<p>I'm in a bit of a dilemma right now, I go to the oldest college prep school in Michigan, a very competitive school but getting into honors/AP classes is almost impossible unless you have a 95 percent or higher, which is impossible in itself. My graduating class is around 70, and if it takes 5 classes of chemistry or whatevver to teach them, one will be remedial, 3 will be normal, and one will be honors.</p>
<p>Next year (junior year) I'll be taking regular everything (physics, algII trig, us history, french 4) except honors English and AP Art History. The only other AP class I've had so far is AP Music Theory. </p>
<p>My GPA is 3.7-ish, on an upward trend (3.3 freshman year, 3.57 first sem sophomore year, right now a 3.8). I haven't taken the SAT's yet but I was 91st precentile on the PSAT's, with 96th percentile for reading and writing.</p>
<p>I can choose to stay here and take 2 honors classes next year and probably maintain my GPA of 3.6-3.8, or I can go to a public school (a really good one, top 5 districts in the state) and take all honors courses and hopefully maintain a similar GPA.</p>
<p>The other concern is that if I leave the private school I'll lose all my credibility for theater, which is what I plan to study in college. My top choices are Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Boston University, Penn State and Illinois. My goal is to get into the school and theater program at one of these schools, but if I go to public school I'll essentially be starting over with high school theater. Right now I'm tech director, honor thespian, etc but if I go to another school they won't "transfer" that.</p>
<p>i don't think you should worry much since your really smart gradewise like you said. and i think colleges look at the availability of these classes and how well you took advantage of them. they'll know that you would take those classes if you had the chance to so they will consider you. i don't think these colleges are as highly selective so they should take it easy on you.</p>
<p>i'm a sophmore like you but my school offers a lot of aps and honor classes and i try my best to take advantage of it but i'm not that smart. i have 2 honor classes and 1 ap class now and plan to take 2 or 3 aps next year and one honor class.</p>
<p>About the not selective schools, these are just a few after sortof "eliminating" some other more selective schools. The hardest school to get into that I'm interested in is Stanford, followed by NYU, and then probably Carnegie Mellon (which is my top choice).</p>
<p>I keep reading that a B in an honors class is better than an A in a hard class, but I've also been told that a regular class is the equivalent of an honors at other schools. I really don't know what to think.</p>
<p>it depends on the resources that you have. You cnat get penalize if you were never given an opportunity.
If you are in a prep school that is highly respected by Admisson officers, then you should stay. The only thing with that is that you are also compare to your classmates too.</p>
<p>I think you should wait a few weeks for admissions to quiet down a bit (next year's freshman are looking for a lot of attention at the moment), and then call the admission offices of your five targeted schools. At least two will probably give you sound advice if you ask when they are not in a frenzy.</p>
<p>I suspect they will tell you to stay put, and excell in your excellent hs...</p>
<p>Every guide I have ever seen says that the number one thing that colleges care about is difficulty of curriculum. Then grades and then standardized test scores. After those three comes extracurriculars, recommendations and essays in various orders.</p>
<p>As such, taking AP courses when they are available is the most important thing that you can do. However, colleges look at the high school and don't expect students to have AP courses on their transcripts if the high school doesn't offer them. You should make it clear in your application that you wanted to take AP courses, but weren't able to. Perhaps your guidance counselors could include a note. I would approach them about it.</p>