<p>My sophomore year, AP World History was a senior elective, and I was really interested in taking it. My school switched to AP World from AP Euro as the AP sophomore history class this year. Now that I'm a senior, I managed to transfer into a very full class, but my teacher, who I had for AP Euro, asked me to be some sort of psuedo-TA-AP student, so it could free up a space for a sophomore. I would help him grade papers, but take tests and notes, and do homework, just like the rest of the class. My schedule would say Teaching Assistant, instead of AP World History, even though I'm doing the AP work. How could I communicate to colleges that I'm not slacking off with a filler class, and that I'm actually doing more work than normal?</p>
<p>Thanks for any opinions.</p>
<p>When you write your own schedule to submit to colleges you can write TA (AP WH)</p>
<p>Also, if this is a teacher you are getting a rec from, you can just ask for him/her to explain the situation.</p>
<p>Well if you take the AP exam and you report your AP score, then colleges will see that you took one more exam than you had classes for… so it’ll look like a self-study.
I don’t understand why T.A. would be considered a class for slacking off. Are you “slacking off” if every single one of your classes isn’t AP??? I’m a junior and I have 8 periods a day (one of which is lunch, and four of which are AP classes). My electives are Web Design 3, Spanish 4, and T.A. I chose T.A. for three reasons: 1) To have somewhat of a free period to get any homework done and get a break from my APs; 2) Because the teacher I’m T.A.ing for is also the FBLA club adviser, and I’m the FBLA Vice President, so it gives us a chance to work on FBLA things, get paperwork done, etc; and 3) because teaching is a prospective career interest of mine, and I like doing office/classroom-related tasks (organizing papers, making copies, etc.). </p>
<p>I don’t see any justification for calling T.A. a slack-off class.</p>
<p>Anyways, as the above post says, you can either explain the situation when listing your schedule, or have the teacher explain in his recommendation. OR you can try to pass it off as a self-study, which if you do good on the exam, may look better for you.</p>
<p>I may be in a similar situation next year. At my school, AP Spanish Lang isn’t offered every year (it depends on student demand, and some years there just isn’t enough) and my Spanish 3 teacher told me last year that if they don’t offer it my senior year, she can work with me every day during my lunch period (or if I have some other kind of free period) to prepare me for the AP exam. So there wouldn’t be any official record of me being in an AP Spanish Lang class, but I’d still take the exam.</p>
<p>Either way, I think it’ll look good to colleges that you’re putting forth extra effort (either by giving up one of your periods to be personally tutored or by self-studying).</p>
<p>Gah, sorry for rambling. :o</p>
<p>Well, at my school at least, people only become Teacher’s Assitants to fulfill credit requirements, or because their counselor says they can’t leave after second period. And since AP exams are in May, I wouldn’t be able to indicate to colleges that I took the exam when I apply this fall. </p>
<p>I think I will just have the teacher write one of my recommendations.</p>
<p>Thank you for your opinions. (:</p>