Hi, I’m a sophomore in high school, and I just moved to a new school. I was supposed to take AP Bio and AP Com. Sci. this year, but my new school didn’t allow me to do this and so I could only take AP Human Geo. and three honors classes. I can’t take Spanish AP’s like the rest of my peers because our school started Spanish classes late, while this school started their program in middle school. Because of these, many of my friends are going to be taking 5-7 AP classes as a junior while I can only take up to 3-4 APs. Does this put me at a disadvantage in colleges? Will the colleges I apply to know that I only took as many as I could do as an individual, or will they just consider me to not be “challenging myself” compared to my peers? Please let me know!!
Have your GC mark your common application schedule box for “most rigorous” and have him or her describe your transfer situation in their recommendation letter.
Thanks so much! So it doesn’t matter how many courses are offered in the school? Because obviously, I can’t take the amount my peers can.
That’s what you need your GC to explain, that you took the most rigorous schedule available to you. But your GC can verify the details next time you see them.
Thank you, you’ve been such a great help! I was stressing about it all this time, but now I can relax again.
And make nice with your GC. Let him or her like you and be able to root for you when it comes time to write the counselor report. Lots of kids change high schools and face this.
If you wind up taking say 8 total AP classes in your 4 years of HS, that should be enough to more than enough for almost all universities. So I wouldn’t worry too much about 11th grade and “only” having 3-4 APs. You can make up the difference in 12th grade.