<p>My idiot high school doesn't offer AP classes. Would it matter to the Ivies if I don't have a single AP class, or do you recommend me switch schools?</p>
<p>Ivies expect you to take the most rigorous curriculum that's available at your high school.</p>
<p>Now, if your high school is so dreadful that most of the classes are taught to the level of students who will have to struggle to obtain a high school diploma, it probably would be best if you switched schools because your h.s. is not preparing you to do well on the SATs, etc. or to be able to keep up with students who had gone to school with more intellectual peers and tougher classes.</p>
<p>could you still try to do AP tests somehow? Self-studying's always impressive.</p>
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<p>What do you mean? How does one do AP tests on her own?</p>
<p>buy a book, study real hard, and arrange to take the test at local high school that offers the course</p>
<p>yeah, I suppose you could self-study, but that isn't very practical. When it comes down to it, the colleges just want to know that you took the hardest classes offered. They shouldn't put you at fault if your school doesn't offer the APs because of funding, teachers, etc. My school only offers four of them. And northstarmom, your advice is not in the least bit helpful. It is incredibly difficult just to switch schools, espescially if you have to go from public to private, because the costs are simply astronomical. People here are very jaded. I don't think you should worry about the APs.</p>
<p>Are you sure I shouldn't worry about AP courses?
Because I have to make my decision like quick, as the school year is approaching.</p>
<p>if you dont want to self study for ap's, you could always take a class or two at a local cc. adcoms like it when you look for academic opportunities outside your hs</p>
<p>You could take online AP courses....that's what I'm doing, anyway. Then take the exams at a high school that offers them. The EPGY program at Stanford offers some, but they're mostly science and math based courses. You could also try Aventa Learning. They have more stuff in the humanities, but I don't know if they're accredited. If you're going to take one of the English AP's, though, don't waste your time with a course unless you REALLY need it. Get a review book and do a lot of practice essays. See if you can find a teacher to help you with them, just for proofing and stuff.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>If your high school does not offer AP's, there is no reason you need to take them. Virtually every college in the nation evaluates your coursework in comparison to what was offered at your school. If you don't have the opportunity to take AP's you will not be penalized. It's that simple. If you want an extra challenge, you can consider one of the options presented above, but by no means consider them a necessity. There is a reason that the counselor's report is a part of every college's application. It provides the college with information about your school and how you stand in relation to your peers. As long as you have taken the most difficult courses offered at your school (whatever they may be-ask your counselor if you don't know what these would be), you should be in better shape than someone that took 8 AP's at a school that offered 20 and allows students to take them starting freshman year</p>
<p>As I mentioned before, if your alternatives are an excellent school offering APs or a weak school in which no APs are offered and few students go to colleges, you're better off going to the strong school. </p>
<p>Going to a weak school will hurt you because you won't develop the critical thinking and other skills that would help you do well on tests likke the SAT. You also won't have GCs and teachers who will know how to help you with recommendations and advice in college admissions, summer programs, etc. In addition, your school will probably be so overwhelmed trying to help students who are struggling that it won't have time to offer much support to top students.</p>
<p>The clubs and other opportunities at the weak school also will not meet your needs. For instance, a weak school won't have strong academic-oriented clubs, the type of clubs that often extremely bright students are attracted to. It's also not likely to participate in activities like science and history fairs. </p>
<p>Also when college adcoms come to town, they're not likely to bother visiting the weak school, but will spend their time at the best school. </p>
<p>The question isn't whether lack of APs will hurt you, but whether the overall atmosphere of going to a weak school will hurt you, and the answer is "definitely yes." Since you have a choice about what high school you can attend, colleges also will assume that you picked the weak school out of laziness.</p>
<p>In the situation that I described, you'd probably be better off graduating fourth in the class at a strong school than valedictorian at a weak school. At the strong school, you'd likely have higher SAT scores (because the factor most influencing scores is rigor of one's curriculum), better critical thinking, verbal and writing skills (due to better classes), stronger college applications (due to better guidance and recommendations and more information available in the school about how to apply to top colleges), and more impressive ECs. </p>
<p>Where I live, the valedictorians from the weakest schools tend to go to community college (and that's considered an impressive achievement by the weak schools) and the top 10 or so students at the stronger schools tend to go to places like HPYS , top 10 colleges and the state flagship.</p>
<p>Anymore opinions?</p>
<p>You've all been a good help so far. Still deciding.</p>
<p>If you have a rough idea of what colleges you might be applying to, why not send e-mails to admissions at each and ask them directly? If nothing else, it will show that you have an interest in their schools. Obviously, this is an issue that different people have different opinions on, so it makes sense to find those opinions that matter most.</p>
<p>AP isnt standard in canada.</p>
<p>Do you come from a disadvantaged background or community? That could be an asset, actually. I think it's in A is For Admission, by Maria Hernandez, about a Native American kid with a C average and 900-something on the SAT who got into Dartmouth, because he had to drive two hours to his really crappy school and was a minority. That's probably extreme, but still. Don't be too discouraged.</p>
<p>I don't think it's that hard to self-study. I'd at least make an effort, to show that you weren't content with your school. From what I've heard, AP Psych, Stats, Lang and US Gov are pretty easy to self-study. And look for online courses. I know that my county pays for students to take courses online or at the community college, if the high schools don't offer them.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I could not disagree with you more. </p>
<p>Sure, my school does not offer many APs, but it is a gross generalization to say that it is weak, and therefore you will not be able to achieve going to a top school. Give me a break. If you haven't noticed, MOST kids cannot afford to go anywhere but public school. I don't know where you live, but at my "weak" school, three kids are going to ivies, and a community college would not be considered an achievement. Although some classes aren't labeled as APs, ** they can still be intellectually challenging.** Advanced placement required extra training, and, therefore, extra money, which cannot always be provided. Most schools still offer academic clubs to those who actually try to find them. And, lastly, to say that a college would consider you lazy if you went to one of these so-called "weak" schoolss is utterly insane. Schools without APs do not have to be schools without the chance of a future. Please, that is a bunch of very gross generalizations that you just made.</p>
<p>I on the otherhand, actually agree with most of what Northstarmom has been saying... most of it anyway.
I'm seeing if I can get into this other school. It doesn't have AP, but it does have an intellectually-stimulating environment unlike my current school.
I'll see about AP self-studying too.</p>