I am currently in AP seminar, and I am curious if getting the capstone diploma would actually be valuable to me during college admissions. I am planning on taking AP lang, chem, stats, and APUSH next year, and AP research, bio, calc BC, macro/micro, and psych senior year. Is fulfilling the capstone program worth it? Or should I substitute research or something else, such as AP physics or another AP.
From an admissions standpoint, it’s no better and no worse than any other AP course. However, since you’re already halfway through year one of AP Capstone, not taking year 2 may (or may not) be not be looked upon most favorably.
It’s of no importance to colleges if you have enough APs under your belt. Only reason it reflects bad is that if your school offers it and you don’t do it then probably your GC won’t endorse you for most rigorous load.
There is no college in this country that will look down upon a student that did not take every AP course that was offered. If a GC did not mark a schedule with 6+ AP’s as “most rigorous,” I would question the competence of the GC.
Is the GC check important?
Depends upon the colleges you are thinking about. At top-tier colleges, it’s pretty much a given that most applicants will have had the “most rigorous” curriculum box checked.
My kid is a junior taking the Capstone Research class after taking the Capstone Seminar her sophomore year. Less than 1/3 of the kids from her Capstone Seminar class went on to enroll in the Research class, so I totally understand your perspective. My kid’s Research proposal topic is a spin-off from the comprehensive 40+ hour community service/volunteer work she completed last year (and continues this year and will complete next year as a senior). She spent the summer thinking about how she could use her volunteer experience to apply to her Capstone Research proposal/project. It was helpful to start the class off with a project (and potential mentors) already in mind She will use the work with a few tweaks to fulfill her senior year project (required to graduate, not as intensive as it sounds). Her Capstone Research topic and outcomes will be highlighted in her college application essays and will be a discussion point during college interviews because it’s a topic she is genuinely passionate about. She’s applied to a few selective summer college programs, and she is using the topic in those applications, too. Her Capstone Research teachers are top-notch, so it has been a good opportunity to work with great high school teachers that she otherwise might not have had access to. She is obviously putting a lot of energy into her Seminar class, you don’t have to do all that, of course, but she is getting a lot of benefit out of the class in some many ways. She attends a public high school which is highly ranked in our Midwest state (only offers AP classes, no IB, so our students make the most of their AP classes). If you can grab hold of a Capstone Research project that lights a fire under you, I’d recommend you go for it!
Our high school is known for its’ IB Diploma program. It is a program that has been around a long time. They are going to start offering the AP Capstone Research and Seminar next year.
D has no interest in IB at this point. I wonder about the AP program since it is so new. I know the IB program is really solid.