"Most rigorous course load" Question

Applying to College
1

I don’t know if this is a stupid question or not, but I actually was curious because it seems unrealistic to be looking over so many transcripts in detail in addition to the rest of the application.

Do colleges (especially the more elite, top 30) actually look through your courses from freshman to senior or do they just look at senior year, your weighted GPA, class rank, and see if the counselor said you took the “most rigorous course load”? I don’t know if my counselor will put that for me or not because I’m taking 6 classes this year (I’m a senior) instead of the usual 7.

2

Also, she might not put that I took the most rigorous course load because I decided it was in my best interests to drop full IB diploma status and take a mixture of IBs and APs. I like both styles of class, but AP does tend to be a lot more fun and there is more freedom in class structure (at least at my school), so the teacher can really be unique. Plus, doing 5 different internal assessments this semester would have been brutal on top of college applications! So, I’m doing 3 IB classes and 2 AP (my sixth class is choir). Junior year I did 3 AP, 3 IB, French 3, and choir.

3

Ask your GC if they will put most rigorous or not. Maybe not if other students stay with IB, Since that is measured in comparison to the school the GC’s response is important.

4

Top colleges ideally want to see the most rigorous courseload box checked off. Talk to your guidance counselor.

5

Sorry, I’m going to add to this post. I haven’t talked to her (she is really busy), but if my guidance counselor does NOT put that I took the most rigorous course load, will colleges see my classes and see that I actually did challenge myself? My course load was almost the end of me last year (I was at school from 7-3 every day), so I don’t want to get no recognition for that work. As I mentioned, I am not full IB, so I took a mix of AP and IB and didn’t do CAS, TOK, and the EE.

Freshman:
Geometry H
English H
Chemistry H
French 1
PE
Health
Women’s Ensemble

Sophomore:
Algebra 2 H
Math Analysis H
Biology H
English H
AP European History
French 2
Concert Choir (before school)

Junior:
AP Calculus AB
AP US History
AP Physics 1
IB English HL 1
IB Chemistry/Biology HL 1
French 3
IB Psychology HL 1 (after school)
Concert Choir (before school)

Senior:
AP Statistics
IB English HL 2
IB Biology HL 2
IB 20th Century History HL
AP Psychology
Concert Choir (before school)

UW GPA: 3.95; W GPA: 4.63

6

There are levels of rigorous the GC can pick even you are not taking the most rigorous course load. Of course, the adcom would still look at the courses on your transcript and decide. The most rigorous course load definition depends on the HS.

7

Sorry to be a bad news Betty but it certainly appears that your senior schedule is much less vigorous than your junior year schedule. AP - 1 less, no French, everything else equal. This may be a ding against you at the “tippy top” colleges but many other things factor into their decisions. In my opinion it will not get your app rejected at first glance, but that is purely conjecture on my part. They do emphasize holistic admissions as well as most rigorous courseload.

Do you have anything to offset this other than dealing with college applications, which everyone has to do? Your comment about preferring AP course to IB doesn’t seem to hold up since you’re taking one LESS AP course and the same # of IB.

8

@alooknac Originally, I would have taken 6 IB classes this year as a full IB candidate: IB 20th, IB Math HL, IB French, IB English, IB Chem, and IB Bio. There was a lot of scheduling issues (like they decided to offer IB Bio and IB Chem the same period, so I couldn’t take both). Also, there is no AP version of Calc BC, French, Chemistry, Biology. and English at my school. It was either IB or change my schedule completely.

The main problem was my #1 safety does not recognize the full IB diploma or give credit for half of the individual tests. So, I dropped full IB and went from there. I am taking 3 less IB than I originally should have.

I’m taking IB Bio because we don’t offer AP. I’m taking IB English because we don’t offer AP. I’m actually taking IB 20th rather than AP Gov/Econ H because I love the 1900s and the teacher is amazing!

I really wanted to take another Calculus class, but IB Math HL is like half Calc BC and half is harder versions of things like vectors, probability, statistics, etc. I got an A in AP Calculus AB, which was no small feat, but my teacher was unsure about allowing me to enroll in his Mafh HL class. He neither encouraged nor discouraged me like he did for other people. So, now I’m taking AP Statistics, which I think will be a very useful class.

Also, I really only took 2 IB my junior year. The third one was after school one semester: IB Psych Research Methods. We just spent the whole time researching and conducting a social experiment, then writing a long research paper about it. It wasn’t a real lecture based class. I didn’t learn any psychology, just statistics and some basic terminology. But rather than spending $300 on the IB Psych test this year, I chose AP instead.

What ended up happening for senior year was I had no seventh class to fill my schedule with. My counselor checked for me and nothing was being offered that period that I hadn’t already taken. So instead of choir, 3 IB, and 3 AP, I just don’t have a third AP at all.

So, it’s very complicated and my counselor may or may not put the most rigorous course load because of that empty spot in my schedule and the fact I’m not even full IB while about 20 of my classmates are still in the program. However, I’m still highly ranked (but officially we have no rank) above some of those people in the full IB program because what they did was take easier classes sophomore/junior year and then chose the “easy” IBs. But they still work very hard, they just are more humanities type of people, so they worked around those weaknesses to still get their diploma.

Sorry for the long explanation, but hopefully that clears some things up. Thanks!

9

But it has been nice leaving school earlier every other day because I can volunteer more frequently at the hospital, which is my favorite thing to do. Plus, next semester after all my IAs and college apps are done, it will be possible for me to get a part time job (I’m only a tutor right now) to save an extra couple thousand dollars for college.

10

Re “most rigorous” box on Common App - how do school counselors decide this and is it over 4 years? We have 7 or more counselors - no idea what criteria they really use and some courses depend on what students put into them of course - such as science research or robotics or something. And some schools encourage 1 free period per day - if student A takes a “full load” but has 1 free period and student B fills the free period with another course does student A get looked upon as less rigorous? So many variables besides taking APs or IBs it seems.

11

All you have to do is ask. I’m planning x, y and z, is that most rigorous?

My kid is only taking 4 classes as a IB senior. Still most rigorous.