Senior year AP class load up and standardized testing in Wellesley admission process.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wellesley College
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<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>Curious about everyone’s opinion on the traditional loading up on APs Senior year and the importance of test scores in Wellesley’s admission process. </p>

<p>My D will apply ED this coming November, has visited the school twice and loved it both times, will interview before the ED deadline, and her essay and recommendation letters will be very strong.</p>

<p>stats:</p>

<p>GPA- 95 (our county only delivers weighted/numeric average in transcript)
Rank- School does not rank but instead uses latin honors- She is magna cum laude (may be a toothless honor since rigor is not factored into honors distinction)
Spanish Honor Society
Has grades for national honor society, but did not apply since local chapter grants membership based on volunteerism and my D works rather than volunteers. </p>

<p>ACT- 30 (will take once more before the Nov application deadline)
SAT- Will not take (made a decision not to take SATs and/or SAT subject tests since all colleges she is applying to accept ACT, standardized tests are not her strength, and she does not have time to study for both) </p>

<p>By end of senior year she will have taken: 4AP (World History, English Lit and Lang and Spanish) and 7 Honors (where AP not available).</p>

<p>Two-time letterman in Fencing, will be co-captain/conditioning coach of her team in senior year, and participated in the Fencing Junior Olympics. She would like to fence for Wellesley. </p>

<p>President of the Talk Girl Effect club- A club focused on empowering adolescent girls to become change in their communities.</p>

<p>Has trained martial arts since age 9. Holds black belts in Wing Chun Kung Fu, Jun Fan Kung Fu, Muay Thai Boxing with teacher certifications in Wing Chun and Muay Thai. Also holds a blue belt in Brazilian Jujitsu. </p>

<p>Works part-time teaching martial arts and self-defense to children and adults.</p>

<p>With that backdrop, my questions. </p>

<p>My D made a conscious choice to not load up on APs for her senior year. She will only have AP Lit and AP Spanish. She has instead opted to take 2 years of Japanese language in her senior year- one full year of coursework per semester. She is interested in studying Japanese Language and Culture at Wellesley (she even sat in on a Japanese class during our last visit to Wellesley) and wanted to 1. Enjoy her senior year coursework with something she was passionate about vs. what everyone else was doing (AP Psychology/AP Stat/AP Human Geo) and 2. Wanted to get a head start on what she wants to study in college.</p>

<p>Will this decision hurt her application? Are schools really looking at the standard AP loadup senior year as the bar for entry, or will they look at her working towards being tri-lingual by taking AP Spanish plus 2 years of Japanese in one school year as equally rigorous?</p>

<p>Regarding test scores- will her decision to only submit ACT scores hurt her application? She is just not a good standardized test taker- she recognizes that and has focused on the one she felt she could do better on. She’s a very busy kid between work, fencing, martial arts and school there is only so much time in a day and she opted to not waste any of it studying for an SAT test she didn’t think she would do well on compared to her peer group.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your thoughts.</p>

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<p>@Dad9999‌
I’m assuming she is taking the ACT with writing, to satisfy Wellesley’s requirement, right? We attended a Wellesley event on campus and during the parent Q&A they specifically said, regarding SAT/ACT, that they do not favor one or the other. Is it true? I have no idea, but that is what they told us :)</p>

<p>About the relative lack of APs… my sense is that Wellesley reads applications pretty thoroughly and holistically. If that’s the case, hopefully they will see that your daughter made course choices that are actually challenging and speak to her passions. Because I think you’re right, that on a first glance they’re going to think, “why did she only take two AP classes senior year?” During the parent presentation, the admissions officer repeatedly stressed that the most important thing they want to see is that students challenged themselves. When they look at transcripts, lower grades in harder classes trump straight As in less challenging classes (although of course Wellesley has plenty of applicants with straight As in the hardest classes!)</p>

<p>Here’s a copy-paste of something I wrote in another post last fall after the Discover Wellesley visit, about that talk I attended. Maybe some of it will be helpful, especially in the second paragraph where I noted how she said they read applications (especially the part about not needing 6 APs senior year!):</p>

<p>"She also commented several times about how they really like to see that students took risks, challenged themselves. She gave the example of someone who’s struggling in a class knows she will not get an A, but decides to stick with it rather than drop it for the sake of her GPA. I’d imagine that EmmaEB’s suggestion about taking a supplemental math class would be exactly the sort of thing they would love to see…</p>

<p>Wellesley is a wonderful school. Good luck!</p>

<p>At the parents’ presentation there was specific discussion about math courses and calculus. I paid special attention to this since my daughter is also in CP math and is taking “Advanced Math CP” as a senior (which is Pre-Calc.) Here’s what I have in my notes:
The admissions director was talking about how they read applications. She began by saying, "We look at: 1) Can this student be academically successful @ Wellesley… has she had the rigor? 2) Does she have AP calc or regular calc? We want to see because we know that math = problem solving ability. also, the higher the math level, the higher the future earning potential. She said, “I have to know she has fulfilled a certain level of math.” if she hasn’t then we’d look at her math SAT score. 3) We look for some science. We look for a minimum of 2 years of a language. 4) If the transcript is solid, then we look at the SAT scores. We are less accepting of high scores if we see that she didn’t challenge herself in high school… but that doesn’t mean you need 6 APs senior year. 5) Then we move to a more subjective/holistic view. Who is she? What’s her story? Who will she be in our community? Will she be an active participant in our community? What will she bring to the table?</p>

<p>In the Q & A, I asked more specifically about the Calculus comment. She amended it to say that CP pre-calculus was the bare minimum. "</p>

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<p>@Dad9999‌ </p>

<p>I am not an expert in Wellesley admissions or for that matter in any school admission counselling. I can answer your questions based on my D’s experience this year.</p>

<p>1) Q: Regarding test scores- will her decision to only submit ACT scores hurt her application?..
A: No. My D had taken ACT and SAT with SAT subject tests. She had comparable scores in both. But for some reason [I still don’t understand the decisions that she made during this admission/application process] she elected to submit only ACT scores. We did not see any negative results because of this. She got into all the schools that she applied for, including Wellesley, which she will be attending this year. So based on this, submitting ACT scores only does not make a difference.</p>

<p>2) Q: Loading up on APs in senior year.
A: I am not sure if this is going to tip her application one way or the other. From what I have read on this forum, most students take less APs until their Junior year to maintain a high GPA before the college applications and then “load up” on APs in their senior year to show they are taking a lot of APs. It is not wrong, but I am sure the schools know how the game is played, I guess.</p>

<p>3) ACT 30 with good ECs, showing a commitment to what she loves and has been consistent with all her school years, will carry more weight. As others have been saying, it is not the scores or how many APs or high GPA that makes the difference [in most cases yes, it does], but you will see a lot of kids with lower GPA, lower test scores being admitted to highly ranked, highly selective schools because they are other wise more/well rounded [I guess, plump…:), he… he]. </p>

<p>Obviously you are an international applicant. If you are from a country with fewer applicants then it boosts your D’s chances. From what you have said, your D seems to be a bright young woman who is very interesting and hard working. In my personal opinion, I think she stands a very high chance of getting in to not only Wellesley but also other highly selective colleges in USA. </p>

<p>[I remember, I was in your shoe, last year trying to gather as much information, I could for my D, to help her in the application process [it fell in to deaf ears] … :). College confidential was very helpful for me… ]</p>

<p>Good Luck. </p>

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<p>I have this opinion based on my D’s experience as a recruited athlete at W - if you haven’t already, contact the fencing coach because it sounds to me like your D has skills they would want and when you have a coach in your corner, it can help. At the very least, they can get your guys an early read and at best, coach may have some say if she wants her bad enough.</p>

<p><a href=“Wellesley College Athletics - Prospective Student-Athletes - Wellesley”>http://wellesleyblue.com/information/recruiting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think your D’s stats have her easily in the ballpark so the sport could just seal the deal.</p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies. You’ve made me feel pretty comfortable with her ACT only decision, and her decision to follow her passion vs. following the crowd to 5 AP classes her senior year. Its early enough for us to still switch over to the AP heavy schedule, and she loves Wellesley enough that she would do it, but I like the idea of her finding rigor and following her passions at the same time as opposed to just doing what everyone does senior year. We were pleased that her counselor felt the same. </p>

<p>@maidenmom - we did fill out the online interest form for the fencing team. Question, should we expect to hear anything back? We have not to date. My D’s coach has offered to be a reference and/or take a call from the Wellesley coach on her behalf.</p>

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<p>I have a daughter at Wellesley. I can’t say I have any real knowledge about how the admissions people read applications, but it seems pretty clear to me that they care very much about how an applicant demonstrates her passion. Your daughter should definitely play up the fencing aspect of her application because that seems like something she really is committed to. </p>

<p>After going through the college application process with my daughter, I can say that I will advise my son (also a rising senior) not to load up his senior year with APs. (He’s looking at schools with theatre majors.) My D said her senior year wasn’t very much fun because she took so many hard classes, and it made the first semester (applying to college, applying for NMF, and a ton of homework) a real misery. I’m pretty sure she would have gotten into Wellesley without the heavy course load. Tell her to focus on her essays instead!</p>

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<p>My D is a rising junior at W. She went to a magnet HS that did not have a big AP culture. She only took one AP exam, AB Calc. I don’t think Wellesley fetishizes AP as long as the applicant has shown the ability to pursue intellectual challenges in other ways.</p>

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<p>My daughter only took the AP History exam, and that was in her sophmore year of high school.</p>

<p>Your daughter should call the fencing coach if she hasn’t heard back.</p>

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<p>Sorry Dad999 - been busy at work and world cup watching! I don’t know is the short answer. My D was contacted by the coach there so I don’t really know how well those online recruiting forms are monitored. Maybe send the coach an email - or call! <a href=“Fencing - Wellesley”>http://www.wellesleyblue.com/sports/wfencing/coaches/index&lt;/a&gt; Good Luck and GO BLUE!!!</p>

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<p>I will be attending Wellesley as a freshman next year. I had a 3.8 UW from a top magnet high school and a 32. Everything other than that was run of the mill. I think it was my essays that got me admitted. I also loaded up on APs this year (5 exams) since I hadn’t really had a chance to take the classes I wanted to take before. I think you should be all right, just try to really work on the essays and show who you are :)</p>