Need some advice from Parents: not taking AP English 12, Effect on Admissions?

<p>My S has two friends (male) who had scores/stats much lower than the OP's and did not take AP Eng. as seniors either. Both got into UNC-CH. They are in-state though.</p>

<p>My daughters discovered that many top schools will give AP credit for one or the other but not both AP English exams. (If they give credit for English at all). As others have said, the important thing is that your counselor will check off the "Most Rigorous Schedule" box. Perhaps if you print out the web pages that list AP credit given at the schools you hope to attend, he will be more understanding.</p>

<p>Black or
African American
Critical
Reading Math Writing
Score</p>

<p>800 99+ 99+ 99+
750 99+ 99+ 99+
700 99 99 99
650 98 98 98
600 94 94 95
550 87 88 89
500 75 76 78
450 57 59 60
400 35 37 38
350 17 19 18
300 7 8 6
250 2 3 2</p>

<hr>

<p>mean434 429 428
SD 98 100 93
number 150,643 150,643 143,305</p>

<p>Definitely agree with corranged. My sons took Honors English instead of AP, but picked up another AP instead -- one that they had much more interest in. GC checked off "most rigorous" or "most demanding" courseload - I forget the terminology.</p>

<p>Both were accepted ED to Duke.</p>

<p>As AA male with high scores and 11 APs, you have nothing to worry about.</p>

<p>mini hit the nail on the head. While nobody is guaranteed admission to the most selective colleges, your "resume" will place you at or near the top of any admissions list, with or without APEnglish.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>The comments here arte very reassuring, thank for helping this college hopeful out! I actually called Harvard and told them about my dilemma, and I was told that if I already am taking so many AP's the lack of AP English won't make much of a difference. If that's the true with all admissions officers, then the future looks bright!</p>

<p>The courses are AP Language and Composition, and AP Literature and Composition. Schedule conflicts happen. I suspect the UNC person was giving the standard response meant to encourage students from thinking of doing the minimum to get in - don't worry.</p>

<p>The counselor knew your schedule and what you had taken and plan to take. So I think the fact the he is just plain ignorant is the more likely hypothesis.</p>

<p>We recently sat (summer) through info sessions where the admiss officers specifically stated that they would prefer to see you take APs in the core subjects over honors if they are offered. This may be because they do have some kind of weighting they use or because they have to pick between kids based on "something". My son had not chosen AP English for his senior schedule as the teacher has a reputation for being insanely demanding, mean, and boring. I did not agree with his choice but figured - senior year - his choice. However, after hearing the admissions officers comments he changed his scheduled. He spent a brief period of time in the AP English class and came home miserable about the class. We told him to switch back to honors. The woman had assigned two 15 page papers due in a week, etc. She is a nightmare and adcoms don't know this piece either. My son is extremely happy with his honors class and picked up another AP in the math/science area. I suspect some adcoms do hold it against you but I could not see my son putting 80% of his time into this class (as often seems to happen with English) over his main interests and being miserable all senior year too. I met the honors English teacher the other night - what a breath of fresh air. He is excited about her class. He is already writing papers and can't wait to have class discussion about the book they are reading. Adcoms don't know this internal piece either - some teachers are not worth the class. I wish I could get the GC to write a little comment - this student made a good choice to not take AP English at our high school (smile). </p>

<p>That reminds me. The new AP calculus teacher could not do the problem set in the text this week. My son and another student in the class showed him how to do these problems. We are still in the first month. WHOA! </p>

<p>To the OP, however, you should not worry about these comments. You have many more APs than my son and you are looking stellar to me. Good luck!</p>

<p>Don't worry about it. No one will care.</p>

<p>If worry were money the youth on CC would all be wealthy...</p>