Community college or ap? Help!

Applying to College
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<p>Ok I'm kind of stuck here so please help me out. </p>

<p>I have not been taking "difficult" courses througout my hs career but my hs doesn't offer many. They offer a total of nine, and 6 of those are pretty much exclusively to seniors unless you're a super genius. No one takes any their soph/fresh year and there are only three offered junior year. I am taking one of those three. There are also 6 honors classes offered. I am taking two of them (both are math honors). </p>

<p>My dilemma is this. Okay so, my GPA is 3.95 uw but I'm afraid colleges will think that I saved my AP's for senior year so I could "slack off" in them because I dont have to worry about my GPA senior year, but the truth is is that I would ace them all. I'm acing the current AP I'm taking but I really need to increase my rigor.</p>

<p>So, I found an online AP site and am currently taking AP US Gov (which is not offered at my hs), of which I have an A- (but will surely bring up to an A soon). AP Eng lang is also offered online and I want to take that as well, as eng lang is offered at my school jun year. AP chem is also offered at my school and I would take it but alas it is too late to sign up for AP's at my school (its extremely difficult and competitive to get admitted into one- im lucky I got into APUSH). </p>

<p>In addition to that, I could do running start at the local community college, which is where I take classes after school there in addition to classes at my hs. I was planning on taking one or two starting next semester. </p>

<p>Also, I am going to take 3 UC classes over the summer at UW.</p>

<p>Basically, my mom likes CC because its free and the online courses are 1 grand each. I like the online AP eng lang because then I could add to courses offered at my hs. She says that CC=AP so I should just do CC where its free. I don't know if she's correct and I would like your guys' input. </p>

<p>What would be better: 1 community college course + 2 online AP courses, or 2 community college courses + 1 online AP course? And do you, in all honesty, think that if I were to take 2 online + 3 CC + 3 UC + 6 at school, only one junior yr OR 1 online + 4 CC + 3 UC + 6 at school, it would increase my rigor enough to be as competitive as the kids in my school who took all the honors and AP the school offered but none of the UC + CC + online courses (no kid in my class is taking classes outside of hs - i asked my counselor [but shes still cool with it if thats what I want to do])</p>

<p>I'm shooting for Cornell ED next year as my reach. Any input would be GREATLY appreciated</p>

<p>BTW the online courses are KAPLAN</p>

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<p>A couple of things to think about: First, you need time to devote to good extra curriculars.
Second, look at the web sites of the top 3 colleges you want to go to the most, and try to find out which AP tests and Community College courses would really count for equivalent college credit. I would only take those classes of highest interest. Personally, I agree with your mom to take the Community College courses because the relationship with the professor is very important. I don't like the idea of taking English on-line because it is important to talk to a teacher about your essays.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your response. If I take two CC classe and two AP tests for those CC classes, and do well on the tests, will colleges count that as taking an AP course?</p>

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<p>I am taking Composition and Speech at my local CC. This way I will be done with my speech and composition requirements before I start college. Maybe that would work for you.</p>

<p>Talk to Cornell, make sure they will transfer your credits before you commit to the course.</p>

5

<p>-- Talk to Cornell, make sure they will transfer your credits before you commit to the course. --</p>

<p>I honestly dont care about getting credits done before college. I'd rather start with intro classes because I want to get a 4.0 as I want to go to law school and they dont care about rigor, etc. Unless there are requirements like math and science I dont think I'll use credits. I just want to be competitive in admissions.</p>

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<p>It is stupid to spend the money on AP exams which are intended to show that you are capable of handling college-level work, when you have already completed a REAL TRUE college level course at the community college thus demonstrating that you can indeed handle college-level work! Not to mention that it is silly to spend good money for an on-line AP course when you can take an equivalent course at the community college for free with a real human instructor who might one day write a college letter of recommendation for you.</p>

<p>When you apply to college, your HS guidance counselor will send a one or two page description of the program at your HS along with your transcript. The admissions officers at Cornell (or wherever) are smart enough to recognize the difference between schools that only offer AP classes to 12th graders, and schools that push even 9th graders into AP courses. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT sweat this one!</p>

<p>Look at the courses offered at your HS and at the community college. Look at activities that you can do outside of school (work, sports, ECs). Then, make a concerted effort to create the best life for yourself right now.</p>