Honors Classes

<p>My school offers a good deal of weighted course, which are are defined as AP and UC-approved honors courses. Both are weighted equally. Let me say first that in terms of total weighted, I have taken probably one of the top 5 hardest course loads at my school.</p>

<p>However, in my junior year, at the beginning of the term, I was forced to cut down from 5 APs to 3 APs and 2 honors classes. AP Physics got cancelled and AP Music Theory conflicted with math. I had to take honors physics (highest physics class availible at time; I took AP Chem during same year).I was already taking Honors Precalc. The way my chedule was configured, I had a hole during the last period, in which ALL students must take a class. The only academic class left by yhe time I knew I whad a problem was un unweighted tech class, which probably won't even be considered for anything. </p>

<p>I was told by my counselor at the time that going into the honors classes wouldn't be a negative at all as they are weighted the same and would display basically the same rigor. The only other viable AP class was AP Psych, which I was neither interested nor is challenging in the least (would have had to replace hon physics).</p>

<p>I also took a community college course over the summer to make up for the lost AP and taking another one this year.</p>

<p>Did I make all the right choices? I felt fine at the time, but now I'm worried colleges will interperet the honors classes as slacking off, even when I have a really high number of weighted classes. I know I can't change anything and I can explain this on the app, but will explantion really help if this is a real issue? Will this look bad even without a counselor note (which I will get)?</p>

<p>Anyone have an opinion?</p>

<p>You seem fine. a counselor note might help, but i dont think it will be necessary</p>

<p>If there is an AP class you could have taken instead of the Honors version, then you should have taken it. An AP class will always be seen higher than a Honors class, not to take away from the difficulty of Honors classes. I’m assuming you did fine with your Honors classes, so it really shouldn’t be a problem. Take as much AP classes as you can handle your remaining years in high school. Good luck!</p>

<p>The reason I took honors physics was because AP Physics, which I had originally signed up for, got canceled. Honors was the highest level for that year. The other honors class I took was Precalc which I would have taken anyway. The second AP class that got cut out of my schedule (AP Music Theory) conflicted with Precalc; a choice between honors math and AP Music Theory drove me to math…I think I made the right decision there.</p>

<p>So I, at least, think I made the right choices…or did at the time. So yeah, I’m looking for opinions on how colleges will view my situation.</p>

<p>Also, for my school at least, there’s a reason why honors and AP are weighted equally. Some honors classes make AP classes look like jokes. APES, AP Psych, AP Stats? A, A, A with no work. On the other hand, Honors Physics, Honors Precalc, and Honors Anatomy require extreme dedication by comparison to do well in…Honors Precalc grades are consitently 1-2 levels below AP Calc grades. I’m not saying the AP program at my school is deficient or anything, or that the honors program is miles ahead of AP, but when it all averages out, again, for my school, the honors and AP programs are of basically equal difficulty. If a college blindly assumes that just because a course has AP in front of it that it’s harder, it’s not really fair for the people who took mixed course loads, and had a harder time than someone who took all APs (sounds weird, but that’s how it can be at my school).</p>

<p>Any further analysis?</p>