<p>S is a rising senior from a prestigious high school in SoCal</p>
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<li><p>We looked at Harvad's website and it says that they recommend Euro History. Our school does not offer Euro or World histroy (Only APUSH - which he took). Do you think S should take any online course to cover for Euro Histoy?</p></li>
<li><p>Our school does not rank and counselors do not provide % (like top 10% or top 25%) to colleges as well...can this hurt the chances at Harvard?</p></li>
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<li><p>I don’t think it’s necessary; if his school had offered AP European History or AP World History and he had chosen not to take them, then that would have probably reflected badly upon him. But admissions officers will evaluate your son’s application in light of his circumstances and opportunities- my school, for instance, only provided 4 AP classes, but I wasn’t penalized for that during the admissions process. (if he’s genuinely interested in the material, though, then perhaps you should look into an online course)</p></li>
<li><p>I don’t think he will be disadvantaged by this as long as he has taken the most rigorous courses available to him and done well in them. Also, when filling out their parts for the common application, his guidance counselor and teachers (who are providing their recommendations) will be asked to rank him academically with respect to his peers.</p></li>
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<p>My S will be a freshman at Harvard this fall. Our high school in suburban Boston does not offer any AP classes for the humanities and also does not rank. They simply provide a histogram showing wide ranges (i.e. 3.3-3.7) of where students fall. Each year for the past 5 years we have 2-5 students accepted to Harvard and nearly that many attend. The key is that the Admissions Officer for HC will know the schools in his/her area and the rigor that they provide. For exmaple, at our high school while there are no AP’s in English or Social Studies, students select from an array of electives that vary widely in difficulty. Both the Guidance Counselors at our school and the local HC Admissions Officer know which classes are easy or hard and credit students accordingly. So no need to worry. Just have your student take the most challenging courses available and do well and you will have as much as a chance as anyone else who does the same. Good luck!</p>
<p>Your son will not be penalized for not taking what his school does not offer unless it’s an admissions requirement, and there is no need to take every single course possible for the sake of college admissions unless you’re genuinely interested in the subject area. As a current student, my high school never offered AP World History (nor did it offer that many other APs), and I never took the AP Euro that was available because of scheduling conflict.</p>
<p>As others said, the regional admission officer should be very knowledgeable about the local high schools in the area, especially if it is well known and has had students admitted in the past. No idea if not providing any indication of the student’s relative performance will “hurt chances”—But wouldn’t a “prestigious” high school like you said know what’s best for the students :)?</p>