<p>For example in some random elective that you need to take before you graduate like PE, do you guys take it in the midst of sophomore/junior year or senior year?</p>
<p>It seems that if you take it in senior year, the unweighted elective wouldn't drop your weighted GPA in time for college applications. ( For example, a 4.3 weighted GPA with an elective with no grade boost will drop it to 4.2)So you may be ranked 1 when you apply but ranked 2 after the whole high school curriculum is finished after you took the elective. </p>
<p>In my situation Im afraid if I take the elective senior year it might conflict with an AP class. </p>
<p>It still will drop your WGPA on the mid year and final transcripts, which many universities will request. Not to mention, every student in the HS must take them, so it shouldn’t significantly impact your rank, unless EVERYONE is waiting to take them till senior year. It would be a slight advantage to take them late I suppose.</p>
<p>I took them freshman/sophomore year. In those years, you’re pretty restricted in terms of what AP courses to take anyway. Junior and particularly senior year, you have many more APs available- like you said, don’t want to have to drop an AP course because you need to get stupid required courses out of the way. I was able to take 6 APs my senior year because I had health, commapps, and athletics and what not knocked out already. Still ranked 3 even with those 4.0’s bringing me down, because everyone who has the APs and grades to compete with me took the required courses early as well.</p>
<p>Yep that is true, but I think during app season class rank would help you out and increase your chances, even marginally. I don’t believe they would rescind you if your rank drops from 1 to 2 after you take the elective, but the 1 during app season would surely help.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of someone strategically scheduling their electives. Ever. Don’t you guys have anything you would like to do for the heck of it? Band? Chorus? Art? Computers? The world isn’t about ranking first or second in your high school class, you know…</p>
<p>That’s really odd. In our school, and pretty much in most schools I know, electives and mandatory pre-requisities aren’t weighed into your GPA. </p>
<p>Our school makes us take one credit (one year) of Music/Art (Band, Orchestra, Chorus, Studio Art, Sculpture, etc) , one credit (one year) of Health, and two credits (four years) of Phys Ed (Gym, Dance, Aerobics). These don’t go in your GPA.</p>
<p>Even for any electives (A course that’s not English/Language/History/Math/Science) such as Philosophy, Journalism, Lifeguarding, etc; it doesn’t go in your GPA.</p>
<p>At my school, students have been “strategically planning” their courses to maximize their W GPA since freshman year.</p>
<p>For example, two years of PE are required for graduation, but there is no specific limitation on how we obtain those two years’ credits. Most people, myself included, completed four semesters of online PE (yes, online PE exists) sometime in our frosh/soph years, but holding off on sending the course transcripts until second semester senior year. That way, the unweighted GPA points from PE wouldn’t bring down our GPA… Is this a bit over the top? Absolutely. But at my school (where rampant GPA inflation exists to boost everyone’s GPA), it’s one of the most common ways to stay competitive. </p>
<p>Depending on your school’s GPA policy, it may be possible to take grad requirements over summer… Specifically, if your school doesn’t factor summer college courses into GPA calculations, you could take the basic requirements (health, PE, art, etc) over summer so it doesn’t affect your GPA. Of course, this is only if you’re willing to sacrifice one summer, where you could be pursuing much more rewarding activities in areas that interest you. So definitely weigh the cost-benefits of that possibility. But it has been done many times by crazy kids at my school.</p>
<p>Then there’s the “take every possible AP before senior year” strategy, where you cram your frosh/soph/junior schedules with as many weighted courses as possible…since your senior year AP’s won’t be reflected on your GPA until the midyear report. For example, it’s very common at my school for kids to take Bio and Chem freshman year (which are prereqs to AP Bio and AP Chem), then AP Bio sophomore year, AP Chem junior year, and save the unweighted Physics course til senior year. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for any other ways to bypass the system and strategically boost your rank, feel free to ask. I could write a book on that stuff based on my observations in high school so far; it’s pretty much a college admissions rat race every day.</p>
<p>Haha wow and I thought I was the only one planning my schedule. You take it to a whole new level :)</p>
<p>Well in my school Freshmen/Sophomore it’s pretty stacked with prerequisites like art and PE with the occasional honors and AP’s. I’m hoping that I"ll be able to take many more AP’s junior and senior year. Just hoping the elective in senior year won’t contradict with anything else.</p>
<p>If you have the time Eliane, could you share some more insights about the “system”? You seem to know about this like the back of your hand.</p>