<p>I'm looking forward to applying to Rice Universtiy or Carnegie Mellon and more, but I'm worried about one thing. Many colleges like to see you take many AP classes and etc..but I come from a small private school which only offers two AP classes: Calculus(which i could have taken this year but my headmaster didn't allow me too) and English. I'm going to try and take AP Computer Science as well as AP Biology outside of my school, but I'm worried that just because I come from a small school with not so many AP courses, etc.. that I won't get accepted.
My class currently is only 13 people. =/
My GPA is 4.45 . I'm not sure if its weighted or unweighted. To give the specific percentage that I have so far this year is 99. The only advantage I see in this is that I go to a private school in GA ( Known for horrible PUBLIC school eduction) which is much more rigorous and hard than public school.
Is this a big disadvantage?
I'm a sophmore by the way.</p>
<p>it's not a disadvantage at all. even if it were, you have time to take AP's and then it would be a non-issue. i have however met quite a few students at Rice that did not take any AP's because of their small private high school. colleges want students to take the hardest classes available, with "available" being the word that makes things relative. take all the AP's you can on your own and note that on your application. not only is that impressive, but it will give you college credit at most colleges, particularly Rice which is generous. </p>
<p>the AP's the help most at Rice in my opinion are psych, econ, chem, bio, physics, and calculus in that order. it doesnt matter if you plan never to touch the corresponding subject in college, though.</p>
<p>I want to go in for Computer Science. I know Carnegie Mellon CS school is very competative and I hear that Rice has one of the best computer science programs (?),but I haven't taken my SAT's yet. =/.
Thanks for the encouragement though! I'm trying to find as many courses as interest me online, since that's the only way I can take any courses. I also asked my mom about taking AP Psychology and AP Enviormental science, but she told me that I wouldn't need to since if I apply for Biology or Computer Science that they colleges wouldn't care, but is that true?( I know you mentioned it looked good) I wouldn't mind taking either AP course. I love psychology and I'm sure enviromental science won't be bad either.
Do you know if they(rice) have a good Biology program?</p>
<p>I haven't looked at the Rice course catalog in a while, but AP scores of '4' or higher will usually get you some sort of credit at Rice. If you're interested in CS, the psych., econ., and English exams might get you "free" distribution credit (certain classes outside your broad area of major -- in this case, sci/eng). This is a good thing, because it means more time to take classes you <em>want</em>.</p>
<p>As a CS grad myself, I'd say take as many AP exams as you feel comfortable and confident in doing; course credit is course credit, and it'll go toward your total number of hours (of which there's a minimum req'd to graduate). It can't hurt.</p>
<p>English does not give you distribution credit, only normal credit. normal credit is usually not a problem for anyone. the average number of credits students come in with is 24, meaning (120-24 divided by 8 sems = 12, the absolute minimum) students will easily meet that graduation requirement. the main thing is major requirements and distribution, and for those graduating in 3 years, the 48 upper-level credit req. </p>
<p>i wouldn't focus on things that can't hurt, but things that will definitely help. i don't believe Rice would care about which AP's you take in terms of admitting you, so what you take will be determined by what you want college to be. to that end i see two ways to go about choosing that you should do. </p>
<p>one is definitely to take the intros of stuff having to do with your major. the line of thinking "i will just take intro chem in college" is almost always regretted. this is because intros at Rice and other schools are much harder than their high school counterparts. the second is distribution credit for classes you don't like. you will hate them more in college because they are harder. AP physics and AP econ are laughable compared to phys 101 and econ 211, for example. i hated econ in HS and learned more about playing hearts than economics. i honestly might as well not have taken the class, but i studied for a good 6 hours the day of the AP and got a 4. i put in one day's worth of work for that and got 3 college credits. the system is set up, for whatever reason, to be much easier on the high school end. i would encourage anyone to take advantage of this for that reason and because college look on it favorably as well.</p>
<p>English does not give you distribution credit, only normal credit. normal credit is usually not a problem for anyone. the average number of credits students come in with is 24, meaning (120-24 divided by 8 sems = 12, the absolute minimum) students will easily meet that graduation requirement. the main thing is major requirements and distribution, and for those graduating in 3 years, the 48 upper-level credit req. </p>
<p>i wouldn't focus on things that can't hurt, but things that will definitely help. i don't believe Rice would care about which AP's you take in terms of admitting you, so what you take will be determined by what you want college to be. to that end i see two ways to go about choosing that you should do. </p>
<p>one is definitely to take the intros of stuff having to do with your major. the line of thinking "i will just take intro chem in college" is almost always regretted. this is because intros at Rice and other schools are much harder than their high school counterparts. the second is distribution credit for classes you don't like. you will hate them more in college because they are harder. AP physics and AP econ are laughable compared to phys 101 and econ 211, for example. i hated econ in HS and learned more about playing hearts than economics. i honestly might as well not have taken the class, but i studied for a good 6 hours the day of the AP and got a 4. i put in one day's worth of work for that and got 3 college credits. the system is set up, for whatever reason, to be much easier on the high school end. i would encourage anyone to take advantage of this for that reason and because college look on it favorably as well.</p>