<p>At my high school, class rigorousness is broken down to regulars, honors, and APs where regular classes are the least difficult while AP classes are the most difficult. </p>
<li><p>Is it rare for yale to accept regular students? </p></li>
<li><p>What does yale think of a student who took regular classes in frosh and soph years, and took 4 APs in junior year and 3 in senior year with A grades.</p></li>
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<p>I cannot speak for the admissions office at Yale but a student who has not taken advantage of every single opportunity he/she has been given will not fair well in the admissions process. With that being said, if your counselor can legimately explain why you took two years of the easiest courses and you can demonstrate your willingness to challenge yourself during the next two years, then Yale is a possibility. Keep in mind also that your counselor must comment on difficultly of your course selection on the counselor box and if he or she checks normal or least demanding, than that will not be good for your application.</p>
<p>I go to school in Canada and we do not offer any AP classes except one AP Cal and no IB and no honor classes. But if I took the hardest courses out of what were available to me, would that be okay? Or would that be a bad sign also?</p>
<p>thats a different story. you took the hardest classes, the OP didnt. I would go out and take other classes outside of your school to show how motivated you are to learn.</p>
<p>You can be a motivated student in other ways (e.g., taking classes outside of school, doing outstanding work with some kind of extracurricular project or research), but it definitely helps to be in the hardest "track" at your school. More than any statistical thing, it most importantly usually helps you get good recommendation letters from the teachers who are writing on your behalf, which is very important. If you're now taking the hardest classes even if you didn't take them freshman or sophomore year, that will obviously help you when compared to someone who did the opposite. You can help soften the blow if you make sure your recommendation letters are very strong. Remember you want the people recommending you to give good, personal examples of what you've done (to illustrate your personality/drive/work ethic, in a way an unfamiliar reader can understand and truly believe, not something that was just lifted from a form letter) and also ideally say that you're one of the most motivated students that the school has ever seen. Also, given the difficulty of admissions to Yale, generally speaking, if there are any questions about your academic proficiency your grades should be among the top 5% of the class. And yes, an explanation of why you took regular coursework instead of more challenging classes might help as well.</p>
<p>How many classes outside of school would be sufficient to let the admission office know I'm motivated to learn? What kind of courses would show motivation? Of course, I can't take joke classes at my community college like art or classes like that. I've taken classes at ATDP, EPGY, and my community college. Are there any other specific things I can do, which will portray me as a motivated student to learn?</p>
<p>So far my UW gpa is a 4.0. I transferred schools in grade school, so I never really got the chance to get into the honors track. In junior high, the chances of climbing ranks got harder. In high school, i'm still in the same track i started out with, but i'm trying to avoid regular classes by taking AP classes (I can't take honors classes). In other words, i'm still in regular math (theres no AP for math at my school), but I jumped to classes like AP chem, APUSH and such.</p>
<p>As for ecs, I'm pretty well rounded. I'm captain of my tennis team and I'm pretty much the best player around. I also do nosb, nsb, debate, band, etc. with awards at national and state level. I've been to a couple of internships during summer.</p>
<p>what if you took all of the hardest classes available except for one class? =/</p>
<p>isn't the only indicator of your curriculum that which the guidance counselor checks in his recommendation?</p>
<p>Celita: dependent on the HS, the area rep is probably aware (or can verify) the relative offerings of a particular HS -- especially if it's a school that has a few apps every few years</p>