<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I'm probably not posting this in the right section, but please bear with me.</p>
<p>My school offers very little AP courses and it is very difficult to go around the system (ie. take grade 11 physics over the summer and do AP physics in grade 11). My school simply organizes two of the pretty important AP courses (AP Calculus and AP physics) in grade 12, which is after Penn applications.</p>
<p>So my question is: if I do do all I can (take AP exams outside of school and take all the AP courses I can in my school) and make it clear on my application that this is the case, will my application be affected at all? By the way, these are my planned AP course loads:</p>
<p>Grade 10: AP American History
Grade 11: AP Advanced Functions OFFERED IN MY SCHOOL (this is actually an AP stream course at my school without a standardized AP exam.
AP Calculus (Ill be doing extra preparation)
AP Chemistry OFFERED AT MY SCHOOL
AP Microeconomics
Grade 12: AP Physics OFFERED AT MY SCHOOL</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch guys: I REALLY hope you take the time to read this.</p>
<p>P.S: Is it good/realistic/possible to study micro outside of school?</p>
<p>Again, thanks a bunch.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, Penn will not penalize you if your school doesn’t offer many APs.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think you will be penalized at all. Your counselor submits a counselor’s report that discusses which courses are offered at your school, and even ranks your class choice difficulty compared to other students/what is available to you. The fact that you’re going out of your way to challenge yourself will speak for itself. Plus, class rank if the big factor that is considered, and assuming that you are at the top of your class, you will definitely be a contender in terms of academics. You can check out the CommonApp counselor’s report here: <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx</a>. Click on the “Secondary School Report.”</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Do not stress about your schools offerings. My school is a public school in northeastern CT, with one of the highest drop-out rates in CT and only about 1/3 of its students pursue a 4-year college education; maybe 4 kids a year are accepted to a competitive college; a student got into Bates College in 2006 and another got into RPI last year (its been about three decades since a student got into an Ivy). My school offers the following AP classes: Bio, Chem, Calc AB, Calc BC, English Lit + Comp, US History, Latin: Vergil, and Music Composition; I took all but USH and Music. I took a lot of honors classes and 6/8 of the schools offered AP, and even studied AP Computer Science on my own. Whatever you do, do the most rigorous work your school allows, enjoy what you do, do it well, stay active in the community and in extracurriculars, and really make sure that you love with Penn. If you do all of that, you have done not only all that you can, but also placed yourself in Penns sight. I was accepted early decision this year for the CAS class of 2015 with a 2030 on the SAT and a 31 on the ACT. You must present yourself as a complete package, and this includes exercising every opportunity your school offers.</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch everybody :)</p>