Hi,. Will me dropping AP English lit in favor of P English stop me from being a finalist? I have a confirming SAT score of 1470 and good grades (3.9 UW, 4.771 W). Just worried that dropping the class in favor of an easier one will mess me up but it is taking up so much of my time and the teacher assigns so much work. It is difficult because I work a nearly full-time job outside of school and just don’t have the time to do it.
I guess what I am really asking is:
Do the students who can’t achieve confirming SAT scores along with those who do not fill out the application account for all or nearly all (98+%) of semifinalists who do not become finalists?
It probably wouldn’t - so long as your GPA stays high, and there are no Fs or Ds or academic misconduct. First, they only know the classes that you will have on your transcript that you submit with your application to advance to be a Finalist. Second, the Foundation writes that you should have “very high academic performance in all of grades 9 through 12 and in any college course work taken”. Your GPA demonstrates that, with or without an AP which they likely will not know about.
So long as you have a great GPA, with honors and AP classes, and more importantly, if your principle writes that your academic performance is very high, that class will make no difference.
Since only 5% of the semifinalists do not advance, it is unlikely that every student who had to replace an AP class with a non-AP class would not be advanced. So it is most likely students who did not apply, student who do not have a qualifying score, as well as students who have Fs on their transcripts, academic dishonesty, or their principle refuses to recommend them for some other reason.
Just top make sure, speak to your counselor, but I would guess that it would be OK.