<p>My daughter is a rising HS senior. Thru her Junior year, she has 7 AP classes, A's in all of them, 5's on the 2 tests she took last year, 4.7 weighted GPA on 4.0 scale. 34 on ACT in her first sitting. </p>
<p>She met with her HS college counselor yesterday and he asked what she was taking her Senior Year. She opted for AP Environmental Science instead of AP Chem or Physics. She also decided not to take AP English (forget the name) and instead is taking the Accelerated Sr. English (World Literature). </p>
<p>In addition, she will have AP MicroEcon, AP MacroEcon, AP Stats, AP Gov. </p>
<p>Her counselor felt that admissions departments would view this as "slacking off" and that she had to take the AP English and AP Chem or Physics. She just wanted to take classes she was interested in.</p>
<p>I think the more important (no, really) question is how the counselor feels about it. When he’s filling out his part of the Common Application, how will he report her course selection? Most demanding? Very demanding? Demanding? We’ll assume “average” and “below average” are off the table. Since NU’s Common Data Set lists “rigor of secondary school record” as one of only five criteria considered “very important,” I think it would be worth asking him.</p>
<p>AP Physics B or C and AP Chem are useful if you’re a science major.</p>
<p>AP Stat’s useful for social sciences and natural sciences.</p>
<p>AP English is pretty worthless–English 1xx credits don’t count for much, since you have to fill the writing requirement regardless.</p>
<p>Econ is helpful for an econ major, or if you’re going to do another program that requires 201 or 202 (intro to macro and micro, respectively).</p>
<p>I wish my school had offered more APs–would have made my schedule a little more flexible.</p>
<p>Edit: If at all possible, I’d strongly recommend taking an AP foreign language. If you get a 3 or better on the test, then you trim off a ton of the foreign language requirement.</p>
<p>I do believe an AP curriculum is something the colleges understand and can compare vs a class the school offers as a substitute. If the school counselor believes it is not as rigorous, then you certainly have a problem with the counselor’s letter might say.</p>
<p>It seems to me as if your daughter attends a very “Type A” high school. I applaud her for taking classes that interest her as opposed to those that her counselor thinks will impress colleges. From the selection she’s made (according to what you’ve written) it seems as if her interests lie with math and government/history less so with hard sciences, that is who she is. A college will see that and be happy to have a student who is bright across the board but does have interests in certain areas. Just curious, do her ECs correlate to her interests academically? </p>
<p>It does seem as if the real problem is the guidance counselor and his view. It might be important for you or your daughter to speak with him early next year and explain why she chose what she chose, perhaps even emphasizing that she wants to allow ample time for her college prep/search and participate in HS Senior activities (if your school has them) and still do justice to all her classes. Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about his LOR, clearly taking a total of 11 AP classes with 4 of them Senior year does not equal a “slacking off” during Senior year, that is just an insane concept.</p>
<p>One thing to consider is whom wil be writing the counselor portion of her Common App - the college counselor who is making these recommendations or her guidance counselor. In our high school, it is the guidance counselor, not the college counselor, who completes the counselor portion of the College App.</p>
<p>It seems to me that your daughter has already demonstrated her ability to challenge herself and excel. I think if her preferred course selection is in line with her interests, that will be viewed favorably by admissions. There are plenty of applicants who grind out AP courses and get high or even perfect SAT and ACT scores who don’t have a sense of who they are or what their direction is and do more poorly in admissions. She will stand out if her application conveys that her choices of courses, ECs, and interests are coherent and consistent with who she is.</p>
<p>I am grateful that our public high school, while regularly sending students to top schools, has not gotten caught up in the ‘race to nowhere.’ There are a limited number of AP courses offered, all very rigorous, and we have students who get into top tier schools, including NU and ivies, with considerably fewer AP courses than your daughter plans on taking.</p>