Rigor

Applying to College
1

Hi, I’ve been reading a lot about rigor and how your counselor essentially rates your academic rigor. By the time I graduate HS, I will have taken 7-8 AP’s and a multitude of honors classes at my school (~9-10). However, I opted out of APWH my sophomore year, AP Lang this year (junior), and will opt out of AP Lit next next. This is merely for my sanity and health as I don’t really enjoy english/history (though classes like Apush/econ/gov are somewhat fascinating) and most likely would be sacrificing sleep to take these classes.

My question is: Since I chose to opt out of these few classes, will my GC not say that I have the “maximum” rigor?

Maybe this is a dumb question but I felt the need to ask it. I hope to go to a good STEM school.

*I would have ~11 ap’s if I took every possible one.

**I spend 1.5+ hours on EC’s every day.

2

Rigor is based on what is available at and typical for your high school. Only your GC can tell you what counts as ‘most rigorous’ for sure. Go talk to him/her about your concern.

3

^^^^Agreed. The only opinion that matters is that of your guidance counselor. Talk to him/her.

4

Rigor is important, but like everything in life, there are diminishing returns and there are trade-offs involved.

There is no real reason that anyone has to sign up for every available AP class.

5

So asking people on the internet that don’t know your counselor is preferable to asking your counselor, why?