Bland High School Offerings

Hi, completely new here, so I apologize if I am revisiting an over-killed topic. My student’s (11th gr) high school has only 1 AP class (Stats, and even the “AP” portion is optional). The school offers several “honors” courses, but out of 170 kids, only 7 are taking Honors English this year with my daughter. Due to lazy/lack of classroom teaching, last year she took online APUSH and is planning on taking two more courses this year. I’ve been perusing the feed, and many members in previous years have stated that taking online AP courses are a waste. Attempting to reassure ourselves, doesn’t the fact that we are seeking more rigor and challenging courses have some weight when it comes to applying to schools in the fall of 2020? Yes, we realize AO are looking to see that students are taking the most challenging courses their schools offer, but what if those options are subpar? Thank You!

Colleges do look at the rigor offered at a HS and do not penalize students for that. However, for your D to get the best knowledge and skills foundation for college it looks as though you need to go beyond what your HS offers. Always take what others say with a grain of salt. From their perspective online courses may not be useful. But their HS’s likely offer different courses than yours.

Kudos to your D for maximizing her education. It would be good for you to have a conversation with your D’s HS guidance counselor about ways she can maximize her education. This does not mean the rest of the school knows of your involvement, btw. I would hope the GC would be happy a student (and parents) care. It is difficult for small HS’s to have the budget for classes with few students.

If the school does not come through with options do it on your own. Let your D study AP subjects in the free time she will likely have and take the exams. Taking an AP course is not necessary for taking the AP exam (or doing well if the material is learned). Your D can also talk to individual teachers about material above and beyond what is taught to get a better foundation.

Thanks for the reply. We hear that over and over again, “your D won’t be penalized by what we don’t offer,” from the school. However, it’s just difficult for me, as a parent, to wrap my mind around the myriad of offerings we don’t have. I appreciate you taking the time to chime in - it’s difficult to not develop anxiety reading through these threads!

While it’s true that you won’t be penalized for what they don’t offer, it’s also nice to be prepared for college. There’s also something to be said for showing yourself as a self-starter who will go beyond the curriculum offered for subjects of interest. She doesn’t need to take as many APs as ones who go to the crazy schools were it’s an AP arms race and lucky her! Are there CC courses she could take? Sometimes it’s nice to be in a classroom with other students, not studying on one’s own.

Is there a local college nearby where she can take dual enrollment courses? Taking AP classes is only one way to demonstrate rigor. Don’t feel obligated to go outside your high school, though, unless you have reason to believe that the school isn’t preparing her well for college. Many excellent high schools offer few or no AP classes because they believe their honors level classes are very rigorous, will sufficiently prepare the students, and do not lock the teachers into a “teach to the test” curicculum.

When we say online AP courses are a waste, we mean when you are self-studying a bunch of AP classes n addition to your regular classes because you think it will help admissions.
Is your daughter getting credit at her HS for APUSH? or is she just taking it for the AP test? Test scores aren’t usually used in admissions…but are used for college credit.

I would also encourage your D to study hard for the standardized tests as high scores could help to prove her readiness for college level work.

Schools that offer the best financial aid will expect more rigor - found by your daughter through online classes/virtual school or dual enrollment at a local/community college, for instance.
In any case, she needs to try and take all honors offered.
In addition, make sure she has a schedule that meets expectations for colleges with the best financial aid:
At least 5 academic courses and 6-7 classes
Biology, chemistry, physics
Foreign Language through level 4
Math r
Through Precalculus honors or calculus
English and history/social Science (honors) every year.
Junior& senior year try to have a combination of 3-4 (total) AP/DE courses.
Are the online courses graded and on the transcript?
Is there a nearby community college for dual enrollment and does your district cover fees?
What’s your school’s % who go on to 4-year colleges? To your state flagship?
What’s the average sat/ACT score?

When we visited northwestern, the guy doing the info session was a NU grad from a rural high school and came in with no AP and no college credits. He was probably a unique applicant because he was from a rural state with not a ton of applicants. I’d be looking for ways for your daughter to explore her interests and passions in interesting ways. And not just for competitive college applications.

Dual enrolling somewhere can be a good idea if that is an option where you are at. I guess I wouldn’t lose sleep over this. There are many ways to get a fantastic college education.

One of my kids did some online courses because the high school classes weren’t engaging enough (one teacher didn’t even teach). She didn’t do it for college admissions, but because she wanted to learn: she likes history. But we made sure, first, that the high school would accept the credits.

My other kid did online courses because she was a dancer.

Dual enrollment is a possibility too.

We used The Virtual High School https://vhslearning.org/ My kids liked it so much (great selection of courses) that we got the local ed foundation to fund the school joining so that 25 kids got to take a course each semester. Big hit with the students.