No AP's= No Chance?

<p>I've been looking at various colleges' Common Data Sets and they all rank "Course Rigor" as very important. Also, on all of their websites they state that they look for applicants that have pursued a challenging curriculum. Is it a huge disadvantage not to have AP's?</p>

<p>If AP courses are the most rigorous courses available to you, then it would be a disadvantage to have chosen less rigorous courses in the same subjects instead of the AP courses.</p>

<p>If the most rigorous courses available to you in your school are something other than AP courses, then choosing something other than those courses within the same subjects would be disadvantageous.</p>

<p>Obviously, for leveled subjects like math and foreign language, AP courses would only be available at the higher levels of the sequence (e.g. calculus in math, level 4 or 5 in foreign language), so not having the AP courses at the lower levels is not a problem.</p>

<p>Does your school offer APs? Most colleges will look at how many APs are offered, and how many you personally have taken. If there are not a lot of high level classes offered, then it shouldn’t hurt you too much. What schools are you going to apply to?</p>

<p>@brennz Well my school does offer about 10 but since I transferred in late I couldn’t take full advantage of them, but I’m not sure if colleges will take that into consideration since the school report will still show how many my school offers. I’m applying to UCs and LACs like Grinnell, Oberlin, Swarthmore, St Olaf, etc.</p>

<p>Have your GC explain you weren’t able to schedule a full AP load due to transferring in. Did you take advantage of some of the APs?</p>

<p>@"Erin’s Dad"‌ I took English last year(junior) since that was the only one with space available. I’m taking five this year but I don’t think it will help much since the UCs won’t see my grades for them and LACs will only see first semester grades without actual AP scores.</p>

<p>

The actual AP scores will carry little to no weight in the admissions process for most colleges. The fact that you are taking 5 this year should be noted by your GC in terms of course rigor. As mentioned upthread, your GC should also mention the fact that you had limited options in previous years due to transferring in. </p>

<p>Honestly, I would not spend time worrying about this; you will have taken 6/10 available. That’s pretty good.</p>

<p>You’ve taken 6 of the 10 offered to you, that’s really good, especially considering the circumstances. Don’t worry about it! You’re totally fine.</p>