<p>Could a very very hard course load help makeup a mediocre EC or SAT score?
From the list of things admissions officers look at, the course load is up there. </p>
<p>By a heavy course load, I mean:
2004 summer: Physics Honors (3wks) @ Northwestern Univ.</p>
<p>04-05
AP Chem
AP Calc BC
AP Music THeory
AP Stats
AP USH
English (honors)
Band
AP Microecon (Online course: apex)
In addition, I'll be self studying AP Psy, AP Macro, and AP Physics.</p>
<p>Does it also help that I was in CP English as a frosh, Accelerated as Soph, and Honors as Junior? (our school's levels include Basic<CollegePrep<Acc<Honors)</p>
<p>So basisically, how much does it help that I'm taking the most rigorous schedule available + more + National AP Scholar Award (as a junior)??
As fun as these courses are, they are quite stressful and time consuming.</p>
<p>thats not really rigorous to make u stand out. i have like 6 classes ap's, 5 classes music, took 2 summer classes at college, did research, competative piano around every 3 weeks, and to top it all off, community service :l. but some people are even more crazy than me.</p>
<p>and improving from basic to honors will give teh adcom something to think about since u improved alot during ur hs years</p>
<p>It depends what college you want to go to. People who go Harvard have harder than your schedule and then 12 clubs + leadership positions (like my friend who now goes there). My friend who goes to MIT had harder than your schedule and a couple of clubs (P webclub P computer club etc) plus science competitions every year. My friend got deferred from MIT and she has your schedule plus she did V swimming F/S/J yrs and V cheerleading Sr yr and is a tech aid at her school, and perfect math/sci ACT. I still don't know how she got deferred. But she's proly going to Kettering, and they gave her a 10K scholarship. Lesson: Ivies suck, get scholarships.</p>
<p>My friends think I have no life because I have something after school every day...
-VP webclub Mon
-Hebrew School/Work Tues = home around 10pm every week... If I eat dinner I'm, like, "Yay, dinner!"
-Women's choir Wed
-Anime Thurs
-Mads aka tryout choir group Fri</p>
<p>And then I work 4 more hours on Sunday, play intramural basketball, and do a little comm serv. Plus things I can't put on my app like hanging out with friends, going to school sports games, babysitting, watching sports, SAT classes, etc. I'm starting ice skating when BB ends and helping out with a science enrichment thing @ the middle school... I'm in 2 AP 4 H because you can't take more AP than that junior yr at my school. Next yr 5 AP 1 H (music, we don't have AP). You have to learn to do your homework during school and then take a shower and sleep when you get home. Oh, and weekends are good for hw.</p>
<p>If you're not aiming for Ivies, they don't care as much. Ivies want whoever can hack the most.</p>
<p>What colleges are you considering? For some top colleges, your courseload would be typical (for applicants whose schools offer so many APs), and many applicants also would have top grades and SATs.</p>
<p>Research means that he found a topic that he particularly liked and researched it on his own in-depth.</p>
<p>Usually with research, students will enter research competitions such as RSI or Intel. These are very competitive competitions and winning makes you stand out.</p>
<p>So if you have any interests, research the topic and try to improve upon that field with new solutions etc.</p>
<p>Example: Finding a key component that could cure cancer in the future that was not recognized before.</p>
<p>LOL, that would look nice on the transcript, wouldn't it?</p>
<p>"Summer 2005: I discovered the cure for cancer"</p>
<p>But on the topic at hand...I seem to get the feeling, from talking to adcoms and college students, if you're applying to Ivies, it's basically IMPOSSIBLE to "make up" for one part of your application by overstuffing another. Most likely, you must be well-balanced (and good at everything :/) for them to accept you. </p>
<p>There are exceptions of course; for example, the star basketball center with mediocre grades that Stanford accepts, or the kid who helped cure heart disease but scored poorly on his SATs that Yale accepts. Fictional examples, but you get what I mean - you have to do something truly extraordinary for Ivies to ignore important parts of your application.</p>
<p>ah i see
Though I must point out there aren't really that many Juniors with the National AP Scholar Award.
And for the course-load, the schools to look at the applicant compared to the setting, right? (and we're only talking about classes here) b/c comparatively my schedule is quite scary coming from my school.<br>
I did not know that 9 AP's / year was so common nowadays.
And I am doing research, and plan on going to ISEF (hopefully) maybe RSI (prolly not) and hopefully SHARP. I wouldn't say my EC are horrible, though...</p>
<p>how come I don't know any1 in the ivies who had a more rigorous schedule than me?<br>
--> does that mean the rigour & # of classes aren't that influential to the application process? (though it does show motivation, right?)</p>
<p>neway, i have depleted math courses in my HS, and am planning on EPGY Mutivar. Calc. next year. and HS offers 13 AP's</p>
<p>I feel Im treated unfairly, my HS only offers 3 AP courses, I will take all 3, and according to schools they only look for you to take the most difficult course load available, but I find this hard to believe, any advice on what I could do?</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that such a courseload is the "typical" for a school even like Harvard. 6 APs is a lot and Calc, Music Theory, USH, and Chem are among the hardest APs available. It depends on just how bad your SAT score is but I think that as long as you're getting As in all these courses (and the APs you took to get Nat'l AP scholar), the adcom should realize that you are very capable of handling a formidable and challenging amount of work.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Adcom not likely to overlook any major criteria (grades/scores etc.)</p></li>
<li><p>This is what Yale said at one Admission Info session (as reported by S who attended), that each year they can accept another whole freshman class with almost indistinguishable qualification from those in the actual admitted class!
So there is definitely some luck/randomness in the admission process,
as there are far more highly qualified candidates than can be admitted.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>(fortunately S made it in Yale EA Class 2008)</p>
<p>"I find it hard to believe that such a courseload is the "typical" for a school even like Harvard."</p>
<p>Such schedules are typical when students are applying to Harvard and Ivies from schools that offer lots of APs. Students in IB programs take a minimum of 12 IB/AP courses during their last 2 years of high school. Students in schools offering lots of APs may offer the same.</p>
<p>The most selective colleges expect students to have taken the most rigorous curriculum that is available in their school. Thus, if a school offers only 3 AP courses, the students are expected to have taken those (and if they haven't taken all 3, to have a good excuse -- such as taking college level courses or pursuing in depth an extremely time consuming EC). </p>
<p>Students aren't penalized if their schools don't offer dozens of AP/IB courses, and consequently they can only take a few rigorous courses. They are penalized if they don't make use of the rigorous courses that their schools do offer.</p>
<p>taking a college course is the equivilent of taking an AP right? For example, I took Bio 101, 102 at college. Therefore, I didn't want to take AP Bio. (Taking Honors Physics) however, my school also offers few AP courses. Therefore, I would not have taken all the AP my school offers my the time I graduate. Will this affect my chances at top colleges?</p>
<p>to be an ap scholar, don't u only need 4 ap's with an average of 3.2ish on all the exams? i mean there are differen't levels but isn't the basic one that?</p>
<p>
[quote]
The most selective colleges expect students to have taken the most rigorous curriculum that is available in their school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So, are you saying that if my school offers, say, 12 AP classes and I've taken six of them by senior year, the adcoms will expect to see me take 6 my senior year? Also, do they (stupidly) make no distinction based on the level of the AP class? (For example, Chem + Calc > Enviro Science + Stat + World Hist) It seems that I become happier every day for not applying to Harvard :)</p>