Our school does not allow AP classes until junior year and does not weight the honors classes in 9th or 10th grade. The number of AP classes are also quite low vs other schools in the same school district. Our school counselors/administrators keep saying that colleges will look at us based on the context of each school and how rigorous our schedule is. My thoughts are 1) even regional reader for each college does not have the bandwidth to know and keep up with the individual school district he/she is responsible for, let alone each school in that district. 2) So the most number of AP classes I can take at my school is around 10, in junior and senior year. Am I not disadvantaged vs kids from some of the other schools where they can take AP classes starting 9th grade. Just like to see what people’s thoughts are: do colleges really evaluate each candidate in the context of their school? Is it even possible? I know colleges say this too but I think it’s their way of not pissing off a lot of the schools that cannot offer that many rigorous classes, esp if you bring in curriculums at private schools. Thank you.
Have you seen a copy of the School Profile that your school submits to colleges when you apply? I think it comes with your counselor reco. My son attends a private school which has the same policy as your school - APs in Junior and Senior year only. Our School Profile makes that clear, as well as grading policy (no A+‘s) and distribution of AP courses in a typical grade (x students take 4 APs, y students take 5, etc). The information is very clear and easy to find. While I can’t know what admissions staff do with it, our students get into great colleges, so the policy does not seem to hurt them. I do think it may be a little disadvantage when applying to summer programs as the programs don’t receive that School Profile.
For college, the admissions staff are professionals who are practiced at managing a lot of information. I trust them to be aware of this difference or at least notice it when they review a file. If you are really concerned, you might mention in an essay how junior year brought the opportunity to take APs. I am an alumni admissions interviewer for a school that gets a lot of press for being hyper-selective. I have interviewed a lot of applicants, and access to more AP courses does not seem to be any kind of factor in who is admitted. Good luck to you.
Thank you. I have seen my School Profile which does state the above policy. I guess with so many schools, I have my suspicion about how admission readers can remember and adjust for so many candidates with so many different school profiles. However, our School Profile does not say they don’t accept any outside the district classes for credit, so for example, no one can move ahead in math simply by taking a class during the summer. However, in other school districts, there are kids who would “appear” to be more advanced because they are taking far more advanced classes at an earlier age by taking summer math classes. For the summer programs, I think you are right in saying that it’s too difficult. I would say that a few extra AP classes do not matter, but when you become the State or National AP Scholar, I believe it may be a different story?
On a different point, since you are an alumni interviewer, can I also ask you what your thoughts are on the following? I was accepted to a very selective summer program where everything would be paid for including all the transportation, but I chose to attend another selective program where I got a scholarship as well. Should I bother listing the first program as an honor on my college activities since I was offered the award? Like if you are offered the Fulbright but you decided not to go, can you still say you are a Fulbright Awardee? Not sure if this is a good comparison.
Your GC is totally right. Admissions folks at universities actually do look at the school profile and you will not be penalized for what your school doesn’t offer, or how they grade.
And for the record, many schools don’t allow freshmen and sophomores to take AP course. Some schools also don’t weigh any courses.