no AP or foreign languages offered...HELP

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I go to an extremely small school (200 students, 9-12) and there are no AP courses available to take. I've read alot about them, and it seems that you have to have them in order to get into a good college, so I'm a little scared. Our school also does not have a teacher that teaches a foreign language, so as a sophomore, I've never had a language class. However, next year I can take Spanish over ITV(broadcast from another school), or I could also take online courses from a local college. On most college forms, it says that two language credits are required, but our counselor has told me that the state "waives" our school, b/c it is a "special situation." I am sill worried.<br>
Here is my current class schedule:</p>

<p>Band
Alg 2
Principles of Tech.
Chemistry
Biology (required)
Eng. 2 (required)
World History (required)</p>

<p>I have the hardest possible schedule for a 10th grader at my school, but compared to other's I've seen on here, it seems terribly easy. If anyone has advice on how to handle my situation, I would love to hear it.</p>

2

<p>I would look into taking courses at a local community college next year and a lighter courseload at your HS if you want advanced classes. It seems weird to me that your school doesn't have APs. Why not? my school has offered APs since the first year it opened when there were only 160-170 students, grades 7-12. </p>

<p>But in your situation I would not worry TOO much, because colleges look to see if you have taken the most rigorous courseload AVAILABLE. It seems like you are already doing this. :)</p>

3

<p>if there are no APs offered at your school, then don't worry, colleges won't hold it against you</p>

<p>as the poster above me said, try looking for more challenges outside of school to make up for it...interships, projects, classes at a local community college, ITV classes, etc. for the foreign language, you can try looking for a local language school in your area and try taking classes there too. (my sister did this after exhausting all the the French classes at our school)</p>

<p>you don't have to overload yourself, but if colleges see that you took the initiative to challenge yourself and look for new opportunities, it will certainly be beneficial to you.</p>

4

<p>hey, that's the same as me....! My entire high school has only 250 students. We aren't doing that great either, only 5 APs are offered at my school. I have asked about this before on CC, and the response I have gotten back is that colleges evaluate your achievements on how well you played with the cards given to you, not how well of a hand you were dealt. To supplement my academic curriculum, I study AP's on my own. Also, you can distinguish yourself through contests such as AMC/AIME and through going to good summer programs. Take comfort in knowing that you are on American soil at least and you guys get a lot of state benefits (state competitions, academic bowl) that we don't even have!!</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Thanks..! :D I will look into the local community college..and I'm already registered to attend a summer program or two..Hearing from you guys made me feel better!</p>

6

<p>most colleges want to see 4 consecutive years of one foreign language, but if it isnt offered i'm sure theyll understand somewhat, though they would probably want to see you pursuing it outside of the classroom.
how have other students in your school dealt with this? how many have gone on to top 25 schools? thats your key to the answer.</p>

7

<p>Your school offers Principles of Technology too? I thought my state was the only to do so, because my guidance counselor said that most, if not all, out-of-state colleges and universities don't recognise PT as a science credit. If you're going to in-state, PT is okay. If you're planning to go out of state, try to get a different science course.</p>

<p>Just curious, what state are you from?</p>

8

<p>I'm from Missouri. My counselor has never said anything about out-of-state schools not accepting PT as a credit, but then again she pretty much sucks as a counselor.</p>

9

<p>Hahaha, well, some guidance counselors aren't the best. </p>

<p>I remember going to my GC in December for a transcript release form and he was asking me questions about college and stuff, like what I've done. He told me that most of the seniors at my school don't even know what a FAFSA is, or when to start applying, or when to get application materials ready.</p>

10

<p>You may be able to take courses at a college and then study for and take the AP exams. Or, look into CLEP credit for classes that you you taught yourself (you probably will not be able to get CLEP credit if you took the equvalient at a college).</p>

<p>" Prior course work
Some colleges won't grant credit for a CLEP exam if you've already attempted a college-level course closely aligned with that exam. For example, if you successfully completed English 101 or a comparable course on another campus, you'll probably not be permitted to receive CLEP credit in that subject also. Some colleges won't permit you to earn CLEP credit for a course that you failed."
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Just make sure that if you want CLEP credit that you take a test for a class that you can get credit for at the school that you plan to do undergraduate study at. </p>

<p>"Exam Descriptions
CLEP examinations cover material taught in courses that most students take as requirements in the first two years of college. A college usually grants the same amount of credit to students earning satisfactory scores on the CLEP examination as it grants to students successfully completing that course.</p>

<p>Many examinations are designed to correspond to one-semester courses; some, however correspond to full-year or two-year courses. Unless stated otherwise in its description, an examination is intended to cover material in a one-semester course.</p>

<p>Each exam is 90 minutes long, and, except for English Composition with Essay, is made up primarily of multiple-choice questions; however, some exams do have fill-ins.</p>

<p>Each description now includes specific information on knowledge and skills required and study resources. </p>

<p>Composition and Literature</p>

<p>American Literature
Analyzing and Interpreting Literature
English Composition
English Literature
Freshman College Composition
Humanities </p>

<p>Foreign Languages</p>

<p>French Language (Levels 1 and 2)
German Language (Levels 1 and 2)
Spanish Language (Levels 1 and 2) </p>

<p>History and Social Sciences</p>

<p>American Government
Human Growth and Development
Introduction to Educational Psychology
Principles of Macroeconomics
Principles of Microeconomics
Introductory Psychology
Introductory Sociology </p>

<p>Social Sciences and History </p>

<p>U.S. History I: Early Colonizations to 1877
U.S. History II: 1865 to the Present
Western Civilization I: Ancient Near East to 1648
Western Civilization II: 1648 to the Present </p>

<p>Science and Mathematics</p>

<p>Calculus
College Algebra
College Algebra-Trigonometry
Trigonometry
College Mathematics
Biology
Chemistry
Natural Sciences</p>

<p>Business</p>

<p>Information Systems and Computer Applications
Principles of Management
Principles of Accounting
Introductory Business Law
Principles of Marketing</p>

11

<p>You would be very impressive to colleges if you could take language classes at your local community college and achieve a intermediate-high to advanced-low rating on the ACTFL scale.</p>

12

<p>The CLEP classes do sounds interesting, esp. since there is so many available. I will definately look into it. But, I've talked to my parents a little bit and I think the foreign language thing is my biggest problem, so I'm going to try to take a class this summer or first semister next year.</p>