<p>Yes, your son could be hurt by not taking AP classes junior year although his school offers them.</p>
<p>No, my sons’ schools didn’t make decisions like that. If a student had the kind of grades your son did in honors classes, the student would have been allowed to take AP classes in those subjects. </p>
<p>“For some reason, he was not selected to take history and english AP courses in the Junior year even though he got A+ in both classes (honors). Even though he got the highest score in biology, he was not permitted to take AP in that subject matter since his math grade was not great (not his forte).”</p>
<p>Doesn’t make sense to me that your son wasn’t allowed to take AP classes in subjects he got an A plus in when taking honors. If I were you, I’d be going to the GC office in person to get that decision changed. If you happen to be an Asian immigrant, I am wondering whether your son was discriminated against because the school incorrectly assumed that an immigrant’s child wouldn’t be able to do well in AP subjects related to verbal abilities. Meanwhile, there are plenty of immigrants and immigrants’ kids who are excelling in AP classes in English and history, including American history. </p>
<p>It’s normal for parents to talk to GCs in this kind of situation and even to appeal the decisions by going to the principal, so don’t be shy about advocating for your child. That’s the American way! It may be that your child wasn’t put into the AP class because undeserving students with lower grades got in due to having very pushy parents. </p>
<p>I wish that I had known to advocate that my son get put into a new higher level IB math class at his high school. My son had been easily getting A grades in the IB math classes, and he was in the highest level of math class that was offered. When a new even higher math class was offered, the teacher told him that only a few students were being offered that class and those students were some who had extraordinary math skills, even more than my son had.</p>
<p>I didn’t protest the decision because neither my husband nor I are extraordinarily good at math, and I knew the parents of the kids who got the highest level math class were math professors.</p>
<p>The next year, when my son again was sailing through another math with the same teacher, the teacher told my son that the teacher realized that my son was extraordinarily talented in math and had the ability to take the highest level math class. Then, though, was too late. My son didn’t have room in his senior schedule to take it. Since then, he has moved on to other interests so hasn’t bothered to take any math in college.</p>