Some criticisms I’ve been getting from my chance me threads is that my course load is not rigorous enough. I’m scared colleges will see it this way too. However, there is an explanation why my course load is so light. My school only offers 7 Honors courses (4 languages, chem, pre-calc, lit), and there’s no way you can take all of them. I took 4 of them (Chinese, Chem, Pre-Calc, Lit). My school also requires certain electives (so unweighted) to have their credits for graduation. My school offers AP courses as well, but we can’t take all of them (we can’t take AP Calc AB and BC at my school, regardless of what grade we take them in). My school prohibits enrollment of two subjects per year (i.e. Physics and AP Chem), and does restrict the number of weighted courses that underclassmen take.
These are the weighted classes I have taken and plan to take with AP scores if applicable:
Chinese Honors (9, I had to test in to take this course)
Chem Honors (10)
AP Chinese (10, got a 5)
APUSH (11, got a 5)
AP Chem (11, got a 5)
Honors Lit (11)
Pre-Calc H (11)
APLAC (this is NOT a course at my school, self-studyish, got a 4)
Planned: AP Physics 1, AP Calc BC, AP US Gov (semester), AP Macro (semester), AP Lit
Will colleges look down on me for my course load? I’ve seen lots of people go buckwild with AP and Honors courses, but I can’t do that, although I most certainly would if given the chance. Also, our lack of honors courses and required electives do bring down weighted GPA.
Don’t see why this selection of courses would be a problem in terms of course rigor. You have reached AP level in most of the core high school subject areas – English, math, science, history and social studies, foreign language (the only core area you do not have is art).
Also, there is no point to taking both calculus AB and calculus BC, since calculus BC includes the calculus AB material plus some more.
Remember that many of the “extra” AP courses that some students list are the ones which are often considered less difficult (human geography, environmental science, psychology, statistics) and are less likely to be given subject credit in college.
@ucbalumnus thanks for the feedback. I think we only offer these AP courses: Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Calc AB, Calc BC, USH, Chem, Bio, ES, CompSci, Physics 1, Physics C, Stats, and Lit. So it’s just really little to begin with because we don’t have some common ones (World, Euro, etc.)
You should be fine. My high school offered even less (taking all the AP classes available I was able to take 3 by the end of my senior year, so count yourself lucky). Despite that, I did pretty well for myself. I got into UCB, Emory, and a few other schools. You should be fine as long as you get good grades.
Course rigor is in relation to what is offered at your HS and in relation to what others do at your HS. Chances are just for fun. Do you think those HS kids criticizing you know much about college admissions?
When the HS sends its transcript to colleges, it also send a school profile which shows what levels of classes are offered etc. This way your courses can be reviewed in the context of what is offered in your HS. Your guidance counselor also is asked to check a box describing the rigor of your coursework so if he/she checks most rigorous (not sure of the exact words) then college will know you have taken as challenging a program as your school has available. You are not penalized for not taking classes that your school doesn’t offer.
I come from a similar school, so I feel your pain. We have no “honors classes” whatsoever. Freshman year I took “accelerated” geometry - geometry as a frosh is considered the fast track. Sophomore year I took “accelerated” Algebra 2, then this past year they lumped all of the students ready for pre-calculus back together into two classes, neither of which were considered accelerated. And this year I’m taking AP Calculus AB because our school does not offer BC. Also, if you want to take an online class at all, let alone an AP, you have to “exhaust the curriculum in that field,” meaning, since I took the freshman required science 9, sophomore required biology 10 and chemistry simultaneously, AP biology and AP chemistry junior year, and will be taking human anatomy and AP physics 1 (2 not offered) next year I was not allowed to take an online forensic science class because they implemented a new course of biotechnology for students who need to fill the 3 year science requirement to graduate but are not suited to chemistry. We were never allowed to take AP’s as underclassmen which is why I took 3 as a junior (add APUSH to chem and bio) and will take 4 next year. When signing up for our junior classes the counselor recommended that we take a max of 2 AP’s, which as you can see I kindly ignored. There are 500 students in my whole school and the common course for grads is to go to community college or straight to work at mom and dad’s farm or some sort of mechanics job. I really, truly detest my school and the lack of opportunity it has provided me with. Not to mention the rurality of our town in general - I commute an hour (50 miles) each way, crossing the state border, every week to volunteer at the science museum in St. Paul MN. Gah, now I’m fired up about how much I can’t stand this stupid town, and it’s stupid school, and stupid faculty… rant over. Until my next comment, that is.