<p>I’m not coming at this from a parent or adcom’s perspective, but I really have to echo dragonmom. I generally try to read an entire thread before commenting, so I apologize if this advice is redundant…I only looked at 6-7pgs of this one.</p>
<p>This thread seems to be making this issue out to be FAR more black and white than it is, like if this girl adds an AP or two, it’ll make the difference between going to a lower public or ‘the Ivies.’ I don’t think most posters have actually been saying that directly, but it’s the overall feeling that I got. Goodness gracious. </p>
<p>First off, this proposed senior year schedule isn’t light. It may not be on the same plane as the girl’s previous years, but it still has two serious APs and it reflects the student’s real passions…she’s not taking zero challenging courses, she’s not taking “fluff” APs, and she isn’t supplementing those she is taking with Intro Drawing, Music Appreciation, and Kickboxing (which are all fine electives in general, but in combination, they would scream “light schedule,” while this girl’s course selection stems logically and obviously from her other interests and activities). Remember that she’s also completely exhausted her school’s offerings in numerous other subjects. The schedule/transcript leaves absolutely no reason to doubt that the student is driven and capable. On top of that, it shows that she knows herself (which puts her ahead of many students who sign up for every AP “just because” and then see their GPA and their mood both plummet), she has unique passions, and she’s viewing her HS experience as more than just a means to a good college. I personally feel that these are all excellent things to demonstrate, and that this schedule, in conjunction with the student’s other accomplishments and commitments, does so much more strongly than most.</p>
<p>Also, this student has exceptional test scores and great ECs. It sounds like she’ll probably interview well when/if the time comes (and an interview, for the record, could be a great chance for her to explain her scheduling decisions). I see no significant weaknesses; I see a description of a girl who sounds sufficiently mature and self-knowing to ‘follow her own bliss,’ as others have stated. This won’t cause significant roadblocks, especially if the OP and her daughter are aware of the need to frame the issue well (which they clearly are).</p>
<p>Obviously this is only my personal take on the issue, and it seems to put me in the minority, but I came from a high school–a great high school–where the maximum number of AP classes that I ever remember one student taking in a year was 4, and I can think of 2-3 classmates who ever actually did so. I can think of one person who might possibly have taken 5 during her senior year, but I’m not sure of that (and this was a school where we all knew each other, so the entire student body is my sample pool). Yes, the school offered enough APs that students could theoretically have taken more at once, although we were generally discouraged from doing so. What I came out of the school believing very firmly is that there are many ways to challenge yourself and more ways into top schools than just blindly signing up for a list of AP classes. No, I’m certainly not saying that top students shouldn’t strive for a rigorous schedule and so on and so forth, but I’m definitely saying that this schedule, to me, looks completely fine, and communicates a lot more about the student (in a positive way!) than a more typical schedule might. It shouldn’t be cause for major concern.</p>
<p>And finally, if a student as accomplished and driven as the OP’s daughter feels burnt-out and in need of a break, then she should probably be taken seriously. It’s my personal belief that getting a little ‘break’ and enjoying her senior year (I put ‘break’ in quotes because it’s certainly relative) will, in the long run, be a lot less harmful to college admission, selection, and success than the alternative. Totally burnt out and turned off of school is not a good way to feel during the application process (it could do far more damage than a lack of senior year math) or the first year of college. Gotta speak from experience here.</p>
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<p>On a slightly separate note, someone earlier in the thread warned about CC courses lowering a GPA. Remember that schools aren’t just looking at the number, they’re looking at it in a context (relative to other applicants from the school, ranking, course selection, etc.). An AP class is never better than a regular class “just because” it’s AP (nor is a CC course necessarily better “just because” it’s college-level, to be clear). I personally think more highly of a student who disregards the ‘watering down’ of GPA and challenges herself or pursues her interests however she can–taking a regular course if she knows it’s better than its AP counterpart, taking a random intro elective because it interests her, taking a regular English elective on top of AP just because she loves the subject, or whatever else–than I do of a student who spends 4 years being guided by one little number. For example, the single most self-driven, dedicated, and intellectually curious student in my HS class had far from the highest class ranking. Why? Because she was completely passionate about foreign languages, so she’d ‘watered down’ her GPA by electing to take so many of them, none of which had honors or AP available until the third and fourth levels (if at all, which two didn’t). No college was about to punish her for that, and she went to Princeton. Another girl did something very similar and went to Harvard. Her yearbook quote was “God is not spelled GPA.”</p>
<p>Anyway, just my little rant. I think it’s completely easy and understandable to get caught up in this line of thinking–I have to take all of the APs, I have to be #1 in my class, I have to this and that or colleges won’t like me–but it seems so needless, especially when a student has already proven herself to be talented and driven. We all know that having perfect stats won’t magically get you IN to every school…what’s important to remember is that going a little bit off the beaten “college bound” track won’t necessarily keep you out, either.</p>
<p>ETA: I just realized that this thread has only recently been ‘resurrected.’ Sorry for the irrelevance, but I said too much to be able to bear erasing it :p</p>