I’m currently enrolled at a Biomedical Sciences Academy in my school district. I spend half of my day there taking specialized chemistry and biology courses, I also do presentations based on research yearly in front of a panel of judges. I also take college courses provided by a private liberal arts college nearby after school through the Academy on its campus. Due to spending most of my day there, I’m unable to take AP Classes at my home school (I can only take 1 next year, and that would be it. I took AP Government in my freshman year and got a 5 on it but it doesn’t count for Harvard credits).
I also know that the current college courses I’m taking wouldn’t transfer to Harvard or, for the most part, any Ivy League school. They don’t accept any college credit earned before High school graduation. However, they do accept AP credits if you score 5 on the final exams.
My question is: What would look better in my resume/application? Being in a biomedical academy (I want to be neurosurgeon) or taking 7-8 AP courses and scoring 5’s on the final exams?
I’m basically asking if I should stay in the Academy (prep school) or go back to my home school and take all the AP courses I can take.
I’m in doubt as I know that you need a “spike” to have higher chances at being admitted to an Ivy League school like Harvard, and the Academy is probably that spike for me. But I also know that AP courses can increase my chances. But everyone that applies to Harvard or an Ivy league school probably took AP Courses, so it wouldn’t stand out as much.
Wonderful, but just as course rigor varies among high schools, there are also varying levels of course rigor at different colleges. Harvard – rightly, or wrongly – believes they are teaching to gifted and talented students, so to challenge those “best of the best” students, professors are encouraged to pour on the work. Some courses normally taught over an ENTIRE YEAR at another college are taught during ONE SEMESTER at Harvard. LS2 (Evolutionary Human Physiology and Anatomy) is a good example of that, which is the Bio course recommended for students interested in pursing medical school: http://scholar.harvard.edu/adamfrange/files/life_sciences_2_evolutionary_human_physiology_and_anatomy_syllabus_2012.pdf.
LS2 is jammed packed with things you wouldn’t be asked to do at another college, like identifying every bone in the human body by week two in the course, something most students don’t have to do until medical school! Yes, it’s a fabulous experience, but because Harvard professors have higher expectations, very few students actually get A’s in the course. So, another student coming out of a flagship state college, which doesn’t have as high expectations might be in a better position for medical school than a student coming out of Harvard with a B or a B+. Please think carefully about where you decide to apply and attend undergraduate school.
That’s not true. Colleges, such as Harvard, are not looking for student’s who take a gazillions AP’s tests and score 5’s on all of them. Yes, they want you to take the most demanding course load available at your high school and do well in those courses, but student’s don’t get bonus points (or better chances) by taking more than what the average college bound student at their high school is taking. In fact, a college such as Harvard prefer’s students who are not test drones as you are seemingly wanting to be.
Full disclosure: My daughter graduated Harvard with a humanities degree (the only pre-med like course she took at Harvard was LS2, which she took her last semester senior year). She then enrolled at City College of New York to complete her pre-med requirements, completing them with a 4.0 GPA. She is now finishing up her first year in med school at WashU in St. Louis.
For heaven’s sake, don’t change your life in order to get into Harvard. Are you engaged where you are? I would add that changing schools in order to take AP’s would be counterproductive based on your description of your current situation.
What you are doing now is fine to show that you are academically ambitious and capable of performing well in challenging courses. That's all anyone who takes 7-8 (or 12-13) AP classes is trying to prove. And those people are a dime-a-dozen in the Harvard applicant pool. That's not standing out, it's joining the herd.
If you are smart enough to do will in challenging science courses, if you are smart enough to be a legitimate candidate for admission to Harvard or any similar college, you are smart enough to figure out that it's a terrible idea to distort your high school education in order to gain -- maybe, at most, but most of us are skeptical even about this -- a 0.5% increase in your chance of admission to a particular college. Your high school education will belong to you for your entire life. A minuscule difference in your chance of admission to Harvard won't matter past May 1 of your high school senior year. (That's true even if you are admitted to Harvard. It is unlikely to have made a difference, and if you had not been admitted to Harvard you would have gotten the education you deserve at some other great college.) If you like your current situation -- and it sounds great -- please don't change it.
Think about what @gibby is trying to tell you. Harvard is a wonderful university. But it's not clear at all that Harvard vs. many other likely alternatives for a good student will be the best path for becoming a neurosurgeon, if that's what is most important to you.
The Academy is way more interesting. The AP’s are a yawn. Actually, I personally think the AP’s are a red flag that one cannot think of anything better to do ( which you already have found via the Academy). You could do a handful of APs just to show that you can take a test.
Academically curious ( truly) and running after perceived value are not the same.