AP HuG. Very few choose AP HuG, so 1 is the norm for freshman who are taking an AP class. She knows she is 1 of 3 freshman taking 2 Or more AP courses.
At our school, APHG is the required social studies class for all freshmen, so that doesn’t look "suspicious ".
I would make sure that the progression in all subjects is a good set up for IB. When junior year hits, all the classes matter for an IBD candidate, and most of the SL science classes, for example, assume a prior year in that science. Iow, you don’t want SL Chem to be your first high school chemistry class.
Personally, I would aim for a well-rounded “traditional” foundation freshman and sophomore years in order to establish a strong foundation and a good sense of what’s appealing. Taking environmental science, for example, over bio, chem, or physics seems ill-advised.
It’s quite rare at DD’s school. She is taking all required classes. We are just worried that the choices of extra AP classes are too random.
“The problem is that it LOOKS like she is taking classes that the colleges want to see”
Are we going in circles? 3 of those 4 classes are not that important to to colleges. They’re electives, not cores. They don’t look to find them in the record. Enviro and psych are considered “light” and CS is unevenly taught, among high schools.
APWG is so common in hs now that, imo, colleges accept it. But the prime social sci are Euro, US, and world history. Or the IB equivalents.
There is NOTHING wrong with taking classes the colleges DO want to see. Rigorous cores.
By “it LOOKS like she is taking the classes that the colleges want to see”, I meant AP courses in general.
“An adcom can look at it and ask, “Why those choices?”
She is interested in these courses, but that probably isn’t apparent to adcoms that only see a random load of “easy” APs.
It sounds like you are concerned about how colleges will view this. My opinion…forget about that. Just forget about it. She is a ninth grader. Your biggest concern should be that she is taking courses that will set her up for success in subsequent courses. You should be concerned that she has time to do everything well.
You should not be worrying about what college adcoms will think about this.
To answer your question, yes, I think it looks as if your D is trying to rack up APs to make herself appear to be a super high achiever. And yes, I think it’s totally random. Is she genuinely interested in all those classes?
While I do think some people are a bit snobby about so-called “easier” APs, I do think that she isn’t doing herself favors by trying to take four as a freshman. APES is not easy. In fact, it’s one of the toughest to get a 5 in. There’s a ton of work.
IB diploma is VERY rigorous. She doesn’t have to prove herself. Colleges are not impressed with a kid who takes huge numbers of AP and IB classes. By cramming in four APs as a freshman, she runs the very real risk of not getting high grades in any of her classes, and that’s not going to do her any favors.
Totally agree with @thumper1 in #38.