<p>I am just wondering if the lack of preparation I had in high school without taking any AP classes (my school doesn't offer any) would hurt me in college. Overall, I would say that my high school is very easy and I have taken almost all of the classes that are supposed to be the most difficult. I go to a rather small school in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest that has never sent a kid to an Ivy League so they just decided to prepare kids for state schools and not really worry about kids that want to go to top tier schools. I was taking four college classes last semester and my lowest grade on any given assignment was a 95%, this includes every meaningless home work grade as well as all of the semester exams. I am genuinely worried that I would be in over my head next year with the college work load. I plan on being a political science major and/or a history major.</p>
<p>P.S. I am definitely not a genius, but I just have not been challenged in any of my classes for four years.</p>
<p>I’d say you appear to be one of the kinds of “diamonds in the rough” that Yale actively courts. I think your application would be noticed for sure. However, that’s not saying anything about your relative chances of getting admitted – I’m just saying that kids like you potentially are the “aha” kind of applications that Yale likes to read.</p>
<p>If your school doesn’t offer any AP classes and says so on the school report, you will be okay. The fact that you went above and beyond to challenge yourself academically by taking college classes looks GREAT, especially since you did so well in them. If I were an admissions officer, I would pick your application out immediately, since you show both determination and academic excellence in your transcript. I’d say you’d be a very competitive applicant at Yale.</p>
<p>I am a Midwesterner so I am an ACT type of guy. I am ranked #1 of 135 with a 4.0 UW GPA (my school doesn’t weight any grades) and a 34 ACT.</p>
<p>My one real extracurricular is golf. I have at least four school records. I am the 4 time MVP and different awards with golf, unfortunately none of them are national awards.</p>
<p>Some other EC’s but nothing like the involvement or time that I gave to golf.</p>
<p>are you asking if you’ll be over you head at a top tier college or if you’ll be disadvantaged in the admissions process?</p>
<p>I thought you were asking the former, and the latter has been adequately answered already so…</p>
<p>It honestly depends…(not a cut and dried answer, sorry) how are your study skills (study, not cram)? How are your analysis/sythesis skills? How prepared are you mentally for that moment that something doesn’t come easily (can you take the 65 after never getting lower than a 95?)? How will you deal with not being the number one student in any given situation? How will you react to being surrounded by students who are all your caliber? Are you willing to devote hours to a single subject each day if need be? How will you react to being so far away from everything that you grew up with that flying is the only mode of transporatation? There are more, but that’s all I came up with for now.</p>
<p>Hoenstly, you can answer these questions better than I can, they’re just some things I’m throwing out for you to think about based on my own experience and that of other people I know. The big fish small pond vs small fish big pond thing is a personal decision. Definitely visit and then decide; Yale has a wealth of resources for you to enjoy, but you can’t do that if you break down…(I’m throwing ot worst case scenarios here and I hope they aren’t scary, but please do consider them.).</p>
<p>I feel you and I are in really similar positions. I’m from a no-name school in the Midwest that also just filters to state schools. </p>
<p>We aren’t offered AP classes, but we can take dual-credit courses through a local community college. It’s still not really that great, but I’ve managed to take as many as possible (including one over the summer) in order to show that I wasn’t going to let my situation get in the way of me trying to rise above.</p>
<p>When I had my interview, I was told that as long as you show that you have taken full advantage of whatever situation that you are in they do not automatically count you out. In fact, if you really rise above it may help you stand out from the other Yale applicants who come from prep schools.</p>
<p>Sorry if this isn’t much help, just sharing what I’ve learned from being in a similar situation.</p>
<p>Yale will judge your transcript in the context of what your high school curriculum provides.</p>
<p>However it cannot but help to take the initiative to expand your opportunities if at all possible. Community college courses are a possibility (Yale won’t grant you credit for them if they are taken in fulfillment of HS graduation requirements but they still show you are trying to challenge yourself). Another alternative is on-line AP courses such as from Northwestern or Stanford:</p>
<p>You have the test scores to qualify for these programs. If you are interested in academic challenge, and it sounds as if you you could benefit from more, you might investigate these further. You might even get your HS to agree to accept this coursework as a substitute for classroom credits.</p>
<p>A word of advice, however: approach your high school about this possibility respectfully and diplomatically. I don’t know the situation in your school system but sometimes attempts to transcend the system can be met with reluctance or even hostility if it is unconventional or perceived as some kind of implicit criticism.</p>