<p>At my school, the kids are rather competitive academically and even more so in my own grade.</p>
<p>In my grade, there are a lot of kids who started taking multiple AP classes in grade 9(some took calc ab in 9th grade when its meant for seniors!) onward cuz they skipped a grade or when to a middle school for the gifted.
The majority of the grade was not able to have that advantage or work their way around the system so they had to wait to take ap classes sophomore year. </p>
<p>Now i would have taken 3 ap classes my sophomore year but one of them my grade wasnt high enough and the other two my counselor claimed that it was only for juniors and seniors but the next year I found people of all grades in the classes. </p>
<p>But what really makes me worried is that when application time rolls around, the kids from the gifted school and/or skipped a grade will be looked more favorably upon and i'll be judged more harshly because they had a more rigorous courseload than me who had to wait until this year to take AP classes.</p>
<p>So my question is: Is it possible that when i'm being compared to these kids at my school that colleges will be informed that i was not able to challenge myself like the other gifted kids cuz i was not able to get to opportunity to do so?</p>
<p>It depends on how your guidence counselor views it and what he/she says in their recommendation. The recommendation form asks if your level of academic rigor was the most rigorous possible. Why not go talk to your gc if you are worried about this and see what he or she has to say? They may be able to put your mind at ease. At worst, you’ll be told that your schedule isn’t as rigorous as it could be, but next year you have the opportunity to ramp it up. The fact that you care about getting the most rigor possible in your education, and the gc knows it, is more important than your schedule this year - which is water under the bridge in any case.</p>
<p>Remember too that there is a lot more that goes into an admissions decision that class rigor - GPA, test scores, class rank, recommendations, and ECs are all important. Focus on the things you can control, rather than those you can’t.</p>
<p>Finally, if it’s any consolation, lots of kids complain that they took the most rigorous classes, got lower grades as a result, and consequently have poorer GPAs and class ranks than kids with less rigorous course schedules.</p>
<p>Well, there is a reason why other kids were labeled as “gifted” and able to attend a school for gifted kids, and you were not. They ARE academically smarter than you to begin with according to IQ, performance, etc, so yeah, colleges are going to think those kids are stronger students than you. However, they will still look at your application, and if you also show more strengths than other applicants, you will have better chances than those other applicants. You never know. The gifted kids could also really stink at interviewing, or seem too bookish, or whatever. Even top students get turned down by Harvard, so , you just never really know in this whole game.</p>
<p>My school only allows juniors and seniors to take AP classes, and you have to work heavily around the system if you wanted to take more than 3 AP’s junior year (You would wind up losing an honors science course that everyone should take and stray away from a tradition schedule of 4 major core classes, language, and electives in order to get AP’s for other courses that are really considered superfluous etc…) Senior year you are allowed to take a bunch more, but all colleges have a school report sheet that tells them what classes and under what circumstances they were available…if AP calc wasn’t available till senior year for every regular student, they will take it into account.</p>
<p>“Well, there is a reason why other kids were labeled as “gifted” and able to attend a school for gifted kids, and you were not. They ARE academically smarter than you to begin with according to IQ, performance…”</p>
<p>I strongly disagree with this. In our local public school, 60% of the kids are supposedly ‘gifted’ and the other 40% had a fight with their mom that morning, and could be labeled gifted if they were tested the next day. Additionally, lots of boys who can’t sit still for the testing in elementary and middle school are in the same AP classes as the ‘gifted’ kids by high school and end up doing just as well academically. Lastly, with families moving in and out of our area all the time, lots of kids weren’t around the day the labeling got done. Why should those kids be penalized with the ‘not smart enough’ label? These labels primarily reflect socio-economic status and other variables that have nothing to do with intelligence, diligence or the capacity to handle an AP class. </p>
<p>That’s why in our high school, AP classes are open to any kid who is willing to do the work. Gate-keeping by school administrators was found to disproportionately keep out URMs, kids who arrived in the area after elementary school and kids who were late developers. As a result, we have more kids taking more AP classes and passing with 3 or above than most schools in the country.</p>
<p>flower, you have my sympathy if the gate-keeping is preventing you from getting the kind of education you deserve. As I said earlier, visit your guidance counselor and make the case for why you want to be in classes that challenge you.</p>
<p>I don’t think that this will have serious impact on your admission. If you weren’t given the opportunity to do what others have, then they wont expect it of you (though it might be beneficial to explain your situation in provided area on the common app/your college apps). </p>
<p>I couldn’t take two of the AP classes that I signed up for senior year because they conflicted with music classes I decided to take. I got defaulted into the only science class I could take: regular environmental science (basically known as the easiest science class my school offers. This class is mostly juniors too). I also couldn’t take the AP english class I signed up for. Admissions told me that, even though I listed English as a possible major, classes weren’t really that important. I ended up getting into my top school without the most advanced classes.</p>
<p>M’s Mom, it doesn’t sound like your district identifies “gifted” children according to the guidelines established by national organizations. IQ test done by a qualified psychologist or psych tester, observation by teachers and parents of traits of giftedness, performance on academic work, performance on standardized tests, and usually in class observation by the school psychologist of the student’s participation in class and work with classmates. It isn’t just one test, taken on one day, that identifies truly gifted students. And, if a school is identifying way more children as gifted than typical statistics would indicate, that’s a red flag. The thing is that gifted kids don’t always earn the highest grades, but they take learning to a different level, or see ways to learn that others don’t see, or take a different perspective on a topic. I’ve taught gifted kids who also had learning disabilities…That’s why I went on to tell the OP that while he wasn’t identified “gifted” he may offer colleges more than others due to a better interview, more interesting EC’s, etc.</p>
<p>I understand that the ‘gifted’ label isn’t bestowed on the basis on one test - but I still dispute that the label, or lack thereof, however it was bestowed, should determine whether someone is eligible to take AP classes in freshman or sophomore year of high school. Many kids who aren’t ‘gifted’ do fine in those classes because they are passionately interested in the subject or simply choose to work harder, as evidenced by their scores on the AP exams.</p>