<p>Is this enough?
I am trying to decide if my senior course load is rigorous enough:
- AP Calculus BC
- AP Physics
- AP Stats
- AP Macro-Economics
- AP American Government and Politics
- Advanced Senior Seminar(English)
- Science Research Honors Program( like the one that that enter Intel ISEF competition and SIEMENS)</p>
<p>I have taken this AP's so far:
-AP Euro(5)
-AP Bio(4)
-AP Chem(dk no yet hoping for a 5)</p>
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<li>Is this enough for a Straight BS-MD Program and would Med School require a math class caliber of BC Calc as it provides 2 semester of credit.</li>
</ul>
<p>*I'm not neccesarily aiming for a prestigious university but a decent one</p>
<ul>
<li>I would tremendously appreciate your help!!! Thanks!=)</li>
</ul>
<p>Of course that is rigorous enough. It seems like you are maxing out your schools opportunities, which you want to do. Many universities look at you in the context of your school, so just make sure you get that guidance counselor to check the “most rigorous courseload” box. </p>
<p>Just make sure to get good grades, with such a hard schedule and all.</p>
<p>It is certainly rigor enough. However, just make sure you can handle them all. Remember you will be also busy in applying to colleges too. Although senior grades may be not needed for the application, a low grade/GPA may get you rescinded.</p>
<p>5 APs plus research plus English seminar sounds like madness to me, especially when coming from 3 APs over 2 years. Have you talked to you teachers, are you sure you can handle this schedule with no grade below a B at the very least in each of them? Even though AP Gov, AP Stats, and AP Econ are probably easier than Physics and BC, it’s still a solid 5 hours of hw each night. Add to this 1-2 hours daily you’ll have to devote to your applications (especially essays, potentially test prep…), plus any activity that you’ll hopefully be doing, and you see why this looks like madness to me. You could cut AP Stats and replace it with a class with less hw, for instance.
By the way, do you have a foreign language up to level 4 or AP?</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 and @billcsho: ^^ It’s very high school dependent. At some high schools, like the one my kids attended, 5 AP’s senior year is a normal load for students seeking admissions to top colleges. If students don’t take on that kind course load, GC’s don’t give the “Most Demanding” ranking to the student. That’s one of the reasons why my kids feel they worked harder in high school than they did in college.</p>
<p>^^ My kids went to Stuyvesant, where the top 1% of kids take 10 or more AP’s, so I understand the overstressed teenager, as I had two of them attend the school.</p>
<p>^^ My kids’ school only offer 14-15 AP including 4 or 5 world languages. In reality, it is impossible to take 10+ at their high school even if the schedule allows. My D was among the top 1-2% (although school does not rank) and was aiming for 7AP but the schedule messed her up. However, there are still a few students at her school having 10+ AP scores by graduation with some self studied. Students here in the mid-west is certainly not as overstressed as in NJ/NY/CA.</p>
<p>It may be too rigorous and you might end up messing your GPA up. Going from 3 APs in 3 years to 7 advanced courses in one year is going to be too much for you. You should you really be talking with your college counselor about this.</p>
@AnnieBeats: A rigorous course load is MORE important than GPA. For example: Two kids attend the same high school. One has taken 3 AP’s and has a 4.0 GPA, the other student has taken 10 AP’s and has a 3.85 GPA. Selective colleges are seeking students who have taken THE MOST rigorous course load at their high school and done well. Therefore, with all things being equal, the student with a LOWER GPA – the who who “messed up their GPA” by taking more AP courses – is seen in a better light.</p>
<p>@gibby It is hard to say whether GPA or rigor is more important as they are on different parametric and non-parametric scales. Particularly, GPA has no standard even with the same 4.0 scale. The question has been asked many times whether the school wants more rigor curriculum or higher GPA, the answer is often both (at least from the books and interviews I have read). Is 3AP with 4.0 better or 10AP with 3.5 (50/50 in A & B) better? It really depends on the high school profile and the college admission office. For some schools, they put more emphasis on GPA (e.g. UMich) and some colleges consider 3AP to be adequate while others may have different assessment. The question is how rigor does it require and how low a GPA is still considered acceptable. I don’t think there is a clear answer to that, at least as a generalization for all colleges.</p>
<p>^^ I do agree that the answer varies from college to college. Public colleges tend to draw a line in the sand with GPA and don’t look that closely at rigor. On the other hand, private colleges, put a great emphasis on course rigor. If you look at any of the top schools Admissions websites, you’ll find rigor is mentioned right along side with GPA.</p>
<p>FWIW: Please notice that in my example I used a student with 10 AP’s with a 3.85 GPA, which is far different than your example of the a student with the same number of AP’s and a 3.5 GPA (50/50 in A & B). One is obviously a competitive applicant for any top college, while the other applicant is in all likelihood not.</p>
<p>Again, that indicates the different scale nature of course rigor and GPA. It is hard to say one is more important than the others when the parameters are in different scale. Obviously, when comparing GPA 3.95 and 4.0, the course rigor would be more important than when comparing 3.5 with 4.0. By the same token, when comparing 10AP with 4.0 and 11AP with 3.85, would it make GPA more important? There is no way to create a conversion chart between course rigor and GPA. Again, particularly when there is no standard in GPA scaling.</p>
<p>^^ I think there is a standard for the vast majority of students. Look at the Common Data sets for top colleges. At Harvard, for example, 91% of admitted students, who come from all 50 states and a bunch of countries – each of whom have different parameters and different scales – all have a 3.75 GPA or higher – no matter what high school they graduated from. The same is true at Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT etc. Yes, there are 9% of students who have less than that (some of them possibly recruited athletes, legacies, URM’s or Developmental Cases), but for the vast majority of students, from the majority of high schools across the country and across the world, there is a minimum GPA needed for admission at the very top colleges. And those colleges are also closely examining the course rigor of each student.</p>
<p>@gibby If there GPA falls, it will show that they cannot handle the rigor of a college curriculum. The same thing happened to my nephew in school. He was on track to get into a top university. He had a 4.0 GPA every year going into senior year, but signed up for 6 AP classes. He got into senior year, and he pretty muched collapsed from all the work. He had too much homework, too much stuff to memorize, too many demanding ECs, and his GPA dropped to 3.4. Where is he going in the fall? He’s going to a state school because none of his reaches wanted him. He went to one of those Ivy League feeder schools, so his counselor was able to speak to some people she knew in admissions offices. The feedback was all the same. They saw that he couldn’t handle it. She got him on the wait list for Yale, but he was eventually rejected. It does make an impact.</p>
<p>Again, that CDS data does not give any answer to that, particularly when most students belong to the same group. There is really NO standard to compare 5AP with 4.0 or 8AP at 3.85, for instance. The CDS you cited only indicate one would have a very low chance if GPA below 3.75 disregarding what the rigor level is.
I am not saying course rigor is not important, I am only saying it is hard to say if GPA or course rigor is more important as there are so many variables needed to be considered while they have a totally different scale.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats: In my example, I purposely put a 0.15 difference in GPA’s between the student who had 3 AP’s vs a student who had 10 AP’s. Obviously, a student has to be able to do the work and cannot have their GPA drop from a 4.0 to a 3.4, but a drop from a 4.0 to a 3.8 would be perfectly acceptable with the additional AP’s.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634, Yes, I have taken Spanish 4H until this year and the 3 AP’s i have taken so far are across the time span of the last 2 years(Soph and Junior)</p>
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<li>However, my concern was that there are so many bright students out there who are very hardwroking. Nonetheless is the “AP Calculus BC” description something that “stands out.” As many are brillant as well, I would say I’m decent in retrospect. </li>
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