<p>Remember, colleges aren’t stupid - they know which AP classes are hard and which aren’t so hard. They can tell the difference between a person with Psych, Human Geo, Environmental, Econ, etc. with a person who takes Chemistry, Physics C, Calc BC, Latin, etc. (Although that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with taking AP Psych, etc. - if you have an interest in that area, go for it! I’m talking about those who are taking those classes solely for the weighted grade, and colleges can definitely tell the difference).</p>
<p>Yeah, we have had people who haven’t taken a single honors/AP/IB/advanced class get in the top 5, while people who have taken 5+ AP classes not even scrape the top 10%. But class ranking doesn’t matter nearly as much as the classes you take, and that’s what colleges look at.</p>
<p>Environmental is only easy if you can memorize several details about the most random things. It’s really annoying to keep hearing about how “easy” this course is. It might be very simple and an easy A at your school, but at my school, it’s difficult to earn a B. . . . Just sayin’</p>
<p>Oh, I was just generally speaking at most schools. But don’t worry, I feel you on that one. At my school, there’s this one teacher who has never given out a single A in more than a decade. You’d think it would be something like college multivariable calculus or advanced physics or something - but no, it’s regular English 10. >___></p>
<p>I got something in the realm of an 86 (a B, not even a B+) in that class at the end of this semester, and she told me I’ve had the highest grade out of all her classes in more than four or five years. =/</p>
<p>Totally agree with OP. But class rank should definitely be based on weighted GPA. I think it there should be a national limit as to how many AP classes one is allowed to take. It bothers me how kids overload themselves with 15+ AP classes and don’t allow themselves to have a life and let loose a little bit. I genuinely feel sorry for them.</p>
<p>The worst part is when kids take dual enrollment classes at their community college for “an AP weighted A” by taking intro to language classes. Yes, first year Italian/Spanish/French and better yet, sign language. And then they can’t compete in real chemistry/physics/history AP’s but they’re still ranked higher than you.</p>
<p>How does taking an AP class make you an AP Whore? I know last year I had PreCalc, AP English, AP HuG and APES as my core classes and AP Gov and AP Psych as my electives. Senior year I’ll have Calc BC and Physics B for my core classes causing AP and AP Stats to be electives. I know that I’m taking the classes that I want to take. I think you’re peeved that people are willing to handle more than you. You’re right it is cutthroat, but if you want to be at the top you have to do what gets you to the top.</p>
<p>It does have problems like any other system. Kid A can do really well freshman year, which are usually easy and Kid B can do okay. Kid B than does really well in hard AP classes during junior year while Kid B does okay and drops to a B,B+ student. The AP class encompasses everything they learned from freshman year and has to be applied but Kid A cant.</p>
<p>Luckily for kid A, doing well fresh/soph years saves his/her back while kid b does well in the harder classes only to come up short.</p>
<p>Again every system has a problem. Solutions have to be proposed. Maybe there should be rank for fresh+soph years and then junior+senior years along with a total one. Gives a better perspective.</p>
<p>I need to clarify…
I am in the IB program. You don’t take AP courses in IB. It’s not like I am lazy. It’s extremely hard to get all As in the IB program. Only about 5 people get all As.
It’s not that I mind people taking AP courses at their respective schools if do not have IB courses. What annoys me is that people take course IN ADDITION to the IB courses just to boost their stats. They aren’t going online to take
Ap Physics C or AP Computer Science. It’s not a challenge to get an A in these courses, so they take these to compensate for their lack of success in the core curriculum. </p>
<p>Not every system is fair. I think people just need to accept that not all things are fair. There will always be a kid that did something different from you or was in a different situation than you. You can never know what anybody did or experienced. There will always be shortcomings in life, and I don’t think not becoming valedictorian will be the most devastating one you’ll experience.</p>
<p>What I do not like about class ranking is that it is based solely on GPA. My school employed what I believe to be a poor system where the most deserving student(s) are not necessarily the highest on the ranking ladder due to classes they elected to take. Of course, this happened in my case, so take my arguably biased opinion for what it’s worth.</p>
Just sayin’</p>