Our School does not offer any AP or Honor classes. We have been told that colleges do not expect students at our school to have taken AP exams, nor is it beneficial for student’s competitiveness in college admissions to have taken the exams. For reference, the school is a very selective private school in the west coast.
Do you suggest that I take any AP exams? I will be applying to highly selective colleges.
My brother goes to a very similar school and the school has the same advice. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t not affect college admissions and kids go to HYP and other selective schools such as Northwestern and Vandy. Senior year, they allow them to take 1 or 2 just to get some credits, but most kids choose to do other high level classes or internships instead.
You have been told correctly. There is no expectation from any college to take AP exams if you have not had a course. And colleges know that you cannot take a course that is not offered. Now, many selective HS’s have eliminated AP designations, but some courses may prepare one for the AP exam. In such a case, the student may want to take the exam for potential credit, but it is not required for admissions.
The AP exam scores and courses can certainly help candidates from public schools as colleges them expect those applicants to take a representative amount of AP courses to the extent they are offered. 4s and 5s can demonstrate to an admissions committee that the applicant can do college work. However, these same admissions committees also understand and have ratings on the prestigious private schools.
Whether you should take the AP exams depends on whether you want college credits for those courses. Why not get a good AP test prep book and take some practice tests? If it looks as if you can get college credit, then why not give it a shot. If you score highly enough on exams to qualify, you probably could report your scores outside of the application process the same way already admitted/enrolled students do for their senior year exams taken in June. Of course, if you do well on the exams, why not self report them?
I am pretty sure that your school, and @skieurope, have told you correctly.
I know some students who went to a small high school that did not have any AP classes at all. Of the top three students, one got into every school she applied to with merit scholarships (all small schools in Canada, including the top ranked small primarily undergraduate university in Canada), and the next two students went to Dartmouth College and Wellesley College. The previous year one student went to Williams College. You don’t need to take any AP tests to get into top schools if your high school does not offer APs.