<p>I go to a large competitive-ish public school in California, where 14-16 AP classes are pretty normal. By the time I finish high school, I will have taken approximately 13 or 14. </p>
<p>For my junior year (currently a sophomore) I plan to take 5 APs and one “fluff” class to balance that out - Teacher’s Assistant. Would that be considered not “rigorous” enough? I would be a Teacher’s Assistant for my current humanities teacher, who I love (see username :D), and I could probably get a good rec from her…</p>
<p>On a slight side note, if I decided to take a period off senior year (to boost my GPA and to sleep in late haha) would that be looked down upon by admissions?</p>
<p>Thanks for helping a clueless underclassman! :P</p>
<p>On the application, your guidance counselor is asked to check a box that describes how rigorous your schedule is. Guidance counselors interpret that question differently based on the high school. So you need to go ask your guidance counselor whether s/he will check the “most rigorous” box based on your schedule.</p>
<p>It seems that if you are asking about "most rigorous,"and in the same question asking about taking time off, you are being contradictory. You are probably able to answer your own question if you step back a bit and re-read what you’ve written. Brown and other schools are interested to see if you are able to get absolutely everything out of the options you are given. Sleeping late is probably not on their short list.</p>
<p>It seems like it would be. If it’s not, then you’ll still have a good schedule. The admissions officers don’t care so much about that check box as they do the actual classes.</p>
<p>The checkbox is there for a reason, crimsonbear. Yes admissions studies your transcript. But they also review it in light of the high school you attend. To gain that perspective they look at what the guidance counselor says and the high school profile.</p>
<p>I agree that it’s judged within the context of one’s school. I don’t know anyone at my high school who took what would have been anything near the hardest possible courseload one could, because that would simply have been undoable. Based on college results, the schools understood that we weren’t all slacking off because we didn’t take all of the APs or post-AP courses possible or because we didn’t take the maximum number of courses allowed each term. So it really depends on what other students at your school do. Not to say that taking the maximum number of courses and a harder schedule while doing well wouldn’t help…</p>
<p>A lot of people who apply to Brown have full, rigorous schedules. And that’s good, but it doesn’t necessarily make you stand out on paper. Other activities that you participate in, or other non-school passions you pursue, will impress the admissions committee just as much. So don’t slack off, obviously, but don’t go crazy here. For the record I took four classes senior year (no math or science, ha) and I’m a senior at Brown now.</p>
<p>franglish: Yeah, sorry, I can see I was unclear.</p>
<p>What I meant was that even if my counselor checks off the “most rigorous” box, will Brown still care that I didn’t take a full load of AP classes when I could have? Or that I took an “unrigorous” (teacher’s assistant) class junior year and a period off senior year?</p>
<p>And in the context of my school, I expect that about 7-8 (out of 700) will take full loads of AP classes junior and senior year.</p>
<p>I would say yes, because “most rigorous” is pretty subjective. Your GC’s opinion could be based on any number of things. It’s a place where they will start. Brown will see your transcript and your school’s profile, which will include all of the courses they offer. They will compare what you took to what was available.</p>