How important are couse loads?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>My top choice school has rigor of couse load as the only thing listed as "very important" in considering college applications. I'm confused about how rigorous is rigorous, since most of the admissions websites list the bare minimum, and the regional reps don't tell you much.</p>

<p>Here is my course load:
4 years of math (3 years honors, 1 year AP)
4 years of history (1 year honors, 2 years of a by-application program that's honors weight but recognized by the school as AP difficulty, 1 year AP)
4 years of english (1 year honors, 2 years same as history, 1 year AP)
3 years of science (all regular and it didn't fit in my senior schedule)
4 years of language (1 regular, 2 honors, 1 AP, normal progression)
1 year psychology AP (junior year, the 1st year you can take APs aside from history)</p>

<p>My senior schedule is 5 AP classes. My biggest worry is that I haven't taken the most rigorous science (obviously there's nothing I can do about that now) and that I'm taking only 5 senior classes. I took 5 academic classes frosh/soph year, but 6 my junior year (1 regular, 4 honors, 1 AP) and now I'm back to 5. Those 5 classes are APs though, which is very rare at my school, although most take 6 classes. I have a week to add a class if I want to. My grades and test scores are within/above the ranges of all the schools I'm applying to (no ivies, but just below). If I have the grades, scores, good extracurriculars, and good essays, will they count me out because of weaknesses in my course load?</p>

2

<p>Ideally you will take the hardest classes available to you, and assuming you do that your rigor should be fine. Science is the only area you lack rigor, but you should be OK…</p>

<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what school are you looking at?</p>

3

<p>I’m looking at Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgetown, and UVA, among others. Science is definitely my weak point. I’m hoping that they’ll see it as science isn’t my thing so I focused on other areas- that’s how I saw it. Also, my guidance counselor told me that adding an honors class to my 5 APs would make my course load look weaker, and take away valuable study time, but I don’t know because he only came out of retirement while my GC was on maternity leave, so he may be a little out of the loop. Ideally the other areas of my application will make up for my course rigor. I have strong test scores (34 ACT, 1510 SAT, 750 SAT 2s) and I did well in all of my classes. My ECs are decent.</p>