<p>Is taking a community college course over a school AP course a good idea in terms of AP exams?? For example, would getting A's at a Physics course at a community college be better than getting A's at a AP course offered at your school but also getting a 3 on the exam? I'm pretty sure some schools take these exams scores into account so might it lower your "weighted" GPA?</p>
<p>The results of AP exams are not factored into your GPA. The difficulty of the curriculum is, however, considered. AP exam scores are used to offer credit or to place out of intro courses only.</p>
<p>Be aware though that many colleges look more favorably at AP courses taken at your high school than they do at community college courses. Why? First, because most schools have at least one admissions counselor familiar with your high school and what your AP courses are like. They're not familiar with the community college or the level of their courses. Second, it shows that you are taking the most rigorous courses that your school offers. That raises the obvious question: Why are you refusing to take a convenient option offered to you in exchange for an inconvenient one (i.e., one that you have to travel to and for which you may even have to pay)? If I were an admissions counselor, I would think that the community college class is easier. May not be true, but that would be my assumption without information to the contrary. The score on the AP exam wouldn't be conclusive, since you may have gotten the same score with the AP class.</p>
<p>If your school doesn't offer the AP in that subject, then it's OK to take it at a community college.</p>
<p>Look at the websites of the schools you're interested in to see how they consider community college courses.</p>
<p>Chedva has it right -- unless you can't take the AP class at your school (school doesn't offer it, conflict with another important class) then they will wonder why it wasn't take at school. </p>
<p>Use community colleges for subjects that your school doesn't offer.</p>
<p>Okay, what if you have an AP course that you really would like to take and would like to learn stuff in it but that the teacher absolutely doesn't teach? What if it is very hard for you to get a good grade in because you need to self study a lot and a lot of the tests given are not curved and excessively hard? Should I take this course at their highschool and risk having little instruction from the teacher, not to metion a bad grade, or should I take it at a community college?? </p>
<p>If there is a course in your school that is extremely rigorous, will the admissions counselor notify the colleges about this? I mean, it would be unfair if you took, lets say for example, AP stats, and had the hardest teacher in the whole world and therefore making you get a mediocre grade. And since AP stats isn't really viewed as a hard AP class, you might not even get much recognition for it. So how exactly does this work out? Thanks for your advice/replies! =]</p>
<p>Colleges will not know about individual teachers (and no school will admit that one teacher is "harder" than another). They don't have time to do that kind of micro-analysis. That's true for every kind of course, not just AP courses; colleges didn't know that my d's Honors Physics teacher bragged that his course was harder than AP.</p>
<p>If you need to take a course at a community college to learn the subject, then do it. But don't do it because you want colleges to acknowledge that decision. Divorce the college application issue from the discussion entirely. Ask yourself, "If college didn't matter, what would I do?" Then do it.</p>
<p>Take the course at the communtiy college, if you think they teach it better.
Also, take the AP exam (you can do this even if you don't take the AP course.)
The Physics curve makes it quite achievable to get a 5, no matter where you learned Physics. Make sure to study with a good review book.</p>
<p>Why should you take the AP exam if you don't take AP?? What if you score poorly on it? Also, all of the courses you've taken at a community college gets transferred to your high school record right? So if you got an F at a CC then it would affect your grade automatically or can you choose to not transfer some grades? The thing is that CC courses are usually fast paced and I don't even know if I can learn 3-4 hrs per day 4 days a week on a subject that is pretty hard and new for me.</p>
<p>Community college grades do not usually get transferred to the high school transcripts - although I'm sure some high schools do this. My D took courses at a university her junior and senior years - and yet her high school transcript did not reflect this at all. She had to have her university transcript sent separately to admissions.</p>
<p>College credits, whether from a community or four year college, should be used only to cover areas not offered by your high school. At the best colleges, these credits don't transfer, although they can be used for placement.</p>
<p>I need some more advice on this: Okay, what if you have an AP course that you really would like to take and would like to learn stuff in it but that the teacher absolutely doesn't teach? What if it is very hard for you to get a good grade in because you need to self study a lot and a lot of the tests given are not curved and excessively hard? Should I take this course at their highschool and risk having little instruction from the teacher, not to metion a bad grade, or should I take it at a community college?? </p>
<p>If there is a course in your school that is extremely rigorous, will the admissions counselor notify the colleges about this? I mean, it would be unfair if you took, lets say for example, AP stats, and had the hardest teacher in the whole world and therefore making you get a mediocre grade. And since AP stats isn't really viewed as a hard AP class, you might not even get much recognition for it. So how exactly does this work out? Thanks for your advice/replies! =]</p>
<p>Is there a reason that you posted your exact same question again? Didn't like the answers the first time?</p>
<p>I would just like to have more opinions on whether or not I should take a course who has a teacher who doesn't teach. He is the only teacher for that AP Physics course and I have a little interest (not excessively) in learning about the subject. Another course that has a bad teacher is Honors Chem. He doesn't teach but gives hard quizzes/tests. I heard Chemistry was required for good colleges. Is this true? Should I take the 1 and only course despite the horrible teacher? Please, I really don't know what I should do here. Keep in mind that I'm going to be a junior next year and I'll have the SAT I's to worry about too. Sigh..</p>
<p>anyone else have any opinions?</p>