I just started my 10th-grade year. I am taking math and English honors this year. Last year, I did the same. Am I doomed? Did I mess up for competitive schools? I have friends who took ap bio in 9th grade and taking ap chem or ap world this year.
1 Like
Youâve asked variants of this question several times, and the answers have all gone along the same lines: no, you are not âdoomedâ.
Longer answer: when you apply to colleges your GC will tick a box indicating how rigorous your courseload (relative to your class & the options available), ranging from not at all to the most rigorous possible. Iâm guessing that you have already met with your GC and laid out a 4 year course plan, but if you havenât, get yourself down there & do so.
âCompetitive schoolsâ covers a very range, but in general the more competitive the school the more they like to see students who push themselves. When asked âdo you prefer a student who gets an A in regular or a student who gets a B in APâ the standard answer from an AO is âwe prefer the student who gets an A in APâ- which is obvious & unhelpful! IMO, you hurt yourself more than having the AP helps if you go into an AP class and donât ace it.
3 Likes
I do not see any problem here at all. Just do not worry about it.
Take the classes that make sense for you. If you do take AP classes, take them when you are ready, in subjects that you are good at, and try to get Aâs in the AP classes.
When it is time to apply to universities, do not be too impressed by a big name or a high ranking. Look for colleges and universities that are a good fit for you and that you can afford.
As a graduate from MIT and Stanford, I have spent nearly my entire career working for bosses who were graduates from an in-state public university, working with coworkers who were graduates from an in-state public university, and no one cared where anyone got their degree. As a graduate student at Stanford, I studied with a lot of very strong students who had gotten their bachelorâs degree at an in-state public university. This is not a problem.
3 Likes
Thank you. How many aps did you take?
sorry
and ill take lots in 11th.
I will try to get Aâs in aps
APs are not magic. Many, many schools limit (or forbid) APs for 9th & 10th graders. Some schools donât offer any APs, or only offer a handful. Read this. Re-read it regularly. Believe it.
Put your anxiety into following this advice!
3 Likes
Thank you so much, I will read it.
1 Like
At my kidâs school, very few kids took APs before Junior year. Yet the kids who did not take APs in 9th and 10th grade ended up in Dartmouth, Cornell, Stanford, U Chicago, Duke, U Michigan, USC, WashU, UCLA, Berkeley, top Liberal Arts Colleges (Pomona, Williams, Middlebury, Carleton, etc), not to mention over 100 at UIUC, dozens at Purdue, UMN, Wisconsin, and other T-30 and T-50 colleges, and a few more hundreds with great financial packages at great colleges which are not in the âtop 50â lists created by different corporations.
So no, youâre not âdoomedâ.
1 Like
I attended a high school that did not offer any AP classes at all. I took every math class that my high school offered, but this did not include calculus. I was rather surprised when I got to MIT and as a freshman discovered that my calculus class was rather small because most of the rest of the freshman class had APâd out of calculus. Fortunately freshman physics and freshman calculus were coordinated, so that they would teach something in calculus and then use the exact same thing a few days later in physics.
I also like the âapplying sidewaysâ blog from MIT. My take on this is that you should do what is right for you and do not do what you think might (or might not) get you into MIT. This is in fact exactly what I did (without seeing the blog, which is more recent).
4 Likes
Try to develop interests through extracurriculars and service. You can take APâs later in high school if you want. I honestly feel that what you do outside of the classroom is more important, for you and for colleges. If you take AP classes at some point that interest and challenge you, great, but if they are stressful and take time and energy away from other pursuits, you can take honors. At this point, no worries.
1 Like
But, they did take several honors?
@r59b1, just stop. You can only run your race. Go re-read the Applying Sideways piece. Or read this one: There Is No Formula | MIT Admissions
Your focus needs to be on you- your academics, your interests. Do your best. There will always be people "ahead"of you, just as there will always be people âbehindâ you. When I was on a swim team we would get extra laps in workout if we got caught checking to see where the other competitors were- because it meant that part of our energy and focus was on other swimmers and their race, not on putting everything into our own race, and thatâs how you lose.
5 Likes
Yes, most classes had honors level. Interestingly, the fine arts classes did not have honors options. They do have AP Studio Arts, though, and fully equipped art studios.
Itâs silly to think that something as insignificant as that will âdoomâ you at all. I personally took significantly less APs than other students at my school, and I still ended up at a top 20. But college admissions donât only look at course load, so make sure youâre doing stuff outside of school!
Am i messing up because I am not taking college level classes as a HS freshman? NO.
Are there some people that are capable of that? YES
There will always be people better than youâŠRUN YOUR OWN RACE.
Mantra for the HS student:
Do not think 'Every point I get off of a homework or test is a point away from going to Harvard."
Think: âI need to do my best, and there will be a college that is right for me when I graduate.â
Do not think âIf I donât go to an Ivy League School/Top20, I am doomed forever.â
Think: âNo matter where I go, I can bloom where I am planted. I can get involved and shine.â
Do not think: âMy life is overâŠthe kid in my math class is taking 20 APs and I am taking 5. I will never succeed.â
Think: âI need to challenge myself, but only to the point where I can still do well.â
3 Likes