online ap courses...

<p>are they looked down upon in admissions? what if i were to take one that is offered at my school will they look down on that? what if its not on my official transcript for my high school and i send in a separate transcript. will they care?</p>

<p>bump 10char</p>

<p>Try to find an online course that your high school recognizes and would include on their transcripts. If you do that, taking the course certainly won’t be a waste of time. Submitting supplemental transcripts has a spotty record and often doesn’t seem to help much. Another possibility is “self studying” for an AP test. If you can self study for a test and get a 5 on the test, that’s impressive to most adcoms.</p>

<p>I don’t think it matters online or not. Online is much more flexible, but asking questions is harder because the teacher is not there. Plus, an A on a transcript is a plus no matter what, so take as many online classes as your brain would allow. I find that the lectures are really tedious and they can often be skipped anyway.</p>

<p>Is getting a 3 or a 4 on a self studied AP any good -__-‘’. I’m talking about the easier ones such as Micro/Macro/Env Sci.</p>

<p>My high school is ■■■■■■■■ and has this ridiculous policy where they can only accept four classes from outside institutions, one class per subject, with the exception of foreign languages. Basically, here’s what I can do: </p>

<p>-Transfer pre-cal from a UC (I’m taking it over the summer so I can take AP cal next year)
-Transfer AP World History from KAPLAN virtual education (taking now, will ace it easily)
-Transfer AP Physics B from Keystone online school (will take over the summer, but it wont say that on the transcript)
-Transfer Spanish III from Keystone online (so I can take Spanish IV next year)</p>

<p>So after doing all that, I will submit the following transcripts: </p>

<p>Kaplan:
-AP Bio
-AP US Gov and Politics
-AP World History</p>

<p>Keystone:
-AP Physics B
-AP Chem
-AP Statistics
-AP Microeconomics
-AP Macroeconomics
-AP Psych</p>

<p>If I send in these transcripts, with an explanation of why they arn’t on the official transcript (stupid ass school policy), how will it look? By putting one course from each institution on my official transcript I can show that the school approves of the institution and that they would have put it on the official transcript if it wasn’t for that stupid school policy. How does that sound?</p>

<p>Getting a 4 on a self study AP is good (3 not so much) but it’s not really going to turn heads.</p>

<p>Urmom, my guess is that if you submit those supplemental transcripts, it will adequately protect you from being weeded out as not having taken a difficult enough course load. But it’s also unlikely that it will score you any points for having taken a particularly challenging course load. The net effect will probably be that it will keep you safely in contention from an academic standpoint (assuming good grades and test scores) long enough for someone to hopefully be wowed by some non-academic part of your application.</p>

<p>What if I told you that my top choice is Whitman? </p>

<p>Also, I’m taking five AP exams. If I ace them all and get AP Scholar w/Distinction, will that help me?</p>

<p>Would UC courses really be better than online APs? I can’t tell if it would be or not.</p>

<p>There’s still a lot of skepticism about online APs in many admissions departments. I’m not familiar enough with Whitman’s department to tell you how they in particular feel. You can always call/e-mail them in ask. I’d wait until the end of the school year, though, when things have died down if you want to get the best answer possible.</p>

<p>What is your class rank/GPA and testing scores like? I can’t tell you much without at least that information. But as for your course selection, I see nothing about it that would preclude your admission to Whitman. Whitman loves creative applicants with quirks, though, I know that… so I’d spend just as much time worrying about the nonacademic aspect of your application as your course selection. Whitman’s not going to be quite as anal as the Ivies.</p>

<p>Rank’s about top 12%</p>

<p>GPA is 3.93 or 3.94</p>

<p>Test scores are up and coming, but I plan to get a 33 ACT minimum and 750+ on US hist, World Hist and Bio SAT IIs. I hate the SAT reasoning (my schools curriculum is much more ACT based so I find the ACT to be easier for me). </p>

<p>Oh, and I should mention that my school does the following:</p>

<p>AP Courses: 3 for Juniors, 6 for seniors (including AP Studio Art). </p>

<p>Juniors: APUSH (took, aced), AP Eng Lang (taking next year as a senior), AP Chem (not offered next year- AP Bio and AP Chem switch and I wasn’t able to meet the prereqs for either). </p>

<p>Seniors: AP Eng Lit (taking next year), AP Calc (taking next year), AP Euro (taking next year), AP Spanish (only five people are taking it next year, its a weird system at my school and extremely competitive to get into), AP Studio Art (not taking I hate studio art), and AP Bio (taking online because I couldn’t meet the prereqs (teacher is extremely anal and she doesn’t even believe in evolution so I would prefer to not have my first college level bio class to be a joke thanks))</p>

<p>There are 6 honors, all are for sophs/froshs: I have taken 2/6 (eng 9, eng 10, hist 9, hist 10, geometry (I took, aced), hon alg II (taking now cuz of scheduling conflicts, am acing)</p>

<p>Not a single student at my school will have taken every single AP/honors course availiable. So if I take all these extra APs will they take it into context compared to my peers that I outshined them? Also, I go to a private christian high school and the regular courses are harder than the honors courses at the local public school. Will colleges take that into account as well?</p>

<p>Most colleges will take into account a private school’s more-rigorous-than-normal courses if that information is documented in your school’s profile. Adcoms will also give some consideration to the fact that you outshined peers, but this is mostly relevant when deciding if they are going to admit you or someone else from your school. </p>

<p>If your school reports class rank, it’d be great if you could get yourself into the top 10%… but if you’re at an exclusive enough school to have special treatment in the Blue Book, then 12% could be just fine.</p>

<p>Based on the information you’ve provided (and the speculated test scores), I’d say you are a highly competitive candidate for Whitman. Just make sure you don’t neglect those ECs! If you do what every other unhooked prep school applicant does, that’s not going to help you much.</p>

<p>DONT worry about ECs. I am a professional actor, black belt, and starter of three clubs. They all bind well and have a story behind them, etc. But I have no hook (if by hook you mean athlete recruit, URM, etc.). I am first in my generation to go to college, but that doesn’t mean much seeing as I’m white and upper-middle class income.</p>

<p>Sounds like you have everything under control. Keep up the good work and make sure you don’t get cocky with preparations for your tests. :)</p>