Question about how counselors assess rigor

Parents Forum
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I understand that course rigor is going to be one of the larger factors AO’s consider but am unclear on how exactly they assess for course rigor. Would one have to have taken all the AP courses offered at a school to be considered high rigor? I know some schools cap the number taken but that has not been the case at my D22’s school and she will have taken 11 AP’s by the time she graduates, while her school offers 22. How does that number taken vs the number offered impact how her course rigor is determined. Thanks in advance!

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Rigor is specific to the individual school so reach out and talk to the school guidance counselor.

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AOs will look at the HS profile to see the average number of APs (or honors and high honors classes) typically taken by the students in their HS (often prior year data). The school profile will also show the number of available AP courses (or honors/high honors), when students can start taking AP classes, and how they are weighted.

At some schools the HS GC also reports in their part of the common app the level of rigor of the student’s curriculum (from most rigorous on down). Just as many HSs have stopped reporting class rank, some GCs do not check any curriculum rigor level box on the common app counselor form. Some GCs also address the level of rigor in their rec letter.

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Thank you! This is a public high school where the GC is under resourced and so I’m guessing the effort that goes into the letter/forms will be minimal.

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Probably. You could ask the GC how they handle this. Also, the school profile should be publicly available on the website.

Here is the school form the counselor fills out for common app, the curriculum check boxes are on the second page towards the bottom. Typically the counselor would attach the school profile as well (which means they may leave much of this form blank): Salesforce

Here is the counselor rec letter common app form:Salesforce

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My D22 attends a similar public high school. Although the school does not publish class rank on the transcript or anything, the GC will provide a student’s class rank if asked and the class rank takes into account weighted (AP) classes. So a high class rank (like top 5%) is a way of communicating relative rigor of schedule also — just in case that is a possibility for you.

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