Hello there,
My school has three levels of course difficulty - “College Prep” (lowest, supposed to be the default), “Accelerated” (what it says on the tin), and Honors/AP. On this forum, I have heard “regular”, “honors”, and “AP” discussed, but no differentiation in the “regular” category.
I have taken accelerated/honors/AP courses where they were available (some classes are non-leveled). Will this do me any good in the college admissions process? Could I have just taken CP courses instead of accelerated courses when I didn’t feel able to take honors/AP, saved myself a bunch of hassle, and have a 4.0 GPA right now?
Not super stressed about this, but I would be curious to see if other high schools have similar systems, and (if not) whether admissions officers will consider my particular school’s vicissitudes when looking at my application.
Schools want to see that you have taken the most challenging level that is available. Looks like you are doing that.
As for "saving yourself a lot of hassle: challenging yourself in high school sets the course for challenging yourself in other aspects of life so is always worth doing. Helps with self respect. Helps with future job performance and exercise regime or hobbies. “Good enough” usually isn’t good enough.
When your HS sends a transcript to colleges it also sends a school profile which among other things, details the different levels of classes available at your particular HS. This school profile allows each college to view an applicant’s transcript in the context of his or her HS. So if you are asking if colleges will understand/recognize that you took more difficult HS classes, the answer is that they will. And colleges do want to see applicants that have challenged themselves academically.