<p>Back to my earlier question about how AP’s are viewed when taken as a freshman, the UC system doesn’t even recognize honors courses taken as a freshman let alone AP courses. So does anyone have any real insight insight into how any admissions officer views this whole issue? I’m not really asking whether or not the courses themselves are college level, but whether or not an admissions officer will view them as such.</p>
<p>We have 7 APs and one college class at my school-- Bio, Chem, Comp, Lit, US History, Stats, Music Theory, and Pitt Calculus, offered through the University of Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>If you’re a science/math person, that’s great. You can take four. As for me, a humanities person, I took all three and then Stats, which I’m struggling in. I really wish we could have another history class, but only 4 kids in my class took APUSH.</p>
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<p>Yes and no. Yes, Frosh grades are not computed into UC gpa. But, Frosh courses and grades are reviewed.</p>
<p>How one MIT adcom view AP courses?
[MIT</a> Admissions | Blog Entry: “Many Ways To Define “The Best””](<a href=“http://test.mitblogs.com/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/many_ways_to_define_the_best.shtml]MIT”>http://test.mitblogs.com/topics/before/recommended_high_school_preparation/many_ways_to_define_the_best.shtml)</p>
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<p>And actually they are more than just (qualitatively) reviewed. They (freshman grades in UC subjects) are separately added as auxiliary points after the UC gpa is calculated. It definitely helps to do more than “just” the 10th/11th UC gpa.</p>
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<p>I still don’t see how restricting kids like that is a good system. Why not let them take as many as they want, when they are ready to take them?</p>
<p>If kids are taking more than they can handle, that’s their problem and their parents’. It is not the school’s fault for providing options. They have to learn how to set their own curriculum realistically at some point, otherwise what will they do when they go to college?</p>
<p>I’m hoping that the “very strict rules” mean only that one has to demonstrate preparedness as opposed to “only juniors and seniors may take APs.”</p>
<p>Colleges either discount or do not count freshman year grades. It does not mean that they do not take into account the type of courses taken that year or discount the fact that a freshman may have taken APs or come into high school with APs.</p>
<p>marite,
"Really? Does your school offer MVCalc and Linear Algebra and post AP-Physics to 9th graders? It must be an unusual school, especially if it does not permit acceleration. "</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, schools like that do NOT offer many AP’s at all, but level of college prep. is much higher. D. (college junior) has many chances to compare her background to others on wide range of subjects (schience, English, etc.). And as I mentioned also before her prep. in her Honors / Regular classes was much better than others’ in AP’s which was the reson why she got hand picked by Chem Prof to be his assistant (she did not have AP Chem, while many in her college class did). She strongly believes that it is not number of AP’s but the school itself that makes big difference.</p>
<p>MiamiDap:</p>
<p>This is your post #24 to which I replied:</p>
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<p>I wrote that I-not some generic parent–would have avoided the school like the pest and you guaranteed that MY S–not some generic student–would be well taken care of academically at your school and would not need to look outside it for accommodation; I responded with that question.
MY S–not some generic student–needed to be in Multi-Variable Calc as a 9th grader, and we chose his school accordingly. The school does not offer MV-Calc, nor, for that matter did the excellent private school we looked at. Both have connections with universities (in fact, the private school EXPECTS its juniors and seniors to take classes at the university to which it is connected).
At any rate, while my S was the only freshman in his MV-Calc class, his school (a public, highly diverse one) sends many juniors and seniors to MV-Calc classes every single year. </p>
<p>Be careful what you’re guaranteeing and don’t presume to know the academic needs of each and every student, especially those you do not personally know.</p>
<p>^D’s school did not allow to take classes outside of school. But it was offerring Kanyon college classes within school, taught by HS teachers. A lot of teachers were PhD’s who had experience teaching in college. I do not know all that were offered, D. took American History, because she wanted to take care of History in HS and never take it in college. So, she got college credit for this one class. Since then, school cancelled Kanyon classes but got connected with some school in China, whtever this means I have no idea. Private schools have a lot of flexibility. But if your school worked well for your son, there is no argument between us. My point is that number of APs is not always indicator of best preparation for college and college admissions know that (talking from experience).</p>
<p>Sorry, that was not your point. I don’t know how you can read your own post and reach that conclusion.
At any rate, there is not much difference between getting a college prof to come to a high school to teach kids and sending high school kids to a college for courses, except that it’s much harder to do the former. S eventually took 9 college courses over the three years he spent in high school.</p>
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<p>While generally true, also generally wrong. (I don’t mean you marite, but colleges’ pronoucements, which speak out of both sides of their mouths.)</p>
<p>On the one hand a college like Stanford says that they ignore Frosh grades. On the other, they use Class Rank as an admissions criteria. And since class rank includes Frosh grades…</p>
<p>Bluebayou:</p>
<p>I stand corrected. You are right that colleges consider class rank (if it is available–not all high schools rank), and to that extent, freshman grades do come into play. The one modifying factor would be that some lower ranked students are admitted above the vals and sals (especially if the GPAs were achieved through easier courses). Colleges that practice a holistic approach scrutinize GPA (and often recalculate it), class rank, and difficulty of courses.</p>
<p>^Colleges consider rank even when it is not available. D’s school did not rank, but since some selective programs reguire certain rank (like top 2%), I have asked admission of one of colleges that D. has applied. Admission answer was that they calculated it based on applicant GPA and class profile. For example, if it is known that only one kid had GPA=4.0uw and applicant GPA=4.0, then applicant graduated #1. Admission even considers class size, since sometime it is not possible to make top 2% (in class of 30 kids, top student is making only top 3%). And yes, selective programs/colleges definately consider rigor of curriculum as well as number of meanningful EC’s. There are programs that will not accept anybody (perfect GPA/SAT included) without good number of meanningful (for specific programs) EC’s.</p>
<p>^Insiders know at D’s high school that the only “don’t rank” part is the published or recorded part. In point of fact, a college is often told, “Our school does not rank, but if we did, so-and-so would be #____ in the class.” So it’s word-of-mouth, secrecy, in confidence only. That’s both to discourage overt competition, including AP-grubbing, and to be realistic, since (as in some schools, usually not ours, but occasionally) it’s possible to technically be “val” with a higher UW gpa than the true “best student” with more substance to the program. And in that case, the Val status would be accorded on UW quantitative measures, but that would not be considered the “#1” -ranked student in the class as far as college admissions determination goes.</p>
<p>Offer all of them that you can, PROVIDING you can do an adequate job of teaching them. Don’t set the kids up for failure by thinking you HAVE to offer Chinese Language and Culture, then assign a teacher with limited skills, have children PAY for that test and then receive a disappointing score. </p>
<p>Otherwise…if you’re capable…why NOT offer them all? I don’t even see the argument. ALL kids don’t have to take these classes, it SHOULD be the kids you know can excel and need to be challenged, of course. Our school is big (700-800 kids per class), so it offers…I don’t know, what are there 37 or something?..our school offers 30-something. </p>
<p>Most kids take MANY MANY. My D will be taking 8 and only that FEW because she takes a lot of electives. Every class she that she took that OFFERED A/P, she took as AP. And she started with her first one in 9th grade (got a 4 in World History), that was actually a REQUIRED course for one to complete the IB program on 11th/12th). </p>
<p>When colleges ask you to be prepared, and take the most rigor…why NOT show you can take college courses? (even though many argue these are far from “real” college courses).</p>
<p>Re post #75:</p>
<p>Our school has a large number of students who take multiple college classes, but it does not weigh grades. I don’t know how these classes figure in the rankings. What happens when students graduate early? My S did, as did at least two others, all of whom also took multiple college classes. None were ranked. It does not matter if only one or two per year graduate early; but when more than that do?</p>