I’ve searched a bit online for this question, but I couldn’t find anything that came up that was really helpful
I’ve seen a lot of posts on here that talked about course rigor being an important part of admissions, specifically with number of AP courses offered by a school vs. the AP courses a student takes.
I’ll use a more extreme example for my question: suppose Student A attends a high school that offers only 3 APs, and takes all 3 APs. Student B attends a high school that offers 15 APs, and takes 7 of them. From what I’ve seen, Student A would be viewed favorably in admissions for maxing out on rigor for his/her school while Student B would be penalized for not doing so. However, if we look at the course rigor candidly, wouldn’t Student B’s course load(7 vs. 3 APs) technically be more rigorous than Student A despite Student A maxing out in rigor for his/her school, which technically means Student B is more challenged throughout high school? Wouldn’t this give students who go to high schools that offer less APs an upper hand(assuming the schools are equally competitive)?
This to me gets a bit more confusing when taking into consideration what APs are offered at schools, such as schools not offering tougher AP courses such as AP Physics C or AP Biology and instead offering “easier” AP sciences such as AP Environmental Science. Wouldn’t students going to schools that offer only “easier” APs have an easier time handling schoolwork vs. those that go to schools that offer those tougher APs, which would give more time for their ec’s and other things? I don’t know if my second question makes any sense, I was hoping I can find an opinion on my first one above^
Your question cannot be answered as posed. Rigor means more than just number of AP classes. AOs will view the entire course choices against what was offered. Student A’s school may have offered AP-level courses without the AP designation ( as is the case for many top private schools that don’t want to be locked into the AO curriculum) or they may have offered DE courses, as examples.
Both will likely be regarded the same as long as they took core APs (if the 3 APs offered at School A aren’t core APs then the student would have done what s/he could to maximize rigor within the parameters of what was possible). The student in school B would not be docked for not taking 15 APs.
I disagree that “only” 7 APs would be “penalized”. It’s not a matter of percentages.
Taking 3 out of 15 available may not be looked at as rigorous. But once you’re in the 6-8 range, any more doesn’t make much of a difference. And it also depends on the courses taken.
AOs look at all of the information you mention - number taken, number offered, specific subjects taken (Physics C is more rigorous than Environmental Science, just to pick one), as well as the rest of a student’s record and grades to evaluate a students success and rigor in high school coursework.
One could construct schedules with almost any number of AP tests that appear more or less rigorous than others. If “only” 3 of 15 was Calc BC (direct from PreCalc), English Lit, and Chemistry, with several DE courses, it is probably more rigorous than “all 3” of Human Geo, Environment Science, and Chinese for a heritage Chinese Speaker, with no honors or DE courses. These evaluations are what AOs are paid to do.