<p>I go to a school that has 380 students in the entire high school. Because of the smaller size, there are many opportunities, classes, and orginizations that are not open for me (for example, groups like DECA, FBLA, NHS, many APs (not a single Lit or Language AP)), in fact, there are only 8 APs offered in the entire school and the maximum that a single student can take is 5. Because of this, i am ineligable for AP Scholars as well. The curriculum is extrodinarily hard, all classes being equivalent to honors classes at most school. Will this hurt my admission chances or will schools take into account that my opportunities can be limited by such a small school.</p>
<p>No. How are you ineligible for AP Scholar awards? But it also depends on where you're applying. At an extremely selective school, yes, because they can't see who you are unless you can show it with activities and such.</p>
<p>^ Wrong!</p>
<p>Most colleges you apply to should receive a run-down on what your high school is like. They WILL see how many AP classes are offered, and if you took the hardest courses. </p>
<p>I'm in a school with 2700, and we don't even have DECA or FBLA...so don't worry. </p>
<p>You work with what you've got, and the colleges will see this.</p>
<p>Agreed with Christalena. Most high schools send a school profile sheet with your application, so we can see what's available for students.</p>
<p>Chris D'Orso
Assistant Director of Admissions
Stony Brook University</p>
<p>my school has 800 kids in the entire place and we only have 4 APs and one honors class.</p>
<p>self studying APs should be fun</p>
<p>My school has 500. In twelve grades. ;) The colleges will know what the school is like. I get a little anxious looking at applications asking for academic awards and things like that, but I just have to remember that they will (should) know what is offered.</p>
<p>One drawback for me has been that with our curriculm, no students take everything that is offered. Because each class is what would be considered a hard honours at a public school, taking honours is like taking AP and taking AP is, well, slightly insane.</p>
<p>Yeah my school offers only honors classes for core classes (math , LA etc.) BUT I can only take 3 AP's senior because I transfered in and must take classes that others took freshman year! So it kind of sucks....</p>
<p>to sbuadmissions: Your blog about grade weighting is very interesting. I recommend everyone to read it.</p>
<p>That's what you got standardized testing for. </p>
<p>If you can take those APs and get 4s or 5s..it doesnt matter what school you went to.</p>
<p>Uh, yeah. Try 8 kids in my senior class. No AP's. 2 Sports offered. 2 electives, Pre Calc and First Aid.</p>
<p>Yeah.</p>
<p>Adcoms are aware of the environment you come from. I hail from a small public school as well (180 total, 4 grades) and it actually seems like a benefit in many ways. I have had 3+ classes each with both of the teachers who I asked to write recommendations, and the counselor and I are familiar with each other. AP's are limited, as are activities, but at my school you have more opportunities to be President of X or Y simply because there are less people.</p>
<p>^This holds true for me too, except there are about 500 kids for 4 grades. But the vast majority of them don't care about joining clubs, running for student govt, etc. which makes it very easy for me to be involved in as many leadership activities as I'd like.</p>
<p>400 kid public high school here. :] We do have NHS, but we only offer 10 APs and we don't really get to choose our classes - some APs are default and some can't be taken if you're in certain tracks. The max a student can take here is 6 altogether over the course of high school. AP Scholars isn't really that big of a deal, so I wouldn't worry about it. Every single one of our high school courses is automatically weighted Honors too, so I know where you're coming from, haha. Our school sends a school profile with each application to let schools know that we're small, and I'm sure your counselors do the same. </p>
<p>It comes down to what you can take out of your school. If you're taking the hardest courses available, you're in as many ECs as you can be and want to be, and you're in the top quartile of your class...schools will understand. I love being in a small school (I know my teachers and have had them for several years, I know my counselor really well, etc), and while I was a little concerned with how it looked, I knew that the profile would show everything, as well as my class rank and that marvelous little box on the counselor form for taking the most challenging curriculum available. It worked out for me. You'll be fine.</p>
<p>"Most colleges you apply to should receive a run-down on what your high school is like. They WILL see how many AP classes are offered, and if you took the hardest courses."</p>
<p>True, they do get a profile of your highschool. But think about it: can the person whose school offers little to no advanced courses prove him or herself to the adcoms? Tell me, why would an adcom choose student X over student Y, considering they're the exact same, except Y has more advanced courses and thus has the opportunity to show whether he or she can handle college life? There's a reason that an applicant whose highschool rarely or never sends students off to top colleges has an edge in top-school admissions (given that he or she is competitive despite limited opportunity).</p>
<p>"There's a reason that an applicant whose highschool rarely or never sends students off to top colleges has an edge in top-school admissions (given that he or she is competitive despite limited opportunity)."</p>
<p>The reason is because they have this exact mentality, and don't bother to apply to top colleges, plus they have a SMALLER amount of students, therefore sending LESS.</p>
<p>As sbuadmissions, an ADMISSIONS OFFICER, said, colleges do receive information about your high school and what they offer. </p>
<p>Tell me, why would an admissions officer choose Y student over X student, if X student was not offered, and couldn't partake in the same opportunities as Y student? </p>
<p>Ask anyone on here, they will agree with me.</p>
<p>Taking 5x as many APs is not an indication that a student can handle college life. ;) Also, the private schools that offer 3-4 AP classes are probably not offering 3-4 AP classes like a normal school. In my school, regular= at least hard public school honours, honours= at least medium-hard public school AP and AP, well. ;) Taking all 15 AP classes your average school offers is not a better indication than the extremely tough prep school student's classes.</p>
<p>"The reason is because they have this exact mentality, and don't bother to apply to top colleges, plus they have a SMALLER amount of students, therefore sending LESS."</p>
<p>All right, christalena2, calm down a bit now.</p>
<p>"As sbuadmissions, an ADMISSIONS OFFICER, said, colleges do receive information about your high school and what they offer."</p>
<p>Hm, can you point out to me where I said colleges don't receive information about your high school? No, you can't, because I never said it. I agreed that they do. (Also, notice that I said it could be disadvantageous at top schools, because they put much emphasis on classes/ECs; SUNY Stony Brook doesn't seem to put as much emphasis on them as the top tier schools do -- i.e. having few advanced classes / ECs will hurt you more at a top school that it will at a state university.)</p>
<p>"Tell me, why would an admissions officer choose Y student over X student, if X student was not offered, and couldn't partake in the same opportunities as Y student?"</p>
<p>I don't even understand what you're saying. </p>
<p>"Ask anyone on here, they will agree with me."</p>
<p>That's fallacious (ad populum argument).</p>
<p>My point was: it doesn't matter whether you go to a large school or a small school, as long as there's opportunity to prove yourself. Look at this scenario:</p>
<p>Student X:
-mostly regular classes (English, US history, chemistry, biology, physics, math); 1 AP (biology); and a 4.0.
-secretary of Key Club and president of a writers group
-the school profile shows that those are the only classes offered and Key Club and a writers' group are the only clubs</p>
<p>Student Y:
-many honors/advanced classes; 8 APs (US History, biology, Spanish, English language, English literature, chemistry, US Government, calculus); and a 4.0
-secretary of Key Club, president of JSA, vice president of NHS, member of Spanish National Honor Society, treasurer of speech/debate club
-school profile shows that student Y took advantage of most of the 11 AP courses offered (all that would work with his/her schedule), and almost all clubs</p>
<p>[I'm only taking classes/ECs into account, since that's what the OP mentioned.]</p>
<p>Both student X and student Y have the same academic honors (National Merit Letter of Commendation, etc.), and their essays show the same promise.</p>
<p>Now, whom are you going to choose?</p>
<p>"Taking 5x as many APs is not an indication that a student can handle college life."</p>
<p>It was an example. Further, what else do advanced courses indicate about a student? They show whether the student can take on tough courses, which is what the college offers; or at least that's the ideal.</p>
<p>I go to a school with <250 students in grades 9-12, and we</a> seem to do all right in admissions, if not spectacularly. It does bother me that my school lists several clubs on the profile that either are defunct or only exist in theory--Cooking Club, Film Club, literary magazine, Science Bowl, four different culture clubs (Jewish, Arab, Latin American, and African American), and so on--because it makes it seem as if there are more opportunities available to us than there really are. It's almost impossible for a club to be successful here because no one wants to commit to anything. I had an idea to start a community service club (very general, something I'd assume many students would want to get involved in), and the idea was shot down because "not enough people would be interested." It's pretty frustrating.</p>
<p>^well said and same situation
We are around 300 and there are a lot of clubs...except 90% of them are not active. People seem to start new ones every day, as soon as the old ones (that were introduced a month ago) have fallen out of favor. Or have less than 5 people in them.</p>