<p>I am confused here. I read posts from posters who say they have a 2.8 and yet have all AP classes. At my son's school, you can't even take honors classes without an 89 or above average in that course from the year before. How do these people get in AP with grades like that?</p>
<p>Secondly, how does the college know. Will they look at my son and say he did not challenge himself? He has about half honors classes and half college placement. His average is about 88. He would have taken AP if he could have. </p>
<p>Are you better with a B+ in a college placement class than a C- in an AP?</p>
<p>Some schools are very lax about the requirements of getting into AP classes. Your school is not one of them. Those students with low GPAs in all AP classes are either lazy or took too much for them to handle. Neither reason is good.</p>
<p>His class rigor will be put into context on what your school offers.</p>
<p>B+ in college placement is better than a C- in AP. As a rule, you want to avoid Cs.</p>
<p>According to the Yale representative at the info session a B in an AP class is better than an A in non AP class. But you should not take course load that results in C or couple of Cs. Any C look bad on the transcript.</p>
<p>Some schools don't have minimum requirement to take an AP class. At my D's school you need B in an Hons. course in the pre-requisits or an A- in a regular course to qualify. Also you need to maintain a B or higher to remain in the course. Any grade below a B will automatically drop you to a regular or hons. course.</p>
<p>A 2.8 GPA student with any course load is automatically out of loop for the top university.</p>
<p>I second everything gaffe said. College admissions officers are assigned to regions, and they grow to become familiar with the different schools in the area. Your son's progress will be looked at in that context.</p>
<p>At my kids' HS (where LOTS of kids take AP classes), anyone can sign up for them.</p>
<p>I would also point out that brightness/high IQ does not always equal being a good student. If Einstein was in an AP math class and he never turned in homework, he would get a bad grade. My son has Asperger's Syndrome and is extremely ADD...and is also classified as Gifted. He can comprehend everything in his AP classes but he's always going to lose points for things like late homework, not putting footnotes in the right format, not answering the questions on the back of the test page, etc. etc.</p>
<p>missypie: Your son is gifted and it will come out in his application. But that doesn't mean that everyone who miss homework or get bad grade due to not being diligent are Einstein and also where did you get the idea that Einstein won't waste time doing homework.
Point is for most of the cases the rule of thumbs apply for some special gifted cases like your son exceptions applies and that is why the admission process at top school is holistic.</p>
<p>College placement are just regular average course, not honors. It is a very small school. There are AP, Honors and then college placement. CP classes are the lowest level or the classes for kids that would still be going to college.</p>
<p>They would DEFINETLY hurt you at any elite college. Out of the top 100 schools and they are ok with it. Most elite colleges have a basic assumption that everyone who has a chance of getting in must take AP's or Honors like a pig, UNLESS their school doesnt offer them, but if they do, then a person who doesnt take any would have a little to nothing chance of acceptance</p>
<p>is that students should take challenging classes in high school and try to learn as thoroughly and as deeply as they can the subjects that will help get ready for college. The ideal, of course, is to get faultless grades in unquestionably difficult courses. Some students don't reach the ideal level of courses and grades, and it appears that there is a bit of doubt about how to resolve the trade-off between taking a course easy enough to get an A in and taking a course that is indisputably the hardest course that your high school offers. My general advice would be to do what fits YOU and then college admission committees will decide whether or not you fit into the college. Some colleges look for valedictorians, and some for the next Albert Einstein. </p>
<p>To the original poster, I would say that high school grading standards vary enough that it is very hard to say what another school's 2.8 average means, or what your son's school's 88 average means. But it is a VERY good idea for your son to take an AP course by self-study (because ANYONE can do that, and the College Board always has a policy of permitting self-studiers to take the AP tests) and show what he knows in some favorite subject. If he likes the subject, and is self-motivated to study it, colleges will be glad to know that he went beyond the high school requirements. I have NO idea in any particular case if a particular level of high school grades comes mostly from what the student did, or from what the teachers THINK the student did. But the AP test scores have the advantage of being more comparable from student to student, nationally, thus it is a good way to make a case for college readiness to take an AP test and score well on it.</p>
<p>My son cannot take AP Govt/H Econ because of scheduling conflicts. He has 4 APs already on his schedule. It looks like he will have to take regular Govt/Econ. How bad is this? I'm going to try and find out if he can take the AP Govt/Econ as independent study but I don't know if the school will go for it.
Should I drop the independent study idea and just let him take regular? I think this hurts his class ranking more than anything. May suggest to him to drop (H) orchestra even though he loves his music and still see if the school can fit in AP Govt/Econ.</p>
<p>Please give suggestions/advice. School starts in a couple of days. Also, the school only allowed counselor phone conferences (for scheduling problems) this week.</p>
<p>If he loves his music, then for goodness sakes let him take the music. If he doesn't want to take AP government as much, then don't. Please, please, please, make this about your son and not about numbers.</p>
<p>At my school, there is no requirement for enrolling in AP or Honors; however, when you schedule your classes the year before, you're supposed to get recommendations from teachers for their respective subjects. They almost always sign, but even if they do not, you can still take any classes you want. They'll just be ****ed if you decide to drop something if you weren't recommened.
I have always been told and personally believe that a B in a regular class is better than a C in an Honors/AP class, however, if you can't pull at least straight Bs in a respectable amount of Honors/AP courses, then I'm sorry to say chances for acceptance aren't that good. You'll be competing against people who have taken all APs and Honors since 7th grade and have never gotten a B or less.</p>
<p>It looks like my son will take regular government. He has 4 APs now and has taken as many APs as he could. He wants to stay in orchestra playing his violin and piano and continue teaching chess to kids after school. He has many ECs planned and they are things he loves. This is his senior year in high school and he should be able to enjoy other things than just pleasing these hard-to-get into colleges. Some college somewhere will be lucky to have him as a student.</p>
<p>Good decision raffles. Both my S's took/are taking non-weighted electives in their senior year because they just wanted that class and didnt care about the weighting. No "big name" schools on our horizon though. I guess that could make a difference for some.</p>