HS Adding More AP/Honors Courses

Applying to College
1

Hi all,

Between many college visits and extensive admissions research, I’ve heard a lot about how colleges want to make sure students are challenging themselves within the context of their school’s offerings.

This is a great policy, especially since schools have such varied resources. However, I am concerned that it may actually harm me in the admissions process next year.

My school is going from offering 1 AP course (AP Chemistry) my 9th through 11th grade years to 6 AP courses my senior year (AP Chemistry, AP Literature and Composition, AP Language and Composition, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, and AP Psychology) in an attempt to offer students a more challenging experience. My school is also adding an Honors section for several of its history courses. Several years ago, my school had started to moved away from AP courses in lieu of dual-enrollment courses, but there appears to be a turnaround in curriculum with a new superintendent and principal that is reflected in the new offerings.

Unfortunately, these new course offerings were not part of my 4-year high school plan, and I was only able to fit AP Micro and AP Macro into my schedule next year. I have already taken AP Chemistry, and the other 3 courses (Lit, Psych, and Lang) do not fit into my schedule. However, I have taken similar courses in my school’s dual-enrollment program with a local community college (Intro to Literature, Intro to Psychology, and Composition 1 and 2).

So, are colleges given a profile of course offerings for all 4 years that I have been in high school? And if not, what sort of effect might this change have on my chances of admission to a highly selective school?

Thanks,

CJ

2

Profiles are updated every year to reflect changes in school offerings, performance, etc. You will be assessed relative to the opportunities that were available to you / your class. Your GC will be ticking a box to indicate how rigorous your schedule was relative to the rest of your class.

I’d tell you to find something else to worry about, but from your other posts you seem to already have an abundance to choose from.

3

If the college courses you took while in high school are transferable to four year universities like your state flagship as non-remedial courses, then you have rigorous courses on your record.

4

They are given the most recent one. Where a profile lists the most advanced courses offered by department, it will generally say when a new course was introduced and when an old one was discontinued. If not, the GC can mention it on the Secondary School Report.

No college will expect a student to take AP Lang and AP Lit concurrently anyway.

That’s fine. No college will want you to duplicate coursework.