<p>Why I would I pretend I dont know anything about Harvard? I do know about their grade inflation, their highly ranked graduate schools and their policy of generous financial aid.
I also know that the "extension" school doesn't have the same curricula as the name university- at least if the connection is similar to University of Wa and the Univ of Wa extension.
I am not speaking to students who have ability to take a large number of AP or IB courses at their school, however for students taht dont and who don't feel that they are challenged at their high school, community college courses may be a good alternative.
Here the district pays for Running start courses- students use them for high school credit and they apply toward graduation. Courses that apply towards graduation, normally can't be counted twice and also apply towards college. However some schools may allow you to take a higher level course because of the community college course, or you may need to take a placement test as at Uchicago.</p>
<p>The students who are looking at these top 50 schools will be best served by taking AP- however that has never been my point.
My point is that I see many students on these boards fearful that because they have a weak school system, that they have no chance to be prepared for college. CC courses can be a way to supplement high school work. Also colleges do not expect you to take classes that aren't available.
My daughters previous school ( I speak of my 10th grader) didn't have honors or AP courses. The curriculum was actually fairly weak, and the students who were in the top% of the school would not necesarily be so at another school ( why we changed schools incidentally)- however- the colleges look at what courses are available, and if the students are doing well in those courses, ( their only option was to take running start for say a calc class, they couldn't go to another high school and take AP), then they have a good chance of admittance- many of the kids at her previous school go on to college, even without IMO a strong curriculum.
THat is all that I wanted other students to realize, that unless they are going to a school that only goes by test scores and AP credits, they still can attend college even if they don't have IB or AP. ( however if they are motivated- they can take online college courses or take the AP test anyway- I have known people who have recieved 3 or 4s on AP tests from self study and that was good enough to use for placement at several colleges)</p>