Honors Chemistry is almost half of AP Chem, while a local school just 10 minutes away is still learning how to convert temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. We are a top 200 public school and a blue ribbon. It’s just frustrating spending 5 hours on “easy” classes before tests, yet for other schools people don’t have to do that.
Hmm, probably not - so maybe you should mention this “Additional Info” section.
Say something like, “My life is so difficult compared to the lives of those silly peasants at the school 10 minutes away. Their school is like Sweden… and my school is like the Soviet Union - it’s just not fair!” Then proceed to whine for whatever amount of space you have left.
tldr: stop whining.
+1 to the above post
If your school is actually harder, colleges realize. Stop whining
Be grateful that your school is a rigorous blue ribbon place. There are both parents and children that would sell their arms and legs to have the academic opportunities that are available at your school. I know of a blue ribbon school south of me where people move into the cheapest place in the district JUST so their kids can go there.
Yeah I guess that makes sense- a lot of kids try hard to get into our school district. We have a ton of AP classes too
Colleges are aware of school profiles. If they don’t already have them, they will call a school and ask.
To answer your question succinctly, yes many colleges recognize this: (a) that’s a principal responsibility of the Regional Admissions Officer; (b) secondary schools provide data sheets (often with each transcript) that highlight such information; and © admissions departments correlate and analyze information including GPA, standardized test results, undergraduate performance, etc. for specific secondary schools.
Awesome!
The odds are very good that any number of graduates from your school have already applied and been accepted to the same schools you’re applying to.
They’re well aware of the academic rigor of your school
Yes, we always have people that get into Harvard and Yale every other year. About 5/6 people get into an Ivy League school every year.
… and how many get in from the nearby HS with severely limited teaching and avg student ability?
Almost none, but their schedule is so easy. They could honestly have loads and loads of extracurriculars and awards with the time spent doing homework. This is why I’m not sure about my choice of school haha
Your priorities aren’t exactly straight on their shoulders.
Rigor/larger AP course selection trumps loads of EC’s and awards.
Really? No way! I thought EC’s are a lot more important for ivy league caliber schools…
Why would you be able to get into a challenging school with only proof that you can handle easy courses?
@BananaChips You don’t have to be sarcastic. You keep saying that their schedule is so easy and that those kids have it so much better than you because they don’t have to deal with the “difficulty” that your school equips in its courses.
@BananaChips If a student (from that school you keep whining about) won a Gold Medal at the Olympics or had some other stellar accomplishment, then their life probably isn’t as “easy” as you claim it is. How do you know that their lives are so easy? Actually - you probably don’t know anything about their personal lives, yet you’re talking down on them.
How do you know so much about that school anyways? You keep talking about their easy schedules - yet you don’t attend the school and probably don’t know anything about the school.
Chances are, the parents of the kids in the worse school district would sell a limb to be able to get their kid into your school, but they can’t afford to live in your town. What you’re complaining about is a nonissue. Be happy that you get the privilege of attending a good school, do your work, and stop whining.
Definitely not, I regret taking AP classes, all colleges look at is the final grade GPA. So much for excelling and challenging myself huh
@steveiemarieotto is wrong here:
SOME public colleges only look at GPA w/o regard for transcript rigor. Competitive ones (the ones that are subject to most posts here on College Confidential look at transcript rigor as one of the FIRST criteria. If you don’t push yourself and excel in your immediate environment, why would they think you’ll push yourself at their well-resourced university?
It’s an idiot play to seek for a 4.0 GPA with a piddly courseload. The 3.8GPA student who takes the rigorous coursework is 500x better off than the “show” valedictorian.