<p>Having visited Goucher and Ursinus, I can only speak to these two schools, and Goucher was definitely the more diverse.</p>
<p>If I take an AP class, but decide not to take the exam. Will I be at a disadvantaged (this is coming from a B+-A- student)? The thing is my school does not offer a lot of AP classes, but has a wide range of classes on both the regular and honors levels.</p>
<p>How strong/competitive is your high school, sushi_error? Unless it has already established a reputation with top schools (or with the schools you're applying to), AP exam scores will validate the rigor of your education.</p>
<p>Curious? Why would you not take the AP exam following the course?</p>
<p>Sushi, if you choose not to take the exam, the college is free to choose to think it wasn't really an AP level class.</p>
<p>I just got access to our school's Naviance site and spent a good while looking at Scattergrams. We'll have a better idea after S2's latest PSAT scores come back, but I'm cautiously encouraged. Lots of good choices - he might even be able to have a school like Vassar as a reach.</p>
<p>The big question is, he's a B student without orchestra, but 100s or 99s in orchestra (two courses every marking period) has bumped up his weighted average to 95. Our scattergrams are based on weighted averages and some of those kids presumably also have As in easy courses, but how many?</p>
<p>i will chime in here on why someone would not take an AP exam.</p>
<p>my DD is in AP/DUAL CREDIT history this year.</p>
<p>as long as she passes, and she will ... she will get the credit. in that case, i can't imagine why she WOULD take the AP exam.</p>
<p>Because many colleges--especially privates--will accept AP exams for credit but not dual-enrollment.</p>
<p>I go to a pretty competitive high school in Massachusetts (few minutes walk to Amherst College, UMass-Amherst, etc). </p>
<p>I might take the AP Lit exam in the spring, however, my school does not offer an actual AP English class. Instead, you have to do an AP project (a paper basically) in your junior and senior year to receive AP credit. I think the reason why I'm not sure whether or not I should take an AP exam is I'm worried I won't do well on it.</p>
<p>This raises some questions about the AP exams I've been wondering about. If sushi_error is a senior, taking or not taking the AP exam in the spring will have no impact on admissions because that decision will have been made months before by the colleges, correct?</p>
<p>And, as to the advantage of taking the exam itself--I've heard a few different things. On one college tour, we were told that if you AP out of, say, Eng 101, you'll just be bumped into a higher difficulty, soph English your first year (to meet your requirement for a certain number of Eng courses) -- but -- if you are just getting acclimated to the new college experience, jumping into a harder level course might not be to your advantage, esp if, say, you are a math major & you are in a harder Eng course (not your true forte) right away.</p>
<p>Alternatively, if, say that same math major took the AP Calc exam and was bumped up into a sophmore course in their major (the next level math) then they might still be at a disadvantage because they'd miss out on the rigorous 'college-level' calc and they'd go into their important, first college math course without the same strong prep as students who took calc as freshmen. Some colleges (as stated above) won't even take certain AP credits for this reason.</p>
<p>I guess the counter-argument to all this is to just take the AP tests and see how it plays out in the college you'll be attending. My son has 2 AP courses (& was thinking about self-teaching for 2 more) w/tests this spring. If he doesn't want to take the tests....sort of thinking it might not be the worst thing in the world to bypass them.</p>
<p>^Jolynne: yes, you are correct that it totally depends on where your son ends up going....In our case, my D was down to two schools: one only used AP credits for electives...it really didn't matter...the other (the one she is attending) actually placed her out of required core courses outside of her major....
If she would have chosen school #1, we probably would have "bagged" senior AP's......</p>
<p>Jolynne - As with a number of issues, AP options depend on the college and it also depends on the student. D#1 attends an academically-oriented private university which gave college credit for AP scores of 4 or 5. Students have the option of retaking AP those courses in college, but they get no college credit for doing so. D#2 attends a flagship public which gives no college credit for AP, but does use the score for placement -- so a score of 5 in American History simply means the student picks a different (higher level) course to fulfill the history requirement. </p>
<p>For some students retaking AP courses in college is boring and a waste of time. For others, it's an opportunity to firm up their background in a discipline critical to their major -- calculus for engineering majors might be one example. Naturally, YMMV.</p>
<p>Thanks, rodney and NewHope33. I had just always assumed 'take the AP test, place out' -- recently learning about a different perspective on it was interesting. Glad to hear some info from parents who've gone through it!</p>
<p>Seniors can certainly opt out of taking exams if they know they won't get placement, however keep in mind that some kids transfer and the new college may have different rules about credit from the first one. My son hasn't found any downside to getting credit for his AP courses. He's one who thrives on challenge. It's given him a huge amount of flexibility since he's gotten out of nearly all his distribution requirements.</p>
<p>Hi there. It's me again. I've decided on a slightly larger list, with a hopefully more even number of reaches, matches, and safeties:
Amherst
Bard
Beloit
DePauw
Elmira
HWS
Penn State University Park
Skidmore
SUNY Fredonia
SUNY New Paltz
SUNY Potsdam
SUNY Purchase
SUNY Stony Brook
Vassar
Virginia Tech
VCU</p>
<p>I have already applied to every one, so now I'm just waiting on acceptances. <em>Crosses fingers non-superstitiously</em> Just wanted to thank everyone here for being so awesome while I was panicking at you, most of you have been way more helpful than my parents and guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Jolynne, yes, if a senior is taking a spring semester AP class, opting out of the AP exam will have no impact on adissions. But mathmom (post #423) is correct regarding earlier AP courses - - if you don't take the exam, the admissions committee is free not to give that course AP "weight," which could mean your course-load is not considered sufficiently rigorous and that your weighted gpa (with extra points for AP) might not discounted somewhat.</p>
<p>I have heard of students being "pushed" into more advanced courses b/c of AP credit, but only at state unis. The same has been true for hs students enrolled in "early college" programs or taking college courses during jr/sr year - - depending on the number of college credits earned, these students may have to enroll in state schools as transfers. (One student applied to state uni, only to learn that her application had been treated as a soph transfer app and that she had not been assigned a dorm room b/c the school gauranteed housing for incoming frosh only.)</p>
<p>Ugh. If my B+ student doesn't get over his senioritis pronto, I'll have to start a thread about C students.</p>
<p>Firefly, I hear that!</p>
<p>Ah, thank you for the advice, folks! I most likely will take at least one AP exam. </p>
<p>Quick question: I have two teachers from sophomore year who are willing to write me a recommendation letter and I'll definitely get two in junior, senior year. However, is it better to have a recommendation from a teacher in junior year than in senior year?</p>
<p>If you are applying EA or ED anywhere, you'll want the teacher to write the letter by October. If school starts in September, that doesn't give a senior year teacher much time to get to know you.</p>
<p>Some schools specifically say junior or senior year. I think junior year teachers are most likely to know you best. My son wanted to use the same teachers for all his applications and he applied EA to two schools so he used two teachers from his junior year. One of them was also teaching him senior year as it happened, but he would have used her either way.</p>