<p>I think you will be ok with the 5 classes but if you really want to “feel more safe” then add one more class.</p>
<p>No, when I was an adcom most who took less rigor senior year went into the circular file. And your counselor can’t check most rigorous schedule if you didn’t accomplish that. I don’t know a top school that doesn’t consider that essential. Focusing on EC’s is unfortunately not an acceptable excuse for less rigor at top colleges.</p>
<p>I’m surprised at how many on this thread don’t get it. Senior year should actually be the most rigorous. You’re in the 9th inning hitting it out of the park if you’re looking at top colleges.</p>
<p>This is a little off topic but I hope to god you plan to narrow that list down and don’t plan on applying to all of those schools.</p>
<p>hmom5, if I may ask what school were you an adcom at. And what is a circular file?
And if that’s the case, I will take French AP as well. Thank you for the pointer! Hopefully my schedule is considered acceptable? </p>
<p>I went to the common application website and I was appalled by the number of supplement essays I had to complete so I trimmed down my list to:</p>
<p>All the UCs
Wash U,
Northwestern,
Duke,
Vanderbilt,
U Penn,
Notre Dame,
U Chicago,
Rice,
Emory,
Cornell,
Johns Hopkins,
Carnegie Mellon,
U Virginia,
Stanford</p>
<p>I find it much more manageable but I will probably trim down a bit more seeing which one is the best buy. On the side note, if I got into UCSD and also University of Virginia, would it be a good choice to forgo Virginia and attend UCSD instead? (I’m instate btw)
Thanks!</p>
<p>My son is taking
AP Calc
AP Physics
Dual Credit English
Dual Credit Econ/Govt
Principles of Engineering
Band
Jazz Band (by audition)</p>
<p>So - 4 major academic classes, 1 elective, 2 music classes. He took Speech during the summer and is doing Health via correspondence so that he has room in his schedule for the 2 band classes.</p>
<p>I know you say you are going to trim it, but you really need to cut that list down to at least 7 (not including UC’s). You are going to kill yourself writing essays that won’t be great because you will be to focused on trying to get them all done. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to question you but have you even looked at all these schools? It looks to me like you just went to the rankings and cut out most of the ivy’s but kept everything else and then to help trim the list you cut out a few based on which ones had the lowest rankings. </p>
<p>Again I’m not trying to insult your or anything, its just that you are probably a great student who has a good shot at these schools. No need to kill that by writing half-a** app/essays (not sure how many of these are commonapp) when you could apply to a few that really catch your eye and write amazing essays.</p>
<p>Considering the fact that I did not the chance to visit any of the schools except for the UC schools, I have no idea which ones to trim off. They are all great schools. And all of them are on the common application. In total there’s about 20 supplemental essays ranging from 250 words to 1000.</p>
<p>Penn. If you give us your stats we can be more helpful with the list.</p>
<p>I hated to be jaded but kids are killing themselves w/ the most rigorous courses and perfect scores are still being rejected at HPY… So I believe go the more holistic route and go with your true interests and do it well. That’s how you learn about yourself.</p>
<p>“So I believe go the more holistic route and go with your true interests and do it well. That’s how you learn about yourself.”</p>
<p>I agree. That is what DS is doing (especially with 2 band classes) and I fully support him.</p>
<p>California resident
Christian
-ACT 35
-SAT II Math 800
-SAT II Biology M 800
-SAT II Chemistry 750
-Weighted UC GPA 4 (There is an upward trend from 3.63 Freshman to 4.43 Junior)
-Weighted GPA including Freshman year: 3.875
-3 APs taken so far with a 5 in Biology, 4 in Statistics and 4 in Computer Science
My prominent ECs are geared towards Biological science and science in general.
If you want more information about my ECs, I will be happy to elaborate but basically these are my academic numbers.</p>
<p>As disappointing as my GPA may be, I have a life story to tell on the essay. I am sure many applicants do to, but I hope mine will set me apart from the others. I just need the scores and the GPA to set my foot in the doorway of these top tier schools (hopefully my numbers are enough to accomplish just that) and let my essay and ECs show who I am. </p>
<p>Sorry that this is becoming more like a chance thread!</p>
<p>I will apply for BME or some other sort of Biology/Engineering school.
I like the big cities or schools close to big cities where perhaps I can experience snow again =) However, Stanford and the UCs will stand firm on my list! </p>
<p>I decided to apply to:
All the UCs (Composed of all my safeties, targets, and couple of reaches.)</p>
<p>All my reach schools:</p>
<p>Wash U,
Northwestern,
Duke,
Vanderbilt,
U Penn,
Notre Dame,
U Chicago,
Rice,
Emory,
Cornell,
Johns Hopkins,
Carnegie Mellon,
Stanford</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Not applying to UVA anymore? Jw if you knocked it off or if you accidently left it off. Also honestly with those stats as long as you write decent/good (will be hard to write amazing to all schools) essays, you should at least get into 2 of those schools but more then likely 3-4 of the reach schools on your list. Good luck.</p>
<p>Although UVA is a great school, I have a feeling that it is going to be like the UC system in California where out of state students will be discriminated against. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, I think that public school’s financial aid packages aren’t as generous as those of the private schools so attending UVA will be very costly. Like for Stanford, since my parent’s income is less than 100k per year, I think the tuition is waived. </p>
<p>Anyways thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it!</p>
<p>You know senior year should be prep for college. I took 7 APs (2 were half a semester so it was more like 6 because I had to take speech and health to graduate) senior year and that was the norm for nearly everyone at the top of the class. In fact I dont know how you can be at the top of your class if you don’t take as many APs as possible. And the mid year report is probably REALLY important, I got the best grades my senior year of high school. Before acceptance, after I got accepted my grades tanked. </p>
<p>Every week I had a bunch of stuff to do, but that made the year go by even faster. I am really surprised that some people were able to get into top schools with fewer classes, but perhaps each person is different.</p>
<p>I agree with you on the part that each person is different but I also believe that each school is different. The same AP class at different schools can have significant differences in difficulty. </p>
<p>My school is very competitive and we can take a maximum of 7 classes. However, I do not know anyone at our school who would even think of taking 7 APs because that is just suicidal! Every AP class our school offers are, in my opinion, tough. If I remembered correctly, our average AP score for all the APs was a 4. And for our AP Biology class, everyone who received a high B or above did not score below a 5 for the past few years (that’s more than a few hundred students).
Most of the AP teachers at our school go beyond the level of APs to ensure that everyone achieves high scores and also to make class more interesting!</p>
<p>I think colleges, hopefully, know which schools are competitive and that is why some people with with fewer classes were able to get into the top colleges. That’s just my theory.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance to Yale btw!</p>
<p>What is your rank? That is the most important factor for admissions at most of these schools.</p>
<p>UVA is one of the few state schools that meets 100% of need for every student, in state or OOS.</p>
<p>Individual rank is not given; ranking is reported by decile only (1= top 10%).
I am in the top 25 percent. What a bummer!</p>
<p>The only schools on the list that do not value class rank are Duke, Emory, the UCs, and USC (I am applying here as well)</p>
<p>If the top private colleges value class rank this much, are you implying that it would be a waste of time if I tried to apply to these schools with my profile?</p>
<p>The true measure of the difficulty or rather rigor of AP classes is the score at the end of the year. I got all 5s on my APs and 1 4 in Stat because I studied the day of the test and didn’t pay attention at the end of the year. I actually felt whole fully unprepared for the tests because the AP classes at my school seemed really easy, but the AP tests were easy too. Which really makes me question if those tests should be used for college credit.</p>
<p>Also having a lot of work does not make a class difficult it just builds work ethic. I mean there were days when I would have 3 tests, quiz, and homework to do, but that is just life. In fact I think every week was filled with alot of work and I definitely did more work my senior year than any other year, but that is just good prep for college, because I am sure the workload lessens.</p>
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<p>I agree with that statement!</p>
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<p>I am sure that every school values rank. With only being in the top 25% in your class your chances at the top are severely diminished, especially if your school is small.</p>