not rigorous enough?

<p>Hi. Would not having "most rigorous" on your academic record severely hinder your possibility of getting into top colleges (example: Cornell, my #1 choice)? My school offers IB, and apparently, not taking the IB program, regardless of how many APs you take, keeps me from getting the "most rigorous" classification.</p>

<p>Also, I'll be taking 9 AP courses. Would this be enough for colleges to overlook the fact that I didn't take IB and didn't take the most rigorous courseload available?</p>

<p>I would hope so.</p>

<p>talk to your counselor. if you feel your courseload is rigorous as it is, then tell him/her. that bubble is actually very important, and it would suck to have an uninformed counselor make the decision without any of your input.</p>

<p>I read in "A is for Admission" that if an admissions officer sees that you are taking an extremely rigorous courseload and yet your counselor doesn't check off "most rigorous", the adcom will often change it.</p>

<p>Thanks alot for the replies. More suggestions would be greatly appreciated. What is after "most rigorous"? Is it just "rigorous"? Is taking 9 APs considered alot, or is it just average?</p>

<p>bump 10 char?</p>

<p>I think talking about it with the admissions people would be fine, but it shouldn't be a big deal. 9 APs seems like plenty to me, and I'm sure admissions people can look and recognize that. not a lot of schools have IB and AP both, at least that I've read about.</p>

<p>If I remember correctly, the Cornell common application supplement only lets you report a limited number, maybe 4? I had 6 AP scores at the time I applied and I remember having to leave some off. all of them were sent on my HS transcript anyway though. they also strangely asked you what date you took the exams, and I had to whip out my old student packs to find that info.</p>

<p>lol are you sure they didnt just want the month and year?</p>

<p>anyways, just talk to your counselor. cant hurt at all.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. Well, I talked to the guidance counselor, and she told me that there is no way that a student can get 'most rigorous' without taking IB (which means that my school consideres IB w/ 7 APs to be more rigorous than taking 9~14+ APs). Or did you mean the adcoms?</p>

<p>9 APs is a considerable amount. I wouldn't worry too much.</p>

<p>what a b!tch</p>

<p>hopefully the adcoms pull through for you. 9 APs is a hella lot.</p>

<p>Yeah, hopefully everything works out. Sorry that counselor isn't going to pull through. Do you only have 1 counselor at your HS? Because maybe you can check in with another.</p>

<p>Kinda had a similar situation, except one counselor's my track coach, one was my mom's HS counselor (At a different school, kinda stalkerish! jk) and the other (who alphabetically IS my actual counselor) I don't go to. (Even though she still likes me alot.) So they just kinda "wholistically" approached mine.</p>

<p>I'd also add that colleges are cognizant of the questionable ability of GCs to a) know what the heck is going on, and more commonly, b) write much of a personalized rec. This, at worst, will cause schools to question your GC, and just put more weight on your transcript and teacher recs.</p>

<p>yea but when it comes down to crunch time and adcoms are swamped with applications, they might just take the counselor's word for it.</p>