<p>My daughter is a rising HS senior. Thru her Junior year, she has 7 AP classes, A's in all of them, 5's on the 2 tests she took last year, 4.7 weighted GPA on 4.0 scale. 34 on ACT in her first sitting. </p>
<p>She met with her HS college counselor yesterday and he asked what she was taking her Senior Year. She opted for AP Environmental Science instead of AP Chem or Physics. She also decided not to take AP English (forget the name) and instead is taking the Accelerated Sr. English (World Literature). </p>
<p>In addition, she will have AP MicroEcon, AP MacroEcon, AP Stats, AP Gov. </p>
<p>Her counselor felt that admissions departments would view this as "slacking off" and that she had to take the AP English and AP Chem or Physics. She just wanted to take classes she was interested in.</p>
<p>Any advice or thoughts on how the WashU admissions department would view this?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m not really sure that taking an accelerated English classes that of an AP class is going to look so bad on your daughter’s application. However, I’m not an admissions counselor, and it is impossible for anyone on this form to really know how admissions counselor would view of this. However, if her counselor feels that not taking another AP class might be a hindrance, and perhaps all of you should sit down and discuss this. She certainly has an outstanding ACT score and an excellent unweighted GPA. Remember that grades and has scores are only one part of the recipe for getting into college. She obviously should have meaningful extracurricular activities that show depth rather than breadth. She will need superior letters of recommendation, and while WUSTL does not have a supplementary essay, a very strong essay on the common app should help. Finally, specifically for WUSTL, I think that demonstrated interest in the school goes a long way.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you anything with 100% confidence, seeing as how I am not an admissions officer myself. That being said, It is certainly possible to be admitted while sacrificing some AP courses in favor of courses that one is more interested in. Case in point, I passed up the opportunity to take a few AP social studies and english courses in favor of non-AP courses that interested me, and I was still admitted. While I did take a few college courses, I also did not take 7 AP courses, so I’m guessing that your daughter’s schedule would be viewed as challenging enough.</p>
<p>On the other hand, your daughter’s counselor will have to write a recommendation, and fill out the “Was applicant X’s coursework challenging?” section of the application. Thus, if you believe that it might seriously detract from the counselor’s ability to rate your daughter highly, then that is another consideration to take into account.</p>
<p>Your daughter already has an excellent transcript. She can take those classes her senior year, no questions asked.</p>
<p>lbpontel,
Congrats to your D. What you need to find out from your GC is how does your daughter’s courseload compare against her peers, with regards to most rigorous. </p>
<p>Will the GC check off most rigorous for your D? I don’t see a problem taking classes she likes as long as that most rigorous is checked.</p>
<p>Also do not just think about what one school’s admission officer will think. She just needs to do the best she can and apply to the schools that interest her.</p>
<p>Good luck to her!</p>
<p>What does your D want to major in? I think that has an impact on the response to your question.</p>
<p>I only took 2 AP classes before applying and 4 my senior year (and a few honors courses as an underclassman). So only 6 total (which really isn’t that much considering one was APES). I’ll be going to WUSTL next year. I do feel pretty lucky to have gotten accepted considering that most other acceptees have taken 10+ AP classes…</p>
<p>OP, your student needs to find out from her counselor what it takes for the counselor to fill in the “most rigorous” check box on the counselor’s form. If she gets that, she’s fine as far as the rigor is concerned. Remember, the curriculum is judged based on the context of your high school, not from one to another. You could take 6 APs at Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax, VA and that considers to be slacking off while 2 APs at my rural HS would be be the most rigorous.</p>
<p>AP Enviro (APES) is not a challenging course. I suspect that is the problem. Many students spend a few days self-studying a review book and get a 5 on the AP exam. </p>
<p>The usual recommendation for high school is one year each of bio, chem and physics, with an advanced level course in one of those three. Even an honors science course like chem or physics would look better than APES for a selective college applicant.</p>