<p>Hi,
This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a while... my daughter will graduate from a not-very-good high school in the spring of 2012. We are in rural Columbia County, in Oregon, and the HS had only 1 AP class offered, only 3 years of Spanish offered...
she has taken everything that she could take, plus online French as well as the Spanish and 2 online classes at Portland State. Anybody else out there with no AP classes, unweighted grades, cruddy high school but high hopes?</p>
<p>Me!!! haha my school has no APs or anything because it’s so small that we couldn’t break the classes up any smaller. I think your daughter and I should focus on how we “rose above” the lack of resources and made the most of what was offered. I think that last part is really important. And I definitely have high hopes :)</p>
<p>Colleges will fully put the course offerings into context. They understand that you can’t take what you don’t have accessible.</p>
<p>Agree, my daughter went to a rural school that lacked AP classes, but she got outstanding grades and recommendations, which, combined with high SAT/ACT scores demonstrated that she was well-prepared for college work. Colleges understand that not all high schools can offer AP classes.</p>
<p>No worries - like everyone said above, colleges look at her course rigor in the context of what her high school offers, not compared to someone from an elite private school. If she took the most rigorous classes offered then she is fine.</p>
<p>Thanks y’all. I figured admissions would be savvy enough to realize that she can’t take what isn’t offered, but it is a bit disheartening to see all the AP classes other kids have. The unweighted grade thing is hard, too, since she would be a contender for valedictorian if grades were weighted, but at her HS straight As in not-so-challenging classes beats mostly As in college-bound courses.</p>
<p>My niece was in similar situation. She is a very happy freshman at American U. She got into and received merit from all but 1 school she applied. </p>
<p>Your child will be fine IF she applies to a wide range. Please don’t let her apply to only top 10 schools.</p>
<p>Or, apply to one or two top ten/twenty/hundred league and then one or two more “good fit” colleges and at least one “hey, this is a sweet college” back up. </p>
<p>Admissions officers are building a class. They want each class to represent a broad array of the state or nation. That will include some rural kids, some recent immigrants, some tough neighborhood kids and some abundantly blessed kids. Your D has plenty to navigate but put this worry from your head – especially if she is the kind of student who inspires a teacher to write “this is the best student I’ve had in my career as a teacher” – that sort of feedback trumps a roster of AP courses any day.</p>
<p>Thanks Longhaul. That’s good advice. She has grudgingly admitted to not being horrified by a few more reasonable choices; we will make sure that she has some good options when she gets that bitter slim letter from her dream school!</p>
<p>I concur with all these posts but will add my thoughts also. My D graduated last year from a rural school in the midwest. She also had very limited AP opportunities. However she made the most of what was available to her, received good test scores, wrote some decent essays and was ultimately accepted to every school in which she applied including Yale and Stanford. So don’t let a small school limit you. Apply to a wide variety of schools including a couple of reaches. You just never know how an admissions person will respond to your application but you can’t get accepted if you don’t apply.</p>
<p>Kids who make the best of what they are offered are given full credit by admission folks; in fact, kids like yours who seek out opportunities outside of their schools show more drive and determination than some kids who have a slew of APs.</p>
<p>Can you bear one more anecdote? My nieces and nephews all graduated in the past few years from a tiny, rural, no frills high school (same one I went to) — solid educations but no AP classes or much selection. Oldest is now PhD’ing at Stanford (one of six students selected that year, nationwide) and was a Schreyer scholar at PSU; nephew moved to LA and got a bachelor’s in fine arts/acting, other niece is an honors/writing scholarship student at Oberlin.</p>
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<p>You mean “if” of course! ;)</p>
<p>In context of what was offered, your daughter will be viewed much better taking everything that was available then kids at our hs, for example, that took 5 AP’s, a handful of honors classes, and a Dual Enrollment, with three years foreign language when over 15AP’s are offered, multiple DE classes, and 5yrs in several FL’s. It’s all about what was available to you and what you took advantage of. Our kids get dinged in admissions for that all the time if they don’t really take advantage of what’s there.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your daughter! :)</p>
<p>My friend’s daughter was in a similar situation – small school, rural, no APs at all. She took the highest level courses she could take and was accepted to every college to which she applied. She’s at UVa and is excelling – in fact, doing a lot better than a few of her friends who went to “top” private schools and were able to load up on APs and extracurriculars. Colleges worth their salt will look at your daughter’s situation and what she has managed to accomplish with the resources available to her and evaluate her accordingly. Any college that wouldn’t do that is not the type of place I would want my own children to attend.</p>
<p>Best wishes to your daughter!</p>
<p>My son went to a private prep school which did offer AP (nine of them) but he took none - only Physics at the CC his senior year as that is where all the kids take Physics. There were also only 63 kids in his graduating class and he was only ranked 28th. He was accepted at every school he applied to and is now at Bates.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry one bit if I were you. I actually think AP’s are way overrated and that most kids shouldn’t even take them. </p>
<p><em>sitting back and waiting to get skewered for my opinion</em></p>
<p>Well, that’s encouraging! I would be more optimistic if she was not so bad at testing; she has a 3.94 (unweighted of course) but her SAT is 1850, and that’s after the 2nd try and an on-line prep course. Also her dream school is the dream school of the entire world- Stanford- and in my research that SAT rules it out… although she took the ACTs last week, so we shall see…</p>
<p>My feeling is that there are lots of good schools that will give her the “real university” feeling, she is a musician, (all-state cello, French horn in concert band, trombone in pep band), and wants to major in human biology or psychobiology with an eye towards pre-med.</p>
<p>I would love to post her stats and ecs somewhere and get your ideas, is there an appropriate forum to list pluses, minuses, and desires to get feedback on good matches?
You have been very kind… I know she will have a great experience, and am reassured that she won’t be penalized for her parents’ move to nowheresville 8 years ago!</p>
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<p>My daughter is at her dream school, and they send their acceptances in a slim letter. :)</p>
<p>Agree with you emilybee - no skewering!</p>
<p>DS found the ACT much more to his liking and did much, much better. Said the tests were less boring so he concentrated better. Never submitted the SAT so hopefully your daughter will find similar with ACT.</p>
<p>Our high school has a fair number of AP classes…but only in math and science. What happens if your child has strengths in writing/literature/public speaking instead, and that is what the kid hopes to emphasize in college? Where are all the AP classes for the lit kids? Our GC really forces the AP classes, regardless of the kids’ interest in math and science. My kid has to work really hard for a B in AP math. I’d rather K get As in regular math and science, leaving more time for things like dozens of extra essays on all those college ap supplements…</p>