<p>I just saw a thread in one of the college-specific forums in which an Ivy League student suggested to a high school student to be sure to take the toughest courses available, even if that means getting some grades of B. I've seen contrary advice just today, advising students to keep their unweighted grade average as high as possible, preferably straight-A, even if that means taking honors rather than AP courses. What advice do you hear? Who gives the advice? Does it make a difference whether a student is applying to a state university or a highly selective private university? </p>
<p>Get the A in the tough class is what every guidance counselor says, but realistically if you must choose I would say the B in the tough class, because if you keep getting As in easy classes, the colleges will just say "Of course she got As, she didn't challenge herself at all in high school... next!" but if they look at your application and see that you are taking the most rigorous curriculum available, a few Bs are more forgiveable.</p>
<p>Also, if you're worried about class rank, an A in an easy class = 4.0 while a B in a tough class (assuming it's honors/AP/IB) = 4.0, so B in a tough class would be better in this case.</p>
<p>And for private universities, I'm pretty sure they care about class rank + rigor of schedule more than unweighted GPA.</p>
<p>I would say it looks just fine if you challenge yourself most in what you're interested in then take a pretty challenging courseload otherwise. From what I've seen in classmates, those who challenge themselves in a subject they really don't like do very poorly. One kid in particular took BC Calculus just because it's BC and got a C- or so, and the college specifically deferred them ED because of that grade, when a solid grade in AB would have been fine.</p>
<p>^ yea at my school people think ur a overachiever and not smart about college admissions if you take AP's, because due to the intense differnece between normal classes and AP classes at my school, AP Grades as lower on average by about 15 points (out of 100) than normal classes, and thus unweighted class rank suffers.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the subject. If you are good at English take AP Language rather than English 11 honors, or something to that matter. For me, I suck at English, so I took the English 11 honors rather than AP in order to get an A. But as a whole, the tougher the classes the better. I think you can let a few slip from AP to honors or normal, but try to minimize the reductions.</p>
<p>I wonder if advice about this would differ depending on the high school context. Would those who advise that a student take the B in the tough class alter their recommendation if that student's high school did not weight GPAs, and if doing so would lower the student's class rank?</p>
<p>I went the B's-in-the-tougher-classes-at-a-rigorous-magnet-school route personally. But I also learned how to deal with the tougher classes and had a steady upward trend over these past four years, so I've essentially ended up with A's-in-the-tougher-classes.</p>
<p>Generally, though, I'd recommend challenging yourself in subjects you personally enjoy or are good at. If you absolutely hate a subject, then don't take the AP in the course.</p>
<p>i went for tough classes and got b's so i have a 3.3 uw academic gpa, and i dont know if i can get into wisconsin hich has a 60% acceptance rate. imagine if i had a 4.0, id have no trouble their</p>
<p>Go for your tougher classes definitely. Still keep in mind that you're taking a lot of other classes as well. You may be able to get a B in an AP class, but how is the additional work load going to affect all the other courses you're taking?
Ap Comp made every writing assignment since 3 times easier but if I had taken Math the same semester I would have killed myself.</p>
<p>From the statistics I've seen, a perfect 4.0 unweighted always looks pretty nice to colleges. However, almost every single person I know applying to very competitive schools (let's say about 95% of these people) has taken several AP classes. These students range from one or two APs all the way up to ten to twelve.</p>
<p>Also, at most schools I know of, rank is definitely determined by weighted HPA, not by unweighted GPA. And dont skip out on APs because people will think you're an overachiever. If that's the case, taking those APs will likely put you at an advantage when your guidance counselor submits the Secondary School Report Form with your application and marks your curriculum as being of the most competitive caliber relevant to your class.</p>
<p>EDIT: And Eravial08, define optional. At my school, you're not required to take AB or BC Calculus by any means, but taking them and getting a B (which will translate to a 5.0 on an HPA here) probably looks favorable to a student who took only the required maths.</p>
<p>It depends on where you are applying. For instance, with UC admissions, they cap the number of bonus points you can get for AP/Honors. So you're going to be best off maximizing your GPA under that system, not taking the most rigorous courseload possible and getting a lower GPA. </p>
<p>People need to look seriously at where they are thinking of applying and act accordingly. You also need to consider that if you take an overly challenging course in a difficult subject, that might take away time from other classes, and result in a poorer performance in the other classes.</p>
<p>If your courseload is generally tough, take the easier class and get the A. Aim for the tougher classes as a general rule, but don't ruin your perfect unweighted GPA to take that extra AP.</p>
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I wonder if advice about this would differ depending on the high school context.
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<p>I'm wondering about that too. Evidently some high school staffs have thought through this issue more than others. In my day, my high school had FIVE "valedictorians" and twelve "salutatorians," all based on G.P.A. cut levels (one had to be ABOVE 4.0, which was possible with "double A" grades, to be a valedictorian). One of the valedictorians was plainly very smart and a great prospect for any college; some of the others played it safe to a fault, and were really not too bright. </p>
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It depends on where you are applying.
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<p>That's the other thing I'm trying to tease out here. What I hear locally is that one very strong high school, where most students take AP courses (it is a high school on the Jay Mathews list of top high schools in the country), has some A- students with a class rank in the lower half of the class, and that those students, EVEN IF NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS, don't get into the U of Wisconsin Madison. Apparently Madison's admission formula relies heavily on class rank and doesn't take into account strength of schedule very much. But one student I know who didn't make it into Madison got heavily recruited by Carleton--I saw the recruiting letters from the coach at Carleton for his sport--and got a coveted spot in a specialized program at another state university. Which colleges really look at a student's transcript?</p>