<p>So, you know how your high school sends a profile of itself along with your transcript? (correct me if I'm wrong..)</p>
<p>Will that adequately explain to Yale my lack of APs? Because at my school you can only take APs as a senior, except for APUSH (which you can take as a junior, and I am)...or if you have extenuating circumstances like you moved and are on a weird curriculum now...</p>
<p>But basically by the time I'm sending in my app next fall I will have only taken one AP exam compared to the like...CAGILLION that the current SCEA admits all seemed to have on their apps because of the way my school sets up their curriculum...ergo is this "school profile" enough for Yale in order to explain my lack of AP credits, or will they still see this as a fault? </p>
<p>I'm merely curious, don't mean to sound like a lot of the preempitvely anxious juniors on here ;)</p>
<p>As long as the school profile explains that AP courses can only be taken during a senior year, then that will be fine. Colleges only look at your transcript in terms of what your school offers. </p>
<p>If the profile doesn't adequately explain it, then just ask your guidance counselor to include it as a little note or something on the secondary school report.</p>
<p>It should be fine :)
We couldn't take any APs 9th grade and only 1 in the 10th grade (unless you were stupid and wanted a B in the other AP class or wanted to fail one of your AP exams)
So I've only taken 1 AP exam.
This year I'm taking a lot more but I talked to my counselor about it briefly and she said it's absolutely fine as long as you're taking the hardest (or close to it) courseload your school offers</p>
<p>Besides, if you apply to Yale RD you have to send in the mid-year report so they'll see that you're taking more APs and are doing well in them. If it's EA..I think you still report your classes for senior year (just not your grades)</p>
<p>Thanks guys! You never know with stuff...applying to college is such a nitpicky thing :/ </p>
<p>I might go talk to my counselor anyways (not that she's entirely helpful, although she's getting better).</p>
<p>Side note: they do send your senior grades thusfar (maybe a plus, maybe a minus...it depends haha) when you apply SCEA (which I'm planning on doing)...they also send your frosh grades which obnoxiously don't count toward your GPA at my school!!</p>
<p>yeah, I gotta talk to my counselor again too. I met her for like 3 minutes last year but I doubt she remembers me. I hope they're done with all the school forms/transcript stuff for seniors soon because I would like to at least introduce myself before she writes my recommendation haha.</p>
<p>Really? Darn..
SOmetimes I pull my grade up to an A a few weeks before grades are due. Guess I can't do that next year if I apply SCEA! (wouldn't look so good to have like 3 Bs just because I was lazy and didn't want to do the work until the last minute haha) </p>
<p>Unfortunately, frosh grades DO count toward our GPA at my school. It's on our transcript and everything..I didn't have the best frosh year so that's a bad thing for me haha.</p>
<p>And I guess that also means I can't really slack off and pick really easy classes. A lot of people were talking about that..and it sounded really nice but I'm sure the admissions officers won't like that.</p>
<p>Do you think it's ok if my schedule for next year is a tad easier? Same number of APs...but easier ones I think. I want to focus more on apps 1st semester and enjoy the 2nd half of senior year!</p>
<p>Well what do you mean by easier APs? It depends..</p>
<p>My courseload next year will be like this:
AP Spanish
AP Calc BC
AP Euro or AP Psych (I can't decided..)
AP Lit
Wheel throwing
Gospel Choir
Yoga/Pilates, and lastly..
H. Neurobiology (I'm doing this instead of a 5th AP which would be AP Physics because I want to major in Behavioral Neuroscience, so a) I'm doing what I want (which I think Yale values more than doing what you think they want you to do) b) I think it shows my dedication to an academic subject that I have a great interest in, rather than my obsession with taking APs)<---Jury's still out on this one though, I might flake and end up taking AP Physics just because everyone keeps telling me you can't be a science major and only have 9th grade Intro to Physics under your belt..but I HATE physics :(</p>
<p>I WISH my school counted frosh grades though because I got straight A's that year, sophomore year I got 3 B+s which annoyed the hell out of me because they were 89._ (it was like two 89.6 and one 89.7...so they were ALL above the .5 mark and thus should have been rounded to A-s but noooooo, and our transcript shows letter grades, not numbers.. clearly I'm still a little bitter haha)</p>
<p>ugh i have a couple of those b+'s too. lost some sleep, but i'm over it. it is what it is. and about neurobiology, you should DEFINITELY take that, not ap physics. 4 ap's is still very convincing and neurobiology is more specified, which i think they will also appreciate. plus i'm sure if you elaborated on that in your interview you'd be fine.</p>
<p>Yeah I got Bs freshman year. Who thought about college back then? I was kinda sad I didn't get that straight A award thing. I think I was more worried about it soph year when I realized it dropped my GPA a whole lot but now I'm over it. It was fun while it lasted! </p>
<p>Well I wanted to take AP Enviro Science and AP Psych..which I heard are really easy
Not that I JUST want to slack off...I'm really interested in those subjects. I've been planning to take those classes since like the 9th grade. But didn't know if I should take AP Physics/Bio/Computer Science or something instead that might look more..rigorous. There's not many choices left..we don't have cool subjects like Pilates and Neurobiology..haha. </p>
<p>I guess I'll just take what I want. I mean it's what I'm interested in, get some more sleep, and it's not like I signed up for a stupid class like Art (no offense, I just have NOO interest in it whatsoever and it's a total blowoff in my school). It's still 6 APs..they'll just have to get it over it :)</p>
<p>Your school doesn't round up a 89.5???? It automatically does that in the computer system thing or whatever. If it's a 89.4 you have to talk to your teacher. Most of them will round them up for you if you've been working hard all year. If you get an 88, then tough luck. I'm sorry though, that sucks! </p>
<p>If 89s didn't get rounded up...there would be a whoooole lot more Bs here! Only letter grades show up on our transcripts as well...which is why most people aim to get a 89/90 because a 90 will still show up as an A. haha</p>
<p>Hi. I'm transferring to your school! haha, like I said, my school is wicked hard..which also tends to slant things for me, like my gpa is 3.85, which to me is good since the girl who got Phi Beta Kappa (we don't do Val/Sal or rankings..just PBK) last year was 3.895, but then I come here and I looked at the SCEA admits thread and no admits had anything as low as 3.85 except for one person who was like an inuit or something ill like that...so I can't tell if that means that's too low (because at my school it's not) or if CC is just a really select group of kids who all get 4.0, but that doesn't accurately represent all of the SCEA admits :/ </p>
<p>@jpd8891: I agree, that's probably what I'm going to do because as much as I love Yale, if they only want me because of how many APs I've taken, and not because I show passion for a particular subject then I probably wasn't meant to go there anyhow. I'm considering taking AP Psych a) because it goes brilliantly with Neuro and b) because it is an AP that's on the easier side and I figure why induce anxiety just to take the harder AP when the other one is more interesting AND easier :) I'm still unsure though..</p>
<p>I'm pretty over my B+s though because without them my gpa would be like 3.87 or something stupid like that..and because they didn't keep me off the honor roll (do you put stuff like that on the application? like how many times you've made the honor roll at your school? just wondering..)</p>
<p>You take this HUGEEEE wagon wheel and throw it as hard as you can against a wall, whoever makes the biggest hole in the wall gets the A. </p>
<p>Totally kidding :) Wheel throwing is a facet of ceramics in which you use a rotating mechanized wheel to hallow out a piece of clay and make a pot, mug, jug, plate, etc. I'm sure you've heard of it, just not heard it called that (?)</p>
<p>hmm, wait, so is there a separate thing that most counselors add on to the secondary school report that has information that isnt directly asked for on the ssr itself? like, so will schools make their own supplement to the ssr? lol</p>
<p>not entirely sure what you're asking...but I'll try to answer your question:</p>
<p>if you mean the school profile then yes, I'm fairly sure that most schools do this. It's basically just a little sheet that details the average GPA at your school, the average course load, number of kids in your school/grade, if it's public/private/parochial etc., stuff like that. There's a great book my mum's been reading about this whole college fandango and it suggested that you ask for your school's profile ahead of time, just so you know what additional information colleges will see (I've asked and they were very happy to give it and yet I still haven't received it...annoying)</p>
<p>It's fantastic, and we also have all these weird Wellness courses (Wellness is like PE, but it's not just physical education, it's like this weird "holistic" version that has courses in being physically well, emotionally well, occupationally well...etc, so if you're athletically challenged, like me, it's okay!) anyways, this year my wellness course is called centered self and it's like a stress management/meditation class and I have it back to back with wheel throwing on Friday afternoons so I get to center my clay and then center myself! haha. i love my school, it's ridiculous :)</p>
<p>ahhhh we have that too!! except it's not as intense. it's a 6-day unit of gym and each grade has like a different subject. it's a nice break from gym actually.</p>
<p>So to segue onto a different question I just thought of (that's me, the question asker! I've always been that way..) I did a semester long independent study in architecture as a freshman after a full semester of Intro to Architecture (and then followed by a full year of Architectural Drafting I), and while my school doesn't count freshman grades toward GPAs, and I've heard that colleges seldom even glance at them, they're still going to be on my transcript...so do you think Yale will be impressed by the fact that I had an independent study, something primarily given to seniors and not with ease even then, as a freshman..or since it's under my freshman grades they'll hardly notice it? Does anyone know if, when your guidance counselor is writing your rec, they can point out things like this that colleges may over look? Or are you not allowed to specify certain things you'd like them to pinpoint? </p>
<p>Well..I guess that was more like 3 questions! haha toldya I was a question asker :)</p>
<p>Nooo I'm transferring to YOUR school! We don't offer ANY of those interesting classes you mentioned. ...except AP Psych which i'm totally planning to take next year.</p>
<p>Well, since Yale looks at your freshmen grades...I think it'll be a good thing to have, even if they're not super impressed. The fact that your freshman grades aren't calculated in your GPA probably won't affect very much. Yeah, definitely mention it to your counselor! If she can point stuff like that out, it'll look really good. Don't make it sound like she HAS to write it or be really forceful..but if you mention it in the passing and how important/interesting/good experience it was or something, she might put it in her rec.</p>
<p>Don't worry...I ask soo many questions on CC, it's crazy. Probably the reason for my amazingly high post count (since I've only been on here since like Nov?)</p>
