I am currently a high school junior and trying pick what school school to apply to and my senior course load. On here I notice many students applying to selective colleges have taken like 10 AP classes each. Since my school is so small (80 kids in my class) we get VERY limited choice in AP classes. I wasn’t offered any freshman year, I was only offered one sophmore year, I am currently taking two junior year (AP sciences are sceduled at the same time so I could only take one and APUSH was the only AP that fit in with my schools required courses for junior year) and plan to take at least three senior year. Do colleges actually look at the size of my school and the limited amount of courses I was offered or will this weaken my applications for more selective schools?
Some schools certainly do. For example, students attending small rural high school may not fulfill college requirements. If that is what triggers denial, schools work with student to meet requirements. Consolidated high schools offer a greater range of classes.
My kids went to a school with 60 kids per class and no APs til senior year. My youngest got in everyplace she applied, including UChicago, Swarthmore, Harvey Mudd. Carleton, and some lower ranked schools with good merit aid. Don’t stress about it. If you don’t get in, that won’t be the reason.
You definitely will not be penalized, and don’t worry about the kids with 10+ APs- it doesn’t help their applications any more than it hurts yours to have only a few. The general view around these parts is that the benefits of having APs on your transcript tops out around 5-6.
Your school will submit a ‘profile’ with your transcript. Among other things, it will detail what APs/ honors classes are offered, what the school policies are (for example many schools don’t let 9th graders take AP classes and others are strict about how many you can take in a year), how many students take APs, etc. There will be a space for the GC to indicate whether the curriculum you took was the ‘most rigorous’ possible (which includes schedule conflicts, etc).
I don’t think it will hurt you. Top colleges will want you to take the most rigorous courseload available at your HS but won’t penalize you for not taking classes that are not offered. Your HS will send a school profile with your transcript so college admissions officer will understand what is available at your HS.
I agree. If it is not offered at your school, you are not expected to have taken those courses. Colleges will see what was offered in your school and what courses you took.
It might actually help you. Imagine you attend a school that offers many more APs and you don’t take them?
When your school sends your transcript, they also send a school profile. This tells the college about your school, and what it has to offer. If you attend a school that doesn’t offer AP classes, they won’t expect you to take any. If your school offers every AP course possible, and most kids take 8 or more, the profile will let them know that too. If you’re applying to top tier schools, take the most rigorous schedule available to you, and they will see that you did so. They might expect a slightly higher un-weighted GPA if your schedule is not as rigorous as the kid from 2 towns over, who took all AP classes - but they might also expect a higher weighted GPA from that student. If you school habitually has a handful of applicants to a given school, one of the admission reps will be familiar with your school.
OMG, some crazy things get posted.
You can take some extra AP classes online.
Or you can take some classes from your local community college.