Help! My online high school doesn't offer AP

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi. I'm a senior at a California online high school and my school offers NO AP, honors or any challenging courses whatsoever. My family has financial difficulties and we have no means of enrolling me somewhere else to take AP classes. (Online courses and community college courses are too expensive for us and the two high schools in our district do not allow cross enrollment) Throughout my sophomore and junior years, I've only had 2 Bs and the rest were all As (3.89 GPA. Again, NO AP EVER)</p>

<p>So, my questions:
1. Is there any way the UCs (UCLA)would know about my school's lack of rigorous courses through the application alone? Will it be up to me or my counselor?
2. If they wouldn't find out through the application, how do I let them know about my school's situation? (If you say mention it on the essay, how can I make it sound less of an excuse?)
3. I have a lot of ECs, I volunteer and I have a part-time job. I'm 2nd in my class (though a small class size) and I'm working to get high test scores. Will all those make up for the lack of a difficult workload? </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>1&2: I’m not sure about UCs, but I remembered when I visited school like Princeton, they told us they would take the availability of courses into account. Maybe you can also say that in additional info section, IDK.
3: Obviously yes.</p>