Toughest curriculum??

<p>My D is a a rising senior. She has taken AP eng and will probably get an A or A-.
Next year, she does not want to take AP Eng Lit because...she's not interested in it! She prefers to take 2 english electives - interesting course matter and GREAT teachers. I want to support her in this but am concerned about the "most difficult course load" thing. Any advice?
PS She is not applying to top tier schools.</p>

<p>It depends on what you define as top tier(what exactly is top-tier to you though? I've seen so much variation on this.) What would be the one college she's looking at with the lowest acceptance rate? If it's 40 or above, I probably wouldn't push it- if she has the GPA, it will make up for one course she doesn't take.</p>

<p>How many AP's has she taken? How many does the school offer? If she is really lagging in taking the opportunities granted course difficulty-wise, you may want to have her consider an AP or two. However, the impression I get is that your school is not very AP-heavy. If that's the case, admissions officers will be just as compelled by her interesting English courses as she was. I'm sure they get a bit bored of the same AP course listings over and over with no personality; if her courses are demanding in their own right and don't appear like "fluff" classes (doesn't sound like they do), she should be fine. At any rate, I doubt any rejections will be brought on by lack of course difficult as she was obviously very thoughtful about this decision.</p>

<p>She already has an AP English. She's fine if she would rather take something that will truly interest her.</p>

<p>What range of schools is she looking at? If they are not in the USNWR top 25, she probably doesn't need to take more than 3 or 4 APs in high school to be competitive (assuming grades and SATs are in line). You also do not need to take the toughest course load availible to get into a good college (putting good college in USNWR top 50). I didn't have the absolute toughest course load when I was in high school and made it to a top tier school, along with many of my friends (though with my high school's offerings most people would kill themselves taking 6 APs junior and senior year). It's more about grades and SAT and EC than nit picking between AP english and honors english.</p>

<p>My d's high school offers lots of AP courses, and many kids take all AP's senior year. D didn't. She passed on AP science, AP math and AP language (she did regular math, honors language & science). She graduated with 4 APs, and is attending a top 50 college.</p>

<p>Let her take what she wants to take. As my d put it: If a college isn't going to admit her because she took what she wanted to take and not AP Lit, then maybe that's the wrong college for her anyway.</p>

<p>I think that you should let you daughter take what interests her. My child took a mixture of honors, AP, and non AP/honors courses throughout high school. Because she was interested in what she took, she did well.What she also did was to show a passionate interest in music, excelling in a well known local choir, playing in the school orchestra and the marching band and doing community service. She got into her first choice top ten rated college.</p>

<p>Chiming in on this thread, too: I absolutely think your D is making this choice for the right reasons.</p>

<p>But there is only one person who can answer the question of what will appear on the GC rec your daughter will submit, no matter where she's applying, and that is her GC. </p>

<p>It doesn't matter what tier of school she's aiming for; the level of classes she's taken can only be categorized by the school she's attending right now. High schools aren't all the same. There are whole districts with no APs. There are top private schools where some of the courses offered might be far more challenging than any garden variety APs. In cases like these, the school profile talks about those classes. And the guidance counselors know what those classes are, and they are very comfortable terming a transcript filled with those courses "most rigorous." </p>

<p>I'm glad to see that most posters are telling you that she's choosing wisely, and I especially like Chedva's comment that a school with a negative reaction to a choice like this might not be the right school for her. But the point remains that the only person who can tell you what will be said about your daughter's course choices, on her application, is the GC.</p>

<p>If the courses are known to be challenging, then probably the GC will give you the checkbox you want. But that's the person to ask!</p>

<p>Again, thanks to all.</p>