<p>Hi I honestly think I've taken a VERY HARD courseload and maybe the hardest out of most applicants. I mean hard relative to my classmates at my school which is quite competitve. Our school only lets us take max 6 classes... i took 6 ap's junior year and 6 ap's senior year and i'll take 10 college courses extra throughout high school (22 total college courses). My gpa is mediocre 3.66 uw and 4.22 weighted ( rank = 15/570.)</p>
<p>my rigor rank is 1/570 : )</p>
<p>ok my question is how important is rigor? I think that might be the highlight of my app.Do colleges really like rigor and can it be looked upon greater than gpa? </p>
<p>EX: A in regular course vs. B in AP course.</p>
<p>well, people say that A in regular is same as B in ap, but i've actually spoken to an admissions counselor and he told me that colleges would much rather see students be willing to challenge themselves by taking harder courses, even if it means possibly getting a lower grade, rather than try to get a perfect gpa with only college prep classes. schools also see the aps that are offered at your school, and they want you to take advantage of that by taking as many as you can handle. also, if you get all A's in college prep, it's kinda fishy because it pretty much shows that you're just plain lazy.</p>
<p>so yeah, rigor does matter, especially if you are planning on applying to competitive schools (ie. top 25)</p>
<p>i'm kind of in the same boat. i'm taking 4 aps this year, 5 next year, and before that pretty much all my classes were honors, so i guess it's a good thing that rigor matters :]</p>
<p>Well see I'm kind of a rigor whore... i argued with my counselor for me to take 6 ap's instead of 5 because i didn't want a single regular course in my schedule.</p>
<p>It goes something like this..</p>
<p>Junior year:
AP Psych
AP English
AP U.S History
AP Human geo
AP stat
AP Calc</p>
<p>Summer between junior and senior year:( all college courses)
College english 1A
College sociology
College physics
College Music humanities
College microeconomics
College Poli Sci</p>
<p>Grad school courses:
-Business Law
-Criminal Law</p>
<p>Senior year:
AP Chem
AP Bio
AP Art history
AP Environ Sci 1
AP Environ Sci 2
AP MacroEcon/Civics</p>
<p>I hope my obsession with rigor pays off : / all this work for nothing would be utterly shameless!</p>
<p>I haven't received a single C in these courses so thats the good thing.. I just hope all this rigor pays off.</p>
<p>I think your rigor will definitely pay off. First of all taking 6 ap courses is already very challenging and impressive, and if your getting b's or higher in all your classes, colleges will definitely like that. Also with all those summer courses you will definitely get a bigger advantage so if i were you i wouldnt be worried, id be very confident and proud.</p>
<p>hey, if my unweighted gpa right now is a 3.72 unweighted and 4.51 weighted, what would that say to you?</p>
<p>if i wanted to apply to stanford and my gpa including first quarter would be a 3.77 unweighted and 4.69 weighted, would that look good, at a university where the average accepted -unweighted- gpa is a 3.9+?</p>
<p>i've taken the most rigorous courseload offered all three years so far (this year, junior year, ALL honors/AP courses - 4 APs and 3 honors, although one of them is AP level), and next year i'm gonna take on another 5. when senior year begins i would've completed 6 APs, and by graduation will have finished 11 AP courses.</p>
<p>my school doesn't rank though...and i'm not sure where i stand compared to others :/</p>
<p>Well see I'm kind of a rigor whore... i argued with my counselor for me to take 6 ap's instead of 5 because i didn't want a single regular course in my schedule.</p>
<p>It goes something like this..</p>
<p>Junior year:
AP Psych
AP English
AP U.S History
AP Human geo
AP stat
AP Calc</p>
<p>Summer between junior and senior year all college courses)
College english 1A
College sociology
College physics
College Music humanities
College microeconomics
College Poli Sci</p>
<p>Grad school courses:
-Business Law
-Criminal Law</p>
<p>Senior year:
AP Chem
AP Bio
AP Art history
AP Environ Sci 1
AP Environ Sci 2
AP MacroEcon/Civics</p>
<p>I hope my obsession with rigor pays off : / all this work for nothing would be utterly shameless!</p>
<p>I haven't received a single C in these courses so thats the good thing.. I just hope all this rigor pays off.
[/quote]
do know that having a strong rigor will not make your acceptance... Other personal factors (essay, recs, activities) will</p>
<p>And I'd rather take as many APs as possible STILL getting As in all of them... All Bs in all AP classes suggests you aren't up to that level...</p>
<p>Had to put in my 2 cents worth here. We had always heard that the rigor of the classes is very very important. blah blah blah. D was coasting in her local high school anddecided to spend her Junior & Senior years in a very rigorous program - a Science and Math school where the classes are all college level. She went from being a straight A student in her local high school (taking their most rigorous classes - APs etc) to - well lets say not a straight A student. Pros - she is much better prepared for college than she would have been. Cons - She is burned out and worse - her grades have killed her when it comes to scholarship chances because every GPA based scholarhip she has tried for they only care about unweighted GPAs. Her hard work, 2 years of sleepless nights and stress, good ACT scores, tons of community service - all count for a lot less than the As she would have kept by staying in the rigorous program in her local high school. </p>
<p>Wish we had known then what we know now. Yes rigor is important. But As are also very important.</p>
<p>That is on the nose. When the counsellor at My Ds school was giving a talk to parents about what top colleges look for he pretty much said they weed out based on grades (i.e. get As) then start looking at everything else.</p>
<p>^ Which is probably why I died: 4 B+s in my high school career... that is mind you, out of I think ~35 credits... our school only requires something like ~24 (it's something like, somewhere in the 20s range).</p>
<p>Hey, as someone who is a senior and was in your situation pretty much last year I'll tell you what's up.</p>
<p>Ok, so I was full IB (6 IB classes/semester Jun/Senior year) and I've completed near on 25 community college classes. I did have a bit better UW GPA than you do, however -- 3.88 (and ranked 1st). </p>
<p>But what's good is that the schools you are applying to will (I think) respect the rigor -- UChicago in particular. For me, I was accepted at UChicago and Waitlisted at Columbia (denied HYP), so I think that shows that they respect the rigor. </p>
<p>However, to bring some realism to this argument, you have to realize that colleges not only want kids who take a rigorous courseload, but they want those who can succeed in the rigorous courseloads and can gauge how much work they can take without being overwhelmed. I think UChicago will definitely respect your rigor (and if your rigor is extremely overshadowing your other classmates, the admissions reps will recognize that), but it is getting increasingly competitive and your unweighted GPA is a bit of a sore spot.</p>
<p>I do think you have a plausible chance at UChicago if you show a desire to attend (which it seems like you do) and work your application to show your personality (I'd suggest doing the UnCommon app even though UChic is switching to Common App.. which will make it even that much more competitive next year).</p>
<p>I wish you good luck, and as someone who has pulled countless allnighters because he was taking 11 classes/semester for a few years, I congratulate you on making it through. I hope it all works out for you.</p>
<p>My older daughter graduated from a very competitive high school last year and took a very rigorous schedule, though she did get some B's in AP classes. When she was meeting with the Stanford admissions person they told her she would have had a better chance of getting in with A's in regular classes than B's in AP classes. She was also an athletic recruit and was not accepted they said due to the B's in the AP classes. It has made us really look at the classes that our two other children are taking to determine if the AP classes are worth it.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would also like to note that I believe one of the major weaknesses in my application were the B's I received. Even though there weren't that many, relatively (probably 10 Bs against 70 As on my transcripts.. 7 classes/semester at highschool along with college grades) and I busted my butt just to keep that number so low, they just have so many people with 4.0 UWs or only 1 or 2 Bs, that when they see an app like mine it's gotta be hard to pass it through.</p>
<p>Some schools only admit a certain percent of applicants from every high school. Then, your rigour against your classmates would matter.</p>
<p>However, it's rigour against other high schools that really matters. There are schools where your courseload would be literally impossible, since each AP course is so difficult. I'll take for example a school I am well-aquainted with- the school I went to in middle school, where my sister graduated from high school at. To match the rigour of my high school, a student at that school would literally have to take roughly 5 AP classes and 2 regular ones per year. And colleges know which schools are TOUGH!</p>
<p>So, the goal is not to be rigourous against your classmates, but against other schools.</p>
<p>We all know what the admission people say. "Get into the hardest courses possible, we want to see you challenge yourself, etc".
However, I believe at the end, it all goes down to your GPA. They will not choose an applicant that took 6 APs over those who took 4 or 5. Instead their eyes would stray toward that UW GPA line, and create an opinion of bias before they see the rest of your application.</p>
<p>yah good points ehre! thanks! but please note that your schools may be much easier than mine. I wish colleges would look at rank more than gpa. Our AP classes are somewhat harder I think than at other schools. Most of the AP classes at our school only give between 0-7 A's max in each class ( around 20-37 kids in each class). </p>
<p>My rank for 10-11 grades: 1/570</p>
<p>I mean it is physically impossible to take 25 community college courses at my school because they are so hard. They might be easier at other community colleges though.</p>
<p>I do hope rank is MORE important that unweighted or weighted gpa because these colleges have nothing to compare my gpa to. </p>
<p>And if there was a rigor rank I'd prolly be 1/570 too : )</p>
<p>And I don't udnerstand why B's are so bad...people here are acting like B's will destroy your self esteem and social morale... i'm confused.. even if i get 3 b's out of 6 i'll still have a 4.5 for the semester. : )</p>
<p>And I wanted to take 6 ap's to try and get a 5.0 gpa which is ultimately the highest gpa one can get in America.</p>
<p>I guess I just didn't want to be a "regular " student. that's why I didn't even take 1 regular course.</p>
<p>I guess I thought the whole point in succeeding is RIGOR. Life is all about RIGOR. When i play tennis or football, I don't train for an hour. i'd train for days and days. It's the same with academics. Why settle for normal courses? I believe the whole point in living a succesful life is RIGOR, whether you achieve your goals or not.</p>