How do universities measure high school rigor? Are there any subject-specific requirements?

Applying to College
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Recently, I spoke to a couple of my peers about selective universities’ recommended number of courses in subject areas such as foreign language, and there appears to be a point of contention regarding the importance of fulfilling specific course quotas for admission. Out of curiosity — and concern, as I have a slightly unconventional course load — I looked into the 2019-2020 CDS forms for some of my reach schools, including Stanford and Carnegie Mellon, to see if there are any recommendations not encompassed by my school’s graduation requirements. As far as I know, the answer is “no.” Yet, upon reading a couple of threads and articles about what’s considered competitive in terms of course selection, I’m still slightly paranoid.

For context, I know that high school rigor depends heavily on what courses your school offers and how much you’re challenging yourself. As most students at my school are expected to pile up on DE and AP courses, with honours classes being viewed as the bare minimum, I’m assuming that there’s a high expectation for course rigor when evaluating our applications. However, I’m unsure of how much leniency there is towards enhancing specific fields of interests at the cost of having well-rounded academics. For example, I took Spanish classes up until Spanish IV, but did not continue with AP Spanish due to scheduling conflicts and took AP Computer Science A instead, as it’s more relevant to my interests and intended major(s). Would that be considered “less competitive,” considering how rigorous my school’s curriculum is? Also, referring back to the CDS forms, would I be taking too much of a gamble by fulfilling only the minimum for certain subject-area course quotas?

I’m not sure how helpful this would be without knowing the full curriculum my school offers, but nonetheless, I’ve listed my courses by subject below, as I know it’s easier to assess everything on a case-by-case basis.

Mathematics: Algebra I Honors, Geometry Honors, Algebra II Honors, Precalculus & Trigonometry Honors, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics

English: English I Honors, English II Honors, AP English Language, AP Literature

Social Studies: AP Human Geography, AP World History, AP US History, AP Government, AP Macroeconomics, *AP Psychology

Science: Biology I Honors, Chemistry I Honors, AP Chemistry, *AP Physics

Foreign Language: Spanish I Honors, Spanish II Honors, **Spanish IV Honors

Miscellaneous: AP Seminar, AP Research, AP Computer Science A, Journalism II-IV Honors (four credits in total)

*I’m currently a junior, so these are the courses that I’m not 100% set on taking senior year. I technically have two tentative spots in my schedule next year, so depending on the feedback I receive from counselors and advisors, I will still be able to make adjustments.

**I did not take Spanish III, so this is technically only three years of foreign language study.

I apologise in advance if some of the wording is too vague or convoluted — please feel free to ask clarifying questions!

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There are a lot of CCers who will be happy to take apart your specific courses, esp for next year, but fwiw, your course load looks pretty conventional to me*, and scheduling conflicts are a reality for many students.

The key here is your GC: it’s not about “leniency”, it’s about how your GC completes this form:

https://commonapp.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#d0000000eEna/a/1L000000guQg/GnFtbzQMfhXi0S4IXIOgI1r2h28wqtbNX2aUHuRbd3k

*though I’m not sure how you managed to skip from Spanish II to IV w/o III, as most places build the curriculum such that it would be difficult to skip levels.

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For the reach universities , I wouldn’t expect any "leniency " unless you’re in some hooked category that they desire . Take the most rigorous courses that you are able to handle and get good grades in. Having all core subjects all four years is an expectation at most selective universities. But their selection process involves so much more than that. Focus on building a balanced list of universities and applying mostly to places where you fit comfortably. It’s okay to have a couple of reaches, but not worthwhile to fixate on how they select students . Most of their thousands of applicants will be highly qualified. So they look for something above and beyond standard metrics of GPA, course selections,test scores etc.

Are you new to the US school system? I ask because some of your spellings are British,not American. If so, you may want to get further guidance on this whole US selective college system which is not exactly transparent in its processes.

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Schedule conflicts are normally fine–if you plan to go into CS, I think it’s fine to not take AP Spanish because you do have four years of spanish. You only have four years of high school, you don’t have to take every single class offered at your school.

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You’re concerned that 15 AP courses is not a rigorous course load?

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Thank you for the input! I understand that the Common App school report “calibrates” an application’s course rigor, in a way, but was just a bit uncertain about any subject-specific nuances I may be unaware of.

As for the Spanish II to IV situation, administration realized — belatedly — that our “Intermediate Spanish/French” classes were a level above district/national standards, so they revamped the foreign language department to compensate for that discrepancy. Long story short, I technically took the equivalent of Spanish I Honors in Intermediate Spanish, Spanish II during Spanish I, so on and so forth. Basically, I did go through Spanish III curriculum, it just doesn’t show up that way on my transcript because admin made the change in the middle of my foreign language study. And yes, all students who take foreign language after the change get Spanish I Honors credit for what used to be Intermediate Spanish — we just happened to be the “unlucky” class who got the short end of the stick :slight_smile:

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Of course! I understand that the selection process for reach schools — where applicants’ GPA and test scores are all phenomenal — come down to more insightful, holistic components such as personal statements, the way they portray themselves through supplementary essays, the commitments they’ve dedicated their time to, how much of an impact they have had/will have on the world, etc. Honestly, I believe I was only overly fixated on this specific aspect due to claims such as “dropping a discipline can be detrimental to a student’s chances of being admitted” from Andrea Thomas, the Assistant Dean of Admission of Hamilton College; this quote, along with several others, was included in a College Ascent article titled, “How much foreign language is enough?”

For the record, I don’t think course selection is an accurate representation of a student’s “mastery across a wide intellectual spectrum,” as the article says. For example, even if taking three years of Spanish comes across as “checking off boxes,” it doesn’t mean I’m dismissive of language and cultural study. Quite contrastingly, one of my most prominent quarantine extracurriculars was freelance translation work for Mandarin/Cantonese/Korean media, and I do hope to become conversationally fluent in Spanish and French as well. I’m sure these nuances would be better conveyed through other aspects of my application, but I just hope course selection choices are not as “detrimental” as some may claim.

To answer your question, no, I’m not new to the US school system — however, my spellings can be attributed to a Canadian upbringing, so I understand the assumption. Coming from a non English-speaking immigrant family, though, all the knowledge I do have about the whole US selective university system may be limited in scope, so I will definitely be seeking more guidance from my college resource officer in the coming months.

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Thank you for the feedback! The dilemma I encountered is that technically, I only have three years of Spanish on my transcript (details below), and due to the sheer amount of AP/DE classes offered at my school, it’s incredibly difficult to have an edge when it comes to course rigor. Nonetheless, I’m glad that dropping AP Spanish wasn’t too terrible of a decision.

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As ridiculous as it may sound, 15 AP courses is considered “on par” amongst the portion of the student body planning on applying to more selective schools. Personally, I elected not to fill my schedule completely, as I had to make time for part-time jobs and extracurriculars, but I know for a fact that some students have felt the pressure to take 17-20 AP/DE courses just to have the most rigorous course load. Cutthroat and unnecessary? Most definitely.

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That is a common misconception. There is no additional benefit in taking any more than 8-10 APs. Taking 20 APs is only beneficial if your college accepts AP tests for credit, and this will allow you to reduce the cost of college. This is only true for colleges at which you pay per credit, rather than flat sum for a semester. Otherwise, cap it at 8 to 10, and you’re good. Others will help you select which APs are the most important for your intended major.

That explains your spelling of “honours”

I would guess that your course set would be considered to have enough rigor. Having 17-20 APs instead would almost certainly have few additional advantages in admissions to the very selective colleges. The only ones where this could affect admissions is if you are applying to a UC as an OOS applicant - they only consider APs for weighting courses. Of course taking too many classes total will hurt the weighted and capped GPA…

It is unfortunate that your peers have sacrificed so much of their time and energy on doing also much for the very slim chance of admissions to a small set of colleges. It is far worse when the effort is actually wasted, since they are spending it on something which will neither benefit them for admissions, nor in any other way.

Spending more time on your favorite ECs is a better choice, since, no matter how admissions turn put, at least you spent your time doing something that was meaningful and enjoyable for you.

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Ah okay, thank you for clarifying the common misconception. And yes, I do agree that ECs are a great investment of time, despite what some may say regarding prioritising academics over almost everything else.

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In foreign language, level reached matters more than actual number of years, so you’re 100% fine with Spanish IV.

However, colleges will expect Bio, chem, physics, so make sure to take either Honors Physics or AP Physics 1 senior year.

You don’t need to take AP Econ, AP Gov, AND AP Psych senior year! Choose 2 at the most. Note that AP Psych is very interesting but generally considered an “easy” AP.
You don’t need to take AP Lit unless you intend to major in Social Sciences/humanities or love literature.

Taking 8-10 AP’s provides all the information a college needs wrt your ability to succeed academically. Once they’ve hit that threshold, the law of diminishing returns applies, or, more exactly, adcoms focus on what else you can bring.
Make sure to take a max of 5 APs senior year, especially with the timesuck of college apps, think of that as a hidden writing-intensive class.

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