In other words, having “most demanding” will not help when most others have it. But not having it looks disadvantageous, starting the applicant off at the bottom of the heap in the academic evaluation.
I think that really depends on context. I think the ad coms are well aware of the differences in levels of rigor among different high school – it’s one thing when a student is coming from a large public high school, another when the student is coming from an academic magnet or private prep known for its rigor and high demands. And admissions remains a holistic process, where many “lopsided” students with particularized interests or achievements get accepted over well-rounded students with better overall stats.
One of my kids went to an arts magnet, graduated near the top of her class – and as the school did not offer any STEM focused AP’s, and my daughter did take some honors and AP courses, it’s quite possible that the GC would have checked that box. I don’t know, I didn’t care – but I know that my DD had some huge gaps in STEM areas compared to most college apps – and if she had presented the exact same schedule and grades from a more typical high school, it wouldn’t have looked anything like “most demanding.” (I mean, half of her school day for all 4 years was spent in dance class – which was basically how the school worked, all the kids had academics in the morning and then classes tied to their chosen art in the afternoon – but the point is that “most demanding” at that school looks a whole lot different than “most demanding” at a school like Stuyvesant. And my DD’s school was very well-regarded in its district, probably ranked #2 or #3 in terms of overall academics and test scores, and there were kids getting accepted at Ivies every year. But I can’t believe that some ad com would rank a kid with twice as many AP’s from some cutthroat academic magnet lower on the academic heap because their GC checks the “Very Demanding” rather than “Most Demanding” box.
Those boxes are there to provide context – that’s why they are in the same section of the form as information about class size, rank, methods of GPA calculation, how many AP’s the school offers, whether there are restrictions on the number of AP’s, etc.
Very interesting post. This is only the second time I’ve ever read the designation of “most rigorous” and the first time was yesterday from my junior’s GC. Is this something to be added as a tiny note on the resume? Someone suggested to my son reently that he add “AP Scholar” to his resume too, but I’d think that for admissions or scholarship applications, they’d already see the courses taken and the AP scores submitted.
By the way, if your student does take APUSH, you might have him also take the SAT2 for it. It’s only an hour long, and a handful of schools will require 2 or 3 of those subject tests. Might as well take it while the content is fresh. Best wishes to you!
See reply #52 of this thread:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22473088/#Comment_22473088
Both my kids went to international schools and took only a couple of APs (the school didn’'t offer many to begin with). Both my sons got into Ivies with just a couple AP courses. Moreover, when we visited Chicago and Columbia the AO’s said they were very familiar with many schools and so already knew how rigorous they were. They also said they noted which schools “weighted” grades and adjusted for this.
Just my opinion, but APs are becoming a bit of a racket with the College Board creating “honors” and other distinctions. Worse yet, we found that a growing number of colleges weren’t granting credit for APs anymore, or were limiting credit to a few subjects.