Hey guys I’m a high school sophomore that is trying to get into a higher tier school (umich, rice, CMU) I self studied a few harder AP courses like chinese, stat and calc BC. Will this help me at all when I apply and should I mention it at all in my essays? Furthermore, next year I’m doing dual enrollment at a local college and I don’t know if that will help me either.
Where should I go from here?
Obviously, the tests will help if you passed (even more if you got a 4 or 5). There’s no need to mention them in your essays unless they pertain to your essay topic, you’ll have to report them on your application anyway. Also, DE helps any college applicant. That’s like asking “will taking more impressive classes help me get into college?”
The point of your essay is to show something about yourself which is not obvious from the basic facts that appear on your transcript and resume. If you are taking AP exams, they will be on your application.
Colleges like seeing that you took a course set which challanged you, so DE is good. You also need to do well on the courses. As for self studying for APs, it doesn’t help as much as doing well on the most challanging courses that your high school can provide. To get a 4 or 5 on most APs, you need to get scores which are below that needed for an A (sometimes substantially so). Moreover, colleges want to know how you do in classroom situations, not on one shot exams.
If you are thinking of going to a place like UMichigan, the AP tests do help you my reducing the number of courses you need to take. However, in most private colleges, the number of credits that you need to take in order to graduate is set, and having AP is only useful for avoiding intro courses.
PS. AP stats is not a difficult AP test or course, compared to AP Calc BC. The relative low average score is because it is the AP that is taken by many people who are weak at math. Most kids who do well on AP Calc BC find AP Stats to be a breeze. As for AP Chinesem it’s difficuly=t to know how hard it is, since, on one hand, it has one of the highest percentages of 5s, but, on the other hand, this is not clear whether that’s because it is easy for everybody , or because it’s easy for kids of Chinese backgrounds (who speak and read extensively in their native language), and they are also the majority of the students who take this AP.
My predicament right now is that I had a lot of mental issues and family issues going on freshman and earlier this year which affected my GPA greatly. I’m on a good track now and I have some good classes for next year but considering some B’s next year I’ll have a 3.6 gpa unweighted do you know anything I can do to make up for that weakness?
You can make up for a lower GPA by doing well in your classes. But self-studying AP exams don’t cancel that out.
“As for self studying for APs, it doesn’t help as much as doing well on the most challanging courses that your high school can provide. To get a 4 or 5 on most APs, you need to get scores which are below that needed for an A (sometimes substantially so).”
Depends on the rigor/grading of the AP class.
“Moreover, colleges want to know how you do in classroom situations, not on one shot exams.”
Possibly. Might be true for some American colleges. For UK unis, the test scores are pretty much all they care about.
should i apply to some UK schools just for sake of it? I really like the UK and the environment? What are the chances of me getting into oxford or cambridge or Imperial college?
Oxbridge are very difficult to get in to. Imperial not much easier. But more straightforward because it will be faculty who are evaluating the applicants to each degree program. It’s more like grad school admissions for undergrad. So they care most that you are prepared well and show aptitude for the subject(s) in your degree program you will be studying, and in England, you’ll be allowed to only take the classes specified in your degree program (3-year bachelor in England; 4-year bachelor in Scotland so you may be able to explore a little more there).
3 years in a single subject at a top uni in England would be equivalent to a major and a year of master’s classes in the US (Scotland similar but with an extra year of classes in whatever you want; also makes double honours, which are like a double major, easier as you have 4 years to fit in all the classes).
At Oxbridge, they’d want students who love their subject more than they love Oxford/Cambridge. 5’s in relevant APs is what they would want to see. Oxbridge would also have their own tests that are much more difficult. In general, most APs aren’t as difficult as A-Levels (what English kids would take to get in to uni).
Do you know what you want to study?