So it is too late for me to ask on behalf of my daughter, but I am also a high school teacher. Wondering what you think colleges - my students seems most interested in lac’s, but some state universities in there too- would upon look more favorably: more AP courses with a few B’s mixed in, or fewer AP courses with straight A’s? I teach at a fairly rigorous high school. I’ve always thought it the former, but some students just can’t stand to see a B on their report cord. Just curious what others think.
All A’s in AP courses. 
In all seriousness, a blanket statement serves no purpose. The transcript, including course selection, will be evaluated in context.
The student should take the most rigorous, and balanced, load that s/he can handle. But that does not mean that s/he needs to take all APs, nor does it mean that a grade of less than an A is a disaster. So a challenging class that is interesting and/or aligned with future plans should not be avoided because the student might get a B (even if the rumor mill is that Mrs. Jones “never” gives A’s).
I’ve heard the question posed to admissions officers multiple times and they all smile and give the response @skieurope wrote. Both course rigor and GPA are factors looked at by admissions officers. I agree that students should take the most rigorous courseload they can handle.
Seems like a variant of this frequently asked question:
Q: What is better, an A in an easy course, or a B in a hard course?
A: An A in a hard course.
An A in the AP course is what I heard too - (from a Vassar admissions officer many years ago). 
She also said, you don’t have to take every AP your school offers, take what interests you. My non-STEM kid took AP Calc BC and AP Physics C. I don’t have access to his transcript now, but I think he had a B+ in both when he applied, though he might have squeaked out an A-. (He had a B+ by the end of the year.) He got into what I would say were the second rank of selective colleges Vassar, Tufts, and U of Chicago (EA before UC got really crazy, though I think overall admissions rate that year was around 15%). My kid really wanted to take those STEM courses, along with AP Euro which he loved and was good at, so he did. He didn’t have his heart set on going to an Ivy, so it was all good.
for top schools - A in an AP.
Is money an issue?
Since schools usually only look at UW GPA for merit all As (as long as one can get into the school) will give you more money! Sad but true. We had so many schools tell us one thing but once applying time came and we called the admissions office to see why our son did not get in over another child we were told again and again that UW GPA is more important than overall rigor even when it comes to AP classes, Honors etc. One admissions officer ventured to tell me that its because its too hard to weight all the high schools against each other, even with those known to be “rigorous”. We were at a college forum and the head of BC’s admission told us go for the APs even if you get those Bs - well after 8 APs and an academic rigor of 10 out of 10 from a good MA school we were told by BC that a UW 3.5 does not cut it even though W it would be well over 4.4.
I would say if your child can get an A in the next best class down from the AP to do it. If your child can get an A in the AP class AND get a 4 or 5 on that AP exam than go for it. Passing the AP exam with good scores is important as well as taking the class as it shows the A that you got sunk in and meant something!
Agreed, momtofourkids. It seems merit aid is tied to UW GPA not rigor, so if I had to do it again, I would recommend going for the highest GPA. Yes, rigor helps, and is essential for some schools, but high grades can bring automatic admission and awards at many colleges.
@roycroftmom yes it seems so and quite the opposite of what i used to think. I have 3 more kids to go through the process so I will be able to see the results lol
If you have a strong hook (i.e., family is a big donor), you need to craft an application that gives no reason to say no. That’s different than creating a reason to say yes. So if you are in that boat, skip some of the rigor and keep the A.
Or keep the A if you might apply to Alabama, Baylor, Trinity, or the dozens of other schools that award money for grades, not rigor
Alabama takes weighted GPA from the high school transcript at face value for scholarship purposes:
https://scholarships.ua.edu/faq/
That can be advantageous if the high school weighting system gives a large bonus for the harder courses.
Only matters if the school weighs courses differently
UW (Madison) has always given the top grade in top course line as above. They calculate their own unweighted gpa and look at course rigor compared to what is offered. Son’s district never weighted grades and gave no +/-'s either.
At first glance at the thread title I thought it was a comparison of the AP class grade and the AP test score. A relative worked hard (son did not as much, both in gifted range), got an AP class A but only a 3 on the exam while son’s final semester grade in the same course (different state and year) was a C while he got a 5 on the AP exam. Obviously son had the better taught chemistry.
As a parent I would not try to game the system. Encourage your kids to stretch their academic muscles whenever practical. This will better prepare them for college and perhaps they’ll get the same grade in the AP or honors version. Son took honors junior language arts instead of AP because that was the course that allowed him to finish off fourth year French. Eons ago my schedule conflicts meant being stuck in the required semester government class because of my schedule needs. So boring with the regular kids. Consider the intellectual stimulation because of the students who take the AP versions instead of regular ones.
We were never in a gpa means merit money situation, our flagship has never done that.
For top 25(50) LACs, rigor trump’s a few B’s.
For public universities, a high GPA (check with Admissions if they use weighted or reweigh themselves), a good mix with a maximum of As matters more.
All in all, for top schools:
- a few B’s aren’t the end of the world
- after 6-8 APs total the aw of diminishing returns applies
- not all core classes are AP: it’s better to take physics regular than APES, a 4th year of Foreign Language is better than AP human Geo; it’s better to take calculus regular or regular analysis than to take no math as a senior intending to major in Humanities, but AP calculus is important for a future STEM major (if thy completed Precalculus honors junior year - if thy complete Precalculus honors senior year they’re ok too.)
Thanks, it’s interesting to get these varied responses. Obviously, all a’s in all AP classes is the “best”. That’s difficult for even the most accomplished students at my school. Anxiety levels are through the roof and seem to be increasing with each year I teach.i hadn’t heard the information about gpa/merit scholarships before. That is helpful.
The OP didn’t say she was looking at “top schools”. Instead she mentioned unnamed LACs and state universities. Many state schools are not especially holistic. Admission and/or merit scholarships may be primarily based on stats. If you have a particular public college in mind, I’d review how that college considers GPA. For example, Alabama says they consider the highest GPA listed on the transcript (weighted GPA) for the purposes of GPA scholarship cut-offs. In this case, in this case the better HS course option for Alabama scholarships is likely the one that results in the higher weighted GPA. In contrast, UC recalculates GPA with up to 8 weighted semesters with extra weighting for honors/AP. So after exceeding 8 semesters of HS AP courses, there are likely diminishing returns for the purposes of UC admission.
LACs are likely to have more holistic admission that place a greater emphasis on course rigor, particularly more selective ones, although there are many exceptions. However, this does not mean whoever has the most AP classes wins, or even that colleges want to see students taking huge number of AP classes. A challenging schedule could have just 1 or 2 AP classes. It depends on many factors, including the individual student and the specific courses. Similarly whether more AP classes with a few B’s is better than fewer AP’s with straight A’s also depends on a variety of factors. You can get some clues about what a specific college is looking for on their website, in the CDS, based on how well stats predict admission for students from your HS in Naviance, etc. With a more specific list of colleges, we could give more specific details.
For many students, it’s also not as simple as regular class = near certain A, and high rigor = good chance of B. For example, I was bored out of my mind in a lot of my classes, which led to being less interested and focused on the class and lower grades. As a I took more rigorous classes in fields that I found interesting, my grades generally improved. Also important, I found the more rigorous classes more enjoyable and was more likely to pursue related activities beyond classroom assignments. I also preferred classes with a greater portion of classmates who made a good effort to be academically successful and were more often persons I enjoyed being around.
I do know that at our high school the kids who took more AP classes (and suffered a little bit in the grade department, and thus had lower (weighted) GPAs at graduation time), got into more selective colleges than did the valedictorian, who took few APs. He seemed to be a classic case of choosing his course work to ensure being Val, and was disappointed with his acceptances (common knowledge as he was overheard saying he “couldn’t believe” that kids with lower GPAs got into X school). I think in any case, trying to game the system instead of taking whatever courses make sense for the student is a dumb idea.
I had the opportunity to speak with a UW Madison executive a couple of weeks ago. They do not do individual (at course level) transcript GPA recalculations, to quote the exec verbatim: “The volume of applications, and the wide variation of practices from high schools across the country and the globe, would make doing an individual transcript recalculation a nearly impossible task for our admissions staff.”
What UW Madison does do is take the high school GPA reported on the transcript (for all classes therein) and convert those that do not show an unweighted GPA, and/or those with GPAs not on a 4.0 scale, in the following manner (only 2 examples I specifically addressed):
—If the GPA is weighted and school uses traditional A, B, etc. grades, a weighted GPA of say, 4.7, is converted to a 4.0 unweighted GPA, and they are done. Said differently, if a student’s transcript reports weighted GPA only, and that weighted GPA is >4.0, that applicant is given a 4.0 unweighted GPA. In this case, having Bs on one’s transcript in higher weighted courses, like APs, would be ok. Not as good as A’s of course, but still strong.
—If the GPA is unweighted, but on a different scale, say applicant has a 4.5 out of 5.0, that equals 90% (4.5 divided by 5). So, they take 90% of 4.0, and in this case applicant would have a 3.6 GPA.
Of course, they do look at rigor of courses, but they do not remove non-core courses from the GPA calc (if said classes are on transcript and/or in GPA calc). This is one reason why many high schools, especially the more rigorous, have gone to reporting only weighted GPAs on transcripts. Some schools will include non-core courses in transcript GPA calc, some don’t.
Lastly, this is also the GPA that goes into UW’s CDS average GPA calculation----and this is why one can’t rely on ‘average’ GPA from CDSs to gauge one’s acceptance chances, or compare average GPAs across schools.
Seems like a high school could improve its students chances of admission there by using an exaggerated weighting system (e.g. the kind that can produce weighted 5.x or 6.x GPAs on a nominal 4.0 scale for unweighted GPAs). Then the conversion of weighted GPAs > 4.0 into unweighted 4.0 could allow a student with a 3.x unweighted GPA but a 5.x weighted GPA to be counted as having a 4.0 unweighted GPA.