<p>For the record, I have no idea which boxes were checked for my kids. It didn’t seem to matter. </p>
<p>D1 was a stellar student and got into the most selective schools. She did not take an AP History simultaneously with AP Bio and therefore did not theoretically have the most rigorous load. We never asked which box was checked, it wasn’t going to change her decision to take honors history. Many of her brainy friends had more of the vicious cycle and their admissions results to the most selective schools were initially disappointing - though they are all happy now anyway in the fine schools they ended up at.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt it will make much difference which box is checked. The college can see what your daughter took. They also have the high school profile. They can make their own conclusions! A box checked by a GC won’t make or break an applicant. For the tippy top schools, the admits have soooo much to offer. I can’t imagine a checked box being a deal breaker.</p>
<p>Many students at my HS got into top 25 schools without taking all the AP’s offered. They took what they enjoyed.</p>
It’s isn’t x number of AP’s. The problem is that it’s totally up to the discretion of the counselor. I never asked what box was checked. I figured that if 7-9 APs wasn’t rigorous enough for the colleges there was something wrong with them. There may have been a handful of kids who took more APs than my kids did, but my impression was that they were in the top group.</p>
<p>You can’t really tell from our high school profile how many APs an average top kid takes. They offer 22 APs. (No way anyone could take them all and they offer four or five languages.) They only list how many got the various awards, and how many students total have taken each AP.</p>
<p>At our school nearly any kid on the AP track takes AP Bio and APUSH simultaneously junior year. A handful of the more engineering type kids might take AP Chem for their first science AP, but it’s not the norm.</p>
<p>Mrspepper - You’re off the ledge now, right?</p>
<p>It sounds like you have a great kid! Try not to over-think things too much. It’s possible that a check box will make a difference to a few schools., but more likely the admissions folks will look at the full application and be impressed.</p>
<p>I agree with limabeans that "I seriously doubt it will make much difference which box is checked. The college can see what your daughter took. They also have the high school profile. They can make their own conclusions! "</p>
<p>This same issue drove me crazy some years back. One of my kids took about 10 APs throughout her high school years and had at least 4 senior years. (This kid took Calculus, AP Chem, AP foreign language-- plenty of hard classes.) The guidance counselor said a student would have to have SEVEN APs (in a 7 period day) senior year to get “most difficult”! Ugh! Who takes 7 AP classes at once? No one of course… but kids <em>do</em> take full IB and those kids automatically got the “most difficult” checkmark. (Note that full IB at our school meant only 3 HL IB classes and the rest were SL which are actually easier than AP.) The school was using it as a ploy to push IB. Anyway, kid got “very difficult” but I don’t think it made a difference. Fwiw, kid applied to very top lacs and got a bunch of acceptances but had no interest in any ivy/ Stanford/ CalTech/MIT so I can’t speak to those schools.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school actually… dd14 was a soph last year and I had to push for her to take an AP class. Her freshman year was an absolute joke and she aced all A’s, all 4 marking periods that year. But when it came time to pick her soph year classes, the GC wouldn’t OK an AP class. I had to go to the principal and after a 2 hour meeting, he allowed it. His parting words to me were “When she is flunking next year, I will not let her drop it, she will have to flunk”.</p>
<p>AP’s are not something they would normally allow at her school for 10th grade. She did very well and scored a 5 on the exam in May. Its funny b/c a classmate learned of her taking an AP class and he jumped in after she did… and they gave him absolutely NO problems(his dad is a Yale prof)</p>
<p>I say all that to say, she was applying to a summer program, and they asked for a LOR from the GC. She had to check one of those boxes. And she checked “most demanding”.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, were those 8 classes or 8 exams? The requirement at my kids’ school was 7 classes; just taking the exams wasn’t enough-- and the school only had 7 periods so the student could take no classes other than APs. (The interesting thing to me was that the guidance counselor only mentioned senior year. I didn’t ask at the time but later wondered if a kid who hadn’t taken any APs until senior year would get “most rigorous” with 7 APs that year even though my kid had more APs-- about 10-- but they were spread out over more than 1 year.)</p>
<p>@2collegewego
My daughter takes full IB. At out HS Full IB is automatically “most rigorous” also but I think that is fair. My DD does more work in IB (internal and external assessments, etc) then I did in college.</p>
<p>"I know my kids’ GC took the position “no Calculus AP, no most demanding”.
-Important thing to remember, GC is NOT in charge of your kid application process and curriculum choices. Does not “Councelor” means “advisor” more or less. Your kid is in charge of everything, not even you, but you definitely have much more input into any of these than GC.</p>
<p>It was 8 exams, 4 of which were self-taught subjects. Trying to schedule 7 AP classes could often be a bigger issue than taking them – and being unable to do so is a ridiculous reason to be denied the “most demanding” checkbox. My son was unable to line up more than 5 AP classes his last year, despite the best efforts of his GC.</p>
<p>People in college admissions DO look at the transcripts and it would be unlikely for them to see 10 AP classes and not consider that “most rigorous,” regardless of what the counselor checked. Mistakes happen and sometimes counselors don’t do what’s in the best interest of their students – yet these students sometimes still get accepted: Everyone who works for a living understands the occasional stupidity of office politics.</p>
<p>I’m still on the ledge. Teacher will not get back to me. I want to find out why she discouraged my student from the CAPP, find out if she knows that it might affect how college advisor/GC determines rigor, find out anything. I have another issue in another class, with same level of concern and principal is not getting back to me. Teacher in that class couldn’t see me for a week! I really don’t know where to go from here. Seriously, I have not had to call the school about anything for 2 years. Now it seems like there is something everyday. I don’t expect to be at the top of their list but it is a very, very small school.</p>
<p>I asked this same question of our GC back in the Spring, when trying to help D2 figure out what math class to take. Our GC said she couldn’t check “most rigorous” unless D had taken the highest level of a class every year. Regular level classes were fine if there was no honors or AP/IB equivalent (so phys ed & her fine arts theater class were fine) honors level classes were fine if there was no AP/IB. Even though she was already scheduled to take 5 AP classes senior year, GC couldn’t check “most rigorous” if D took honors Calc, because there was an AP calculus class available. But AP stat was fine as well. The super duper math/science genius kids who decided NOT to take AP English senior year because they didn’t want the reading load: no “most rigorous” for them either.</p>
There may have been a handful of kids who took more APs than my kids did, but my impression was that they were in the top group.</p>