<p>I'm applying to Wellesley, a very selective all-girl's college. I'm worried that the lack of AP classes I took might affect whether or not I get admitted.</p>
<p>I heard that the average person nowadays is taking 5 AP classes at the very minimum. I took 2: AP Psychology and currently AP Statistics. I'm also taking Japanese Language I at the local community college via PSEO (will be taking Japanese Language II second semester). I'm also taking Honors Brit. Lit. this year (took Honors American Lit. last year).</p>
<p>Despite this, I'm still nervous that my lack of AP classes might affect me getting accepted. My high school offers many AP classes, I just never took that many because they are A LOT OF WORK. I have a high work tolerance, but the work for our average AP class is ridiculous! I switched out of AP Gov. within the first week because we were having to write 1-2 research papers/essays every week, along with 40-50 pages of reading every day. AP Psychology was ridiculous; on average, we had a graded class discussion, 1-2 quizzes, and 30 pages of reading (it became more like 40 towards the end of the semester) every day. I've heard from my teachers that AP English at my school (both AP English classes) requires between 1-2 papers every week (did not question about the rest of the work involved, so I cannot tell you how much reading is expected.)</p>
<p>My actual college class is unbelievably easy compared to the AP classes at my school.</p>
<p>I've realized that the course work for AP classes vary a lot. (I talked to one person who took AP Gov. and did nothing but watch movies during class and write the occasional paper. She claimed it was the easiest A she ever made.) Do colleges expect AP classes to vary in workload accordingly to each school? Will they think I'm a slacker because I didn't take enough AP classes? Will it negatively affect my chances of being admitted? If so, should I write a letter explaining the situation or something?</p>
<p>Wellesley is selective and therefore, expects its applicants to be very self motivated academically – willing to accept challenging work – and to succeed at it. Yes, if your HS has offered many APs and you’ve only taken two, you’re disadvantaged. Think of this: every woman in your school who has taken 4 or more is automatically a stronger applicant than you (not that they’ll all apply, of course).</p>
<p>All you can do is present yourself as best as possible. Don’t write a letter (what will it say? “I was afraid to work very hard”?). Just apply to a wide variety of schools and don’t have your heart set on Wellesley in the case they may reject you. Good luck to you on your search and applications.</p>
<p>T26E4, in your post you seem to be under the impression that I’m not “willing to accept challenging work.” I cannot stress how much this is not true. The AP courses at my school are more work than a REAL college class. I am not the only one who thinks this; very few people in my graduating class will be graduating with a lot of AP classes under their belt.</p>
<p>I would also like to remind everyone that I am taking a real college class because:
I like to be challenged, just not completely overworked, and
I want to pursue interests of mine instead of taking AP classes that are not within my interests, just to say that I did it.</p>
<p>Because I will have taken 2 actual college courses before I graduate, I will also be submitting a college transcript with my application. I know that this will definitely count for me, I’m just not sure how much. Does anyone know how actual college classes compare to AP classes? Does the admissions office consider them just as good as AP classes, worse than AP classes, or better than AP classes?</p>
<p>The “average” student is not taking 5 AP classes in high school. Period. The <em>excellent</em> student will take more than 5 or 6. And as long as your class rank is good, it shouldn’t put you out of anything.</p>
<p>Just sayin’ I do more work in my freshmen classes than the AP classes at your school. x__x So unless there were specific classes you wanted to take which conflicted with the AP courses, this will probably hurt you. At my school, there’s a ton of AP classes but most people don’t take more than 3 Junior or Senior year because of schedule conflicts.</p>
<p>Something to realize with respect to the AP curriculum, is that all students taking AP classes are taking the same curriculum and the same exam. Each teacher may have an individual approach to how to teach the curriculum, but most teachers are quite aware that their students need to pass the exam at the end. All of my sons took 8 or 9 APs in high school and had huge workloads…that is part of the challenge of taking an AP curriculum. They found themselves well prepared for college…and that the college workload was even heavier, because the relevant work was done in 15 weeks instead of 38.</p>
<p>How did you do on the AP exams for the two AP classes that you took?</p>
<p>Something to think about as well…the difficulty of your pseo class depends upon the quality of the school you are enrolled at. Students from my sons’ high school could take pseo classes at either the local community college or at the state flagship university. The classes at the community college were a joke…not so for the classes at the flagship. This, of course, varies by community. However, if the class taken through pseo or AP is not sufficiently rigorous, you suffer in college when you use that credit and get placed in to a class that assumes a level of knowledge that you have not attained.</p>
<p>The rigor of your coursework will be assessed in relation to what your school offers and what other people at your school take. Your HS profile will state what courses are offered and your HS GC will rate how difficult your work load was. They are the person that addresses how schedules and classes work at your school, not the applicant.</p>
<p>I’m sure you don’t want to hear this, but Stats and Psych are not what are considered the core APs that most applicants to selective colleges take, they are: English, Calc, USH, FL & the three sciences.</p>
<p>CC courses can definitely be less demanding than AP coursework. My D took a couple of quarters of a FL at a CC and it was relatively easy compared to the workload and pace of her APs or the courses at a 4 yr college that she took while in HS.</p>