<p>I have a gifted 11th grader. Last year she became ill and only completed 1 class. She is doing her junior year again, but currently only has 5 classes with 1 AP to ease back into school. Next semester she will have 6 classes with 2 APs. From everything I have read about college admissions, junior year is most important. Her junior year will not be considered the most rigorous. Next year, she plans to take 3 APs. She has a 3.97 UW and 4.044 W GPA. Would you expect a less difficult junior year schedule to seriously impact her chances when applying to college? Thank you.</p>
<p>I'm not an adcom, but I would say completing 5 courses following an illness is much more rigorous than the one course she completed last year. And her course loads look like they are becoming more rigorous for the upcoming semester(s). I think having your daughter take a course load that will ease her transition into full time is a good decision. She not only needs to take challenging courses, but she also needs to complete them and not become ill again.</p>
<p>The impact might depend on where your D applies.
Does this new schedule, plus the completed course from last year, compare to the pre-illness schedule?
There is a maturity in knowing one's own abilities and acting on them. Can this be included in her essay?</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies, so far. The last year's class plus her current load would not be up to the same standard she had before. She currently has 1 AP and 1 honors class. Last year, she was originally taking 3 APs plus 1 honors and 2 regular classes. All but 1 regular class were medically withdrawn from. Sophomore year she had 7 classes each quarter. Of those, 1 was AP and 5 were honors. She is currently looking at our flagship university. She is worried that colleges will no longer be interested in her, so she is no longer at some colleges she had previously liked.</p>
<p>Stormy, kids change their minds. Between sophomore year and senior year BOTH of my kids changed their minds about prospective colleges dramatically, and neither of them had the medical issues your child had. This is NORMAL...in fact, I would venture that very few students are certain which colleges they will apply to as sophomores or even juniors in high school. Some don't make up their minds until their senior year. Perhaps once your daughter has this year completed, she will have the confidence to view a broader range of colleges. Perhaps your flagship U is the PERFECT place for her...that could be as well. Her course load is fine, in my opinion. My daugher only took a total of 3 AP courses, and my son only took 2. Both of them got accepted to a broad range of colleges.</p>
<p>If your D, or better, the GC, can explain the context for the schedule, and makes it clear that she was taking the most rigorous schedule that she was capable of handling, I think most colleges would be more than sympathetic. When it comes time to apply, your D may want to forgo early decision and early action rounds so that she can have her strong senior schedule as part of the application materials. Good luck! High school can be difficult enough without facing a major illness, so your D has already accomplished a lot.</p>
<p>Stormy, nothing to worry about --this just needs to be explained on the apps. My d. spent a semester abroad during her junior year, and was unable to get into more rigorous courses mid-year (though fortunately the AP Psych teacher agreed to let her in) -- but she had an open period and no other AP's. Of course it was all explained as part of the applications and she was accepted to colleges that were a huge reach for her. </p>
<p>I think give the circumstances, your d's 2 years of 11th grade will be viewed essentially as 1 -- and I wouldn't worry about it at all. You have to keep in mind the reasons for various considerations -- colleges aren't impressed with healthy kids who are slacking off when they could be applying themselves; a kid with a serious illness is a very different situation.</p>
<p>I agree with calmom. The most important thing is her health. I would think that adcoms would consider her courseload quite rigorous in veiw of her health. Let your D know that she is still competitive for the colleges that she was interested in before. Supportive GC and teachers will make her case.</p>
<p>For most flagship universities, the rigor of the courses chosen will not matter for in-state student admission, as long as the student completes the requirements. Now I can't speak for California, Michigan or New York. Otherwise, I don't think it will matter for admissions - maybe for some honors programs, but not for admissions.</p>
<p>PS - I hope she is recovered/ing</p>
<p>My D also had a funky transcript because she wanted to do a semester-abroad program as a junior. So she had a tougher-than-usual sophomore year (unfortunately that affected her grades, too) and a tougher-than-usual senior year. She explained her odd schedule in her college ap - and still got into several very good schools.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the responses. It does relieve some of my concern. I am pretty sure the GC will explain what happened. I also didn't think about the fact that this year is showing a more rigorous trend considering what she accomplished last year. My daughter said she may contact an admission counselor and see if she can get the school's perspective as that may help her not worry so much. Thanks for the help.</p>