<p>I'm always confused on this site on how students are getting into Honors/AP classes by their Freshman year. At my school there are no such courses offered to Freshman and even Sophomores can only take 2 max, with FEW exceptions. </p>
<p>How does that level out the playing field when you apply for colleges though? It seems very unfair that someone from another school would have more opportunities to take Honors/AP = higher weighted GPA overall = better chances. </p>
<p>I'm starting to think that they might not know the definition of Honors, meaning that it's an equivalent grade bump to AP with the exception of an AP test. And they might just be jotting down Advanced classes as honors.</p>
<p>It’s the job of your guidance counselor to let colleges know how your school’s system works. By the time each college reads your application, they should know which courses were and were not available to you.</p>
<p>Simply put, it doesn’t. If your school allows you to take like 4 APs and 2 honours classes freshman year, then your schedule will look harder because, frankly, it is harder.</p>
<p>Colleges know each school is different, and they will take that into account, but the student that took more APs and Honors will be preferred, regardless of how many classes the school offers.</p>
<p>Different schools have their different interpretations of honors and AP. Honors is not the same as AP without the exam. Honors is simply a bit more challenging, then with AP you bump up the difficulty. I’m sure they know the difference between honors and AP.</p>
<p>Honors and AP classes freshman year at my school were truly that. It changed weighted stuff and freshman took the AP test at the end of the year. We took a test before we got into our school to figure out where we belong and our grades from 8th grade helped with that too.</p>
<p>Colleges know that schools are different so don’t worry about it too much! They don’t expect you to take APs and Honors freshman year if you don’t have them offered to you.</p>
<p>Schools are very different when it comes to AP and Honors classes. I go to a very small school in a very small town, and we only have 5 AP courses that we’re not allowed to take until junior year and no honors courses whatsoever. So, I feel very close to you right now because I always look at other students’ schedules on CC and I just feel so unprepared and inadequate. But, from what everyone tells me, I do believe that colleges take your school’s limitations into consideration, and thus, we should be fine. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, i’m another one in this bunch. The only AP anyone could take sophomore year was AP Physics B, and the very few AP’s we have (sciences, 2 languages, and Calc BC, and the latter is just about impossible to feasibly reach) can mostly only be taken senior year. Much of our schedule is already picked for us so there’s little room for choice outside of the core subjects.</p>
<p>In return, we have different levels for each class. So English III has levels 2/3, 4, 5, and that’s how it is for almost every class. A dozen kids in level 5 took the AP English Comp exam so I guess it prepares you for that, and it’s meant to be taught like an AP. But our school doesn’t call it that. Nobody knows how grade weighting works, and it’s all a head-scratcher.</p>
<p>I hope colleges are taking this into consideration. ;-;</p>
<p>Colleges receive school profiles when looking at students from bigger high schools. They can see what courses are offered and which aren’t. For example, my school doesn’t offer any honors or advanced courses what-so-ever - all students are lumped together regardless of performance. Additionally, AP classes cannot be taken until junior year, and even then, our school only offers maybe 6 or 7. Colleges won’t fault kids from my school for not taking honors classes or AP classes their freshman/sophomore year because we don’t have any.</p>
<p>If your school is small and/or a college has not received an applicant from that school yet, then the counselor will fill out a form detailing what courses are avaliable and what-not. The counselor will be able to fill out whether or not a student’s schedule is very rigorous, somewhat rigorous, etc. Colleges know these things and will not judge a student for something that is beyond his or her capabilities.</p>
<p>Each HS has a “school profile” that they send out with college applications. It’s usually a 1-2 page document and is sometimes posted on your school’s website. If not, it’s not a bad idea to stop by the guidance office and ask for a copy.</p>
<p>I don’t know about this. It’s not about how hard your overall schedule is, but how much you took advantage of your opportunities. People have gotten into ivies without taking APs.</p>
<p>Almost everything depends on the “school rules”; my school allows only one AP class and a couple of honors freshman year, an after that it’s “all-hands-off-pick-whatever-classes-you-want-just-make-sure-you-can-handle-it”.</p>