<p>Being on the block, we teach AP Calculus in the fall. As far as I know, review sessions did not exist – even though our administration told all teachers they needed to do review if they taught an AP in the fall. My son, who took BC at a community college a year ago, offered to help the kids review. Only one took him up on the offer, and she’ll do all right. I should mention that my son got a 5 on the BC and did not get the weight. Why? The school does not weight dual enrollment classes. </p>
<p>One reason why the kids do so poorly is that they do not belong in the class to start with. We’re making changes to the curriculum so maybe things will be better in the future.</p>
<p>BTW, we do great in AP English and the social sciences.</p>
<p>Take the most rigorous classes possible, not only because they “look good on the record” but to learn the most and be the best prepared for the rigors of many colleges. Don’t get into the habit of settling for less challenging courses or planning for the almighty gpa. Have a mindset of getting the best preparation for college, be in it for the learning. Our school district doesn’t weigh grades, neither does the flagship U.</p>
<p>Nope, practically all very selective schools say they would rather see an A in a difficult course than an A in an easy course. A steady stream of B’s, either in AP or regular classes will be the kiss of death at the “top 20” schools without a serious hook of some sort — URM, at least locally awarded athlete at Division III schools, first gen/low income etc. And do not let anyone convince you that a “killer essay” or outstanding ECs will help you overcome non-stellar GPA. Test scores can be offset to a degree by these factors (as long as you score solidly above 2100), but not a less-than outstanding GPA. I am speaking from personal experience backed by some number crunching this year. If you scan the admitted threads for the schools that interest you, you will see a lot more admitted students who are top 2% in their class with 2100 SATs, than 2300 SATs with top 15% GPAs.</p>
<p>Of course, you have to ask yourself what a “top school” means to you and why you want your kid to go there… and more importantly, does your kid want to go there. You did make the right choice to steer your child to the more demanding schedule, hopefully you are doing it to prepare your child for the future, not to impress a college a few years from now.</p>
<p>You beat me to it, GroovyGeek. When asked whether it’s better to take an easier class and get an “A”, or take an AP and get a “B”, the Ivy adcoms will say: "Take an AP and get an “A”.</p>
<p>Well, our high school sounds like stickershock’s. For the first 2/3 of last marking period, my daughter’s AP Chem grade dropped from a C to an F. Nevertheless, the teacher still assured her she’d get a 4 on the national AP test. Huh? Anyway, here’s my question to you all since this topic got brought up. Do you think a top school might overlook a low B or C in a difficult AP if the student earns a 4 or 5 on the test?</p>
<p>What I heard is that they don’t care about the AP scores (and most get reported at the end of senior year, too late for college admission) except for placement. I would say a C would be the kiss of death even in an AP class. I agree with :“take an AP and get an A”. Very true.</p>
<p>I don’t think that high class rank counts for as much as GPA and test scores at the most elite colleges. My son had a 4.0 uw average, but was only in the top 7% of his class because of the number of unweighted music classes (and other district required unweighted classes) that he took. He applied to nine of the top 30 schools and was accepted by all but two (rejected at one, waitlisted at the other). One of the acceptances was at one of the top 3. His SAT scores were good, but only if you superscored them, but he had 800s on two of his SATIIs (which I think helped a lot). I agree with the other posters who have said that other factors will be more determinative than class rank.</p>
<p>We visited ND and they told us they denied 600 # 1 in their class kids. All qualified candidates, but they said they would rather a little lower grades and having had taken harder classes that showed you were pushing yourself.</p>
<p>I agree, jmmmom and others. My son’s school offered only one honors course and about 6 AP’s of which he took 4. Freshman year, he skipped a year of French and opted for a tougher math class. He got B’s in those classes, the only B’s on his record, but I was pleased that he challenged himself and made sure the GC noticed this, so he could highlight it in his rec. Most importantly, it made his fresman year more interesting because the pace of the material was faster and he had to stretch a little to do well.</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread and a much-debated topic in our household. My son, class of '09, took his first AP course sophomore year, has three this year and is signed up for four next year.He swings back and forth between “I have to take all these AP courses so I look good to colleges” and “I wish I had gone to an easier high school so I would have an incredibly high GPA.” I guess we’ll see what happens next spring.</p>
<p>Our local school district has a different twist. They do not give weighted grades but rather weight the class rank. You must take at least two Honors/AP classes that last all year(no block scheduling) and continue throughout the four years. Kids who take the classes get a different transcript with their weighted rank on it. It can make a HUGE difference and rewards the students who take harder classes.</p>
<p>If they do weight the class rank based on their honors/AP., that should be very nice. My daughter took three (avg 3.67) and is taking three APs. Her rank looks bad (uw GPA 3.75, rank top 18%) for good colleges, and her school has no tradition to encourage students taking APs. Most of the top ten students took only one. This made my daughter a little discouraging.</p>
<p>The colleges we have visited each have enunciated different ways of approaching high school grades/GPAs/rankings. Actually, now that I think about it, I do not recall any admissions counselor in the five colleges we have visited even mentioning class rank as a factor, though statistics for colleges list it. What do they do with high schools such as my son’s that don’t rank, I wonder?</p>
<p>For high schools that don’t rank, no rank is reported. Many colleges say “X percent of our students were in the top Y percent of their class” and then somewhere in a footnote say, “About Z percent of all enrolled students reported no class rank.” Colleges deal with this if the high school doesn’t officially rank students (as my son’s high school does not).</p>
<p>I’ll take seriously the statement of several college admission officers that a lot of top colleges don’t have any minimum G.P.A. requirement (as is explicitly said by Harvard, for instance). Of course it is best of all to have peak grades in the very hardest classes. But it’s good preparation for college study to take harder rather than easier classes during high school. </p>
<p>The adcoms at top 20 Nat’l Us and top 10 LACs <em>will</em> notice when a student ducks the toughest courses (calc, physics, AP lang). Further, if the student is successful getting in anyway, reality hits hard the freshmen year to discover the other kids, many of whom went to private schools, are already familiar with the material.</p>
<p>Top public school students load the AP/IB classes and go and go and go… First semester senior year is the toughest: have to (start?) finish identifying schools of interest, do essays and applications, ECs and getting recommendations arranged, all while juggling the APs.</p>
<p>Also, remember the “best” school for a student is often not the one with the biggest name that they can get into. My advice is to get a recent Princeton Review 361-366, eyeball the test scores (jr scores and a little higher) and GPAs, skim the description, be as realistic as possible, produce a list of ~25 possible, interesting safeties, matches and reaches. Then research the 25 in the other guides, as many as possible, and cut the list in half to a dozen. This summer is a good time to start <em>if</em> the student will do the effort.</p>
<p>I also think the statement “Take AP and get an A” is true for top colleges.
My D took 4 APs in 10th and got her first B+ in AP Euro in the first semester but she worked hard and got an A next semester and score 5 on all 4. We thought she will be able to manage well in 11th also. But this year she got B+ again in AP US History during first semester and her grade in other APs also went down to A-. This semester also she is getting B+ in AP US History and A-s for other APs. When we first talked to CC this semester he told a B+ is a no-no for top colleges. Imagine; the school never told this before. It was a shock to us. He added UCB/UCLA as dream for her. She has only 3 B+ and all in History and she is planning to go for Engineering. But the problem is school weigh Honors and APs as same. So my D’s GPA dropped her into top 20% from top 10% GPA wise. School doesn’t rank but according to CC a ‘B’ is not good for top colleges. It is too late for us.
So the only advice I’ll have is to take the most challenging curriculum in which you can still gets an A. GPA Counts.</p>