<p>I know that <em>technically</em> you could self-study for APs, but frankly, I don't feel comfortable doing this. My school also only offers 2 honors classes (Frosh & Soph English classes) that you can take without an AP (we're on a 4x4, so an AP is yearlong and almost always linked with an honors class, ex. yearlong H Precalc and AP Calc AB, & you can't take one w/out the other). </p>
<p>Will colleges know this?</p>
<p>The school normally sends something that lists courses available. It might note that on it.</p>
<p>Your GC will send in a school profile detailing the course offerings/system your schools works under.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I looked at my school’s school profile. The only classes it mentioned were the APs offered.</p>
<p>yeah, same here llpitch. and it sucks because it mentions all the APs that we could possibly offer rather than the ones that we actually offer every year. we have to have fifteen kids in a class for something to be offered, so in reality we only have like ten AP classes, but my school says we have sixteen or something like that.</p>
<p>halie: there is a section on the counselor report where the counselor can rate your schedule compared to other people at your school. so, even though it might not look like you have very many AP classes or whatever, if it is the toughest schedule you can take at your school, colleges will know.</p>
<p>andreaaa,</p>
<p>Our hs has the same problem. The HS lists a lot of APs, but some of them are “co- taught” meaning Honors Italian IV and AP Italian V share a class. So each group gets about 15 - 20 mintues of instruction. Pretty worthless. I actually had a brief conversation at Brown about the problem of HS which are less than honest on their course list.</p>
<p>Another issue is state graduation requirements. In NJ, students have a lot of required courses - for example gym is required for 4 yrs. a practical art is required, etc. It limits the APs, because of the required courses.</p>
<p>unfortunately every high school has a lot of idosyncracies that many GCs dont bother to explain. Like the fact that you can only take certain APs in fresh and sophomore years.</p>
<p>^But wouldn’t colleges assume that most people take less APs frosh/soph years anyways? You shouldn’t be penalized (or not considered, at least) for not taking APs when you aren’t ready (or when the school district deems you aren’t).</p>
<p>My high school also lists ALL the classes that, in an ideal world, it might be able to offer. Some of the classes on the list haven’t been offered in over ten years. Others, like AP Chem, require you to do independent study and have a very low success rate. </p>
<p>It’s aggravating because it makes my school appear to have a much more diverse offering of classes than it actually does.</p>