<p>One area of focus for the coming year is emphasis on “academic rigor”.</p>
<p>This is an area of increasing frustration for students I know. Should every student take AP Calculus, when they would rather take AP Statistics? For many majors, they will need a stats class in college and won’t need a Calc class. </p>
<p>Should you take an AP Bio class when you are interested primarily in Marine Biology, but the Marine Bio doesn’t have an AP in front of it? </p>
<p>For students taking a full load and being told they have to take more and increasingly more challenging courses, because it is not at the highest rigor is frustrating. For students, who see these classes as a means to getting into a college, they do it. Some do it for the intellectual challenge and to help game their apps so they look like better students. </p>
<p>A college can theoretically choose a student who has taken all AP classes, but not gotten a score of 3, 4 or 5…but that boost helps the applicant stand out.</p>
<p>The current modus operandi at most of the top colleges keeps encouraging more APs and tougher classes. Understandably, so. They want top students. </p>
<p>But does it matter if a student is heading for the humanities and hasn’t completed Calc? Or an Engineering student that has opted out of AP Language? </p>
<p>It’s definitely not a one size all proposition in admissions, and students are becoming increasingly more confused with the process.</p>
<p>You can have a student taking 4 years of Foreign Language, 4 years of science, 4 years of English, 4 years of math, but depending upon the choices of courses, the student can look completely different on paper.</p>